It Takes a Village: Recognizing Washington’s Public-Private Partnerships

Businesses across the state join vaccination efforts

We recently celebrated Washington’s reopening, but now we’d like to celebrate our village and all who helped get us there.

Over the past year, businesses across Washington partnered with us at DOH to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Known as “public-private partnerships,” these are examples of when public government agencies work with privately-owned companies. By partnering, we combined our resources to improve vaccination rates and community education.

In March, we highlighted a number of the private partnerships that helped us deliver vaccines. Since then, several new partners — ranging from professional sports teams and transportation companies to retailers and health partners — also joined our efforts.

We’d like to recognize a few of these recent partnerships below.

Local sports teams

The Seattle Kraken, Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders FC, and Storm all helped with Washington’s vaccination efforts. From ad space and in-stadium promotions, to hosting vaccination clinics and donating incentives for the “Shot of a Lifetime” vaccine giveaway series, our professional sports teams gave us all a lot to cheer for. You may even recognize some Seattle sports personalities, like Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll, in recent PSAs.

Transit partners

Access to reliable transportation is an unfortunate barrier to health care for many Washingtonians. Partners like Lyft, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, Spokane Transit, Valley Transit (Walla Walla), and Uber provided free or discounted transportation to vaccine appointments.

Other transportation partners also pitched in by promoting the exposure notification tool WA Notify. King County Metro riders saw some of these promotions while using public transit and visiting their websites.

Institutions & Washington landmarks

Our friends at Seattle-based Fred Hutch are experts at “connections.” They helped us connect with local sports partners and even used their network to boost our in-language community outreach efforts. Along with their partner agency, Socialisssima, Fred Hutch developed multimedia content in 12 languages. We also worked with Fred Hutch on a number of expert panel discussions, including one from earlier this summer with Dr. Larry Corey.

Starbucks, and their video production partner Touch, collaborated with DOH to educate people about post-vaccine life. The ‘Life After Vaccine’ video series was created in English and Spanish and features multiple health care providers from around the state.

Even our beautiful Washington state landmarks, including the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden & Glass, partnered with us to celebrate our reopening. If you were in Seattle on July 1, you may have caught a glimpse of the Washington Ready flag proudly displayed from the top of the Space Needle.

Other Washington businesses also offered wonderful incentives for people to get vaccinated. Some provided free or discounted items for vaccinated customers, or donated items for the “Shot of a Lifetime” vaccine giveaway series.

What to remember

So, next time you’re cheering on a Washington sports team, riding public transit, or grabbing your morning coffee, just take a moment to think about all those who helped us get here. And while you do, remember that sometimes it takes a village. And together, we did.

Our public-private partner work is far from over. We’ll continue to spotlight the innovative work of these and other partners in future blogs.

More information

Information in this blog changes rapidly. Sign up to be notified whenever we post new articles.

Check the state’s COVID-19 website for up-to-date and reliable info at coronavirus.wa.gov.

The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to everyone 12 and older. For more information about the vaccine, visit CovidVaccineWA.org and use the vaccine locator tool to find an appointment. The COVID-19 vaccine is provided at no cost to you.

WA Notify can alert you if you’ve been near another user who tested positive for COVID-19. Add WA Notify to your phone today: WANotify.org

Answers to your questions or concerns about COVID-19 in Washington state may be found at our website. You can also contact the Department of Health call center at 1–800–525–0127 and press # from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, and 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday — Sunday and observed state holidays. Language assistance is available