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Compton Unified School District, which has over 30 school campuses and serves over 20,000 students, and St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, the largest healthcare provider in South Los Angeles and Compton, have reached agreement to co-operate mass community vaccination sites at schools throughout Compton.
This partnership is the first of its kind in Los Angeles County, and will result in the ability to vaccinate tens of thousands of Compton residents once community vaccination begins. Compton Unified School District is the first school district in the state to establish schools as mass vaccination venues.
“We realized that we have the space, and in ideal locations throughout the community to help health officials reach many in our Compton community. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to lock arms with St. John’s Well Child and Family Center to ensure that Compton residents receive the vaccine as soon as possible once it becomes available,” said Micah Ali, President, Compton Unified School District.
“We are honored and excited to have put into place this agreement that will eliminate health disparities and inequities in COVID vaccine administration,” stated Jim Mangia, President & CEO, St. John’s Well Child and Family Center. “With thousands of low-income African American and Latino residents of Compton being vaccinated every day, we will ensure that we eliminate the health disparities that have plagued Compton for far too long.” St. John’s operates four community health centers in Compton and one school based health center. It provides services to more than 450,000 patients visits each year in South Los Angeles and Compton.
The agreement comes after almost a year-long partnership between St. John’s and Compton Unified School District to provide COVID-19 testing to students, staff and residents of Compton. “The availability of a vaccine brings great hope that we may soon see more students back in the classroom, which is the best place for them to learn and be supported in their learning. By partnering with St. John’s to proactively advance the availability of the vaccine to Compton residents when the time comes, we will be able to more swiftly ensure our community has access to the vaccine, and a return to full in-person learning for our students,” said Dr. Darin Brawley, Superintendent, Compton Unified School District.
