Community

SAN FRANCISCO’S MOBILE VACCINATION UNIT TO VACCINATE UP TO 1,000 SENIORS IN CHINATOWN SENIOR LIVING FACILITIES

The City’s mobile vaccination units ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for
vulnerable populations. Next week, the City will deploy a mobile vaccination team to
Chinatown’s largest senior living facility, Ping Yuen, in an effort to boost vaccination rates for
San Franciscans 65 and older.

Published

5 years ago

March 26, 2021

Kiki

San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed, the Department of Public Health, and the
COVID Command Center (CCC) today announced the City will vaccinate up to 1,000 seniors
and eligible community members at Chinatown’s largest affordable family housing facility, Ping
Yuen, and other housing facilities in the next two weeks. The two-day event at Ping Yuen on
Friday, April 2 and Friday, April 9, is aimed to increase the vaccination rate for seniors in
Chinatown and is part of the City’s broader mobile vaccination efforts to reach communities that
have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Since its launch in mid-February, the City’s mobile vaccination program has administered
approximately 2,000-3,000 vaccines to residents in the Bayview, Tenderloin, Excelsior, Mission,
Chinatown, and Western Addition. DPH and CCC have more than 30 mobile vaccination events
planned in the next three weeks and are working closely with community partners to provide
referrals for appointments to priority populations.
“From the very beginning, our vaccine distribution has been focused on reaching our
communities that have been hit hardest,” says Mayor Breed. “We know that means meeting
people where they are and making vaccines not only available, but also easy to access. Our
community clinics and mobile vaccination teams are a critical part of that effort.”
San Francisco is committed to an equitable vaccination strategy, with a specific focus on
reaching populations that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. To that end, the
San Francisco Department of Public Health has been focused on reaching communities that have
been hard-hit by the pandemic. San Francisco is implementing strategies to reach the most
vulnerable populations where they are, including mobile vaccination teams. In addition to mobile
vaccination teams, San Francisco has located high-volume sites and neighborhood vaccine
access sites in areas that have carried the burden of the virus.

In partnership with community-based organizations and health care providers, San Francisco’s
mobile vaccination teams bring COVID-19 vaccine directly to people and neighborhoods with
limited access to healthcare providers or pharmacies. Specifically, the mobile vaccination teams serve homebound adults, senior living facilities, people served by behavioral health programs,
and people experiencing homelessness in high-risk congregate living facilities. Recently, the
City expanded vaccine eligibility to include people living in SROs, considered high-risk
congregate settings. Over the past several months, COVID Command Center and Department of
Public Health coordinated a series of mobile vaccination pilot programs to test strategies for
reaching SRO residents so that the City can scale up its efforts when increased vaccine supply
allows.

San Francisco has made good progress vaccination people 65 and older, with 80% of people 65
and older having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, DPH’s focus on
racial equity in vaccine distribution has been successful. A higher proportion of the administered vaccinations have gone to people of color than the total citywide vaccinations.

Nearly 40% of the DPH vaccine allocation has gone to the Asian population compared with 32%
of citywide vaccinations, and 25% of the DPH vaccine allocation has gone to the Latinx
population compared with 11% of citywide vaccinations.

Additionally, as a result of San Francisco’s efforts to meet people where they are and bring
vaccine resources to the neighborhoods that have been hardest-hit by COVID-19, the
neighborhoods with the highest vaccination rates for seniors 65 and older are the Bayview
Hunters Point, Western Addition, Portola, Mission, and Treasure Island. San Francisco continues
to address disparities in vaccination rates. Given that 65% of seniors in Chinatown have been
vaccinated, DPH and COVID Command Center are deploying mobile vaccine resources to the
Ping Yuen senior living facility and other housing facilities to help address that disparity and
increase vaccination rates in Chinatown.

“A legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Department of Public Health has a strong network of
community clinics and long-standing relationships with community-based organizations as well
as robust integration of care into SROs and other supportive housing,” says Director of Health
Dr. Grant Colfax. “We’ve been using this mobile care model for many years to serve vulnerable
populations and now we are applying these practices to administering the COVID-19 vaccines. I
recently had the opportunity to see a mobile vaccination unit in action at NextDoor, a shelter
serving people experiencing homelessness, and it was wonderful to see the relief on people’s
faces when they got their vaccine.”

Mobile Vaccination Efforts
Yesterday, March 25, the City partnered with GLIDE to administer 100 vaccines as part of a
pilot, which will eventually scale up to a bi-weekly event with the goal of administering 1,000
vaccines per week. The event at GLIDE is a partnership with the City, University of California,
San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, Life Sciences Cares-Bay Area,
and San Francisco Community Health Center. The San Francisco Community Health Center is a
beneficiary of DPH and San Francisco Public Health Foundation’s $5.28 million grant program
to provide culturally responsive services to neighborhoods and populations most impacted by
COVID-19 through outreach, linkage to testing and vaccine, contact investigation, and isolation
and quarantine services.

Additionally, the City will host a series of mobile vaccination events on Treasure Island for
eligible Treasure Island residents on March 27, April 3 and April 10 at Ship Shape Community
Center (850 Avenue I) from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. The site is primarily by appointment with very
limited drop-in capacity. The mobile site is being run by DPH and CCC in partnership with the
Fire Department, the Treasure Island Development Authority, and One Treasure Island, with
outreach support from the Latino Taskforce.

To serve people with disabilities, the City is partnering with the Mayor’s Office on Disability
and other community partners on several mobile vaccination events. This Saturday, March 27
and Sunday, March 28 the University of the Pacific Dental School will vaccinate 300 people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Starting Friday, April 2, and recurring for four to
six weeks, Lighthouse for the Blind will administer 200 doses a day to people with disabilities.
The City has set up a call center to help people with disabilities who are unable to easily access
the internet or schedule an appointment through their provider access appointments. The number
is (628) 652-2700.

The goal of the City’s vaccination strategy is to make receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as
convenient and comfortable for as many people as possible, particularly in those neighborhoods
disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In partnership with the healthcare providers in San
Francisco, the City is facilitating the quick and efficient delivery of vaccines through high volume vaccine sites, neighborhood vaccine access sites, community clinics, pharmacy
partnerships, and mobile vaccination teams.

San Francisco now has the capacity to vaccinate 20,000 people per day, double the original
target to vaccinate 10,000 daily. Despite this significant capacity, supply constraints continue to
limit the City from operating at full capacity and is the biggest barrier to vaccinating people as
quickly as possible.

People who are eligible to be vaccinated can sign-up for an appointment at:
SF.gov/getvaccinated.

“Vaccine availability and accessibility has been challenging for Chinatown given our high
volume of seniors, frontline workers, transit users and overcrowded families living in SROs. We
welcome this place-based vax for Ping Yuen’s seniors—bringing it to public housing and,
hopefully, SRO’s will significantly amplify the effort to get our San Francisco communities
protected against COVID,” stated Malcolm Yeung, Executive Director of the Chinatown
Community Development Center.

“Today marks an incredible milestone in our COVID-19 response efforts,” stated San Francisco
Community Health Center CEO Lance Toma. “We are proud to work with so many partner
organizations on our City’s mobile vaccination efforts in the Tenderloin. We will work nonstop
to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are vaccinated ASAP. We will train and work with a
cadre of community ambassadors to eliminate as many barriers to ensure vaccine access is as
easy as possible.

“Life Science Cares, a nonprofit funded by companies in the biotech and life science industry in
the Bay Area, is pleased to support this cross-sector coalition to make it as easy as possible for
those living in the Tenderloin to receive the COVID vaccine,” said Lynn Seely, MD, a member
of the Life Science Cares-Bay Area Board of Managers.

“Today marks an incredible milestone in our COVID-19 response efforts,” said Lance Toma,
CEO of San Francisco Community Health Center. “We are proud to work with so many partner
organizations on our City’s mobile vaccination efforts in the Tenderloin. We will work nonstop
to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are vaccinated ASAP. We will train and work with a
cadre of community ambassadors to eliminate as many barriers to ensure vaccine access is as
easy as possible.”

“We know that the vaccine equity is one of the most urgent issues facing us right now. We know
that people experiencing homelessness want the opportunity to be vaccinated, but need vaccines
to be accessible. The UCSF BHHI is thrilled to take part in an amazing partnership to bring
vaccines to where people are, guided by those with lived expertise of homelessness,” says
Margot Kushel, MD. Professor of Medicine at UCSF and director of UCSF Benioff
Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

“There are significant challenges in providing access to COVID vaccinations to the housed and
unhoused residents of the Tenderloin. Bringing a weekly neighborhood vaccination site to the
Tenderloin is an absolute accomplishment. GLIDE is tremendously proud of our partnership
with the SFDPH, UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, Life Sciences Cares-Bay
Area, and San Francisco Community Health Center. Together we are reducing barriers to
vaccine access and serving some of the most marginalized people in the City,” said GLIDE
President and CEO Karen Hanrahan.

Kiki

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Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

Published

8 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Oakland Post

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

admin

By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.

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Grief, Advocacy, and Education: A Counselor Reflects on Black Maternal Health

SAN DIEGO VOICE & VIEWPOINT — Last month healthcare leaders, birth workers, and community members gathered to honor the legacy of Charleston native Dr. Janell Green Smith, a nurse-midwife and doctor of nursing practice who died in January from childbirth complications. She had participated in more than 300 births and specialized in helping Black women give birth safely.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Jennifer Porter Gore | Word-In-Black | San Diego Voice and Viewpoint

In 2024, the number of U.S. mothers who died as a result of pregnancy or childbirth dropped compared to 2023. But while slightly fewer Black mothers died that year, they still had three times the mortality rate of white women.

South Carolina’s rates of maternal deaths outpaced even the national rates. In fact, the state’s overall rate of maternal deaths between 2019 and 2023 was higher than all but eight states and the District of Columbia.

Last month healthcare leaders, birth workers, and community members gathered to honor the legacy of Charleston native Dr. Janell Green Smith, a nurse-midwife and doctor of nursing practice who died in January from childbirth complications. She had participated in more than 300 births and specialized in helping Black women give birth safely.

Her death shocked the community and her colleagues who are determined to address concerns about Black maternal health. The event also covered the importance of protecting mental health during grief and of men’s role in solving the maternal health crisis.

As both a therapist and a father, Lawrence Lovell, a licensed professional counselor and founder of Breakthrough Solutions, discussed ways the event’s attendees could process their grief over Green Smith’s death. He also shared ways male partners can advocate for women’s maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth.

Lovell spoke not just as a therapist but also as a father whose own family had briefly crossed paths with Green Smith. The event, he said, emerged organically from a moment of collective mourning.

Despite the grief, “it was still, like, a really beautiful event, a much-needed event, and it almost felt like we were all giving each other a collective family hug,” says Lovell.

His connection to Green Smith, Lovell says, was brief but meaningful during his wife’s pregnancy with their second child. Green Smith was practicing at the same birthing center where they had their child. She began practicing in Greenville a short time later.Even that short connection carried significance for Lovell, given the small number of Black maternal health professionals.

Lovell did not initially plan to become a mental health practitioner; he chose the career path after graduating from college, when someone suggested he consider psychology. His interest deepened when he noticed how few Black men work in mental health.

“Being Black man and playing football in college, there weren’t a lot of people that look like me talking about mental health,” says Lovell. “[I wanted] to give people that look like me an opportunity to work with someone that looks like them.”

Working with Expectant and New Parents

Lovell often counsels couples preparing for parenthood by, helping partners understand what a successful pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery look like. That often means helping women manage postpartum depression.

As a man, Lovell says, it’s “humbling” that a woman “just trusts me enough to work with me through their pregnancy or their postpartum recovery.”

In his work, Lovell has noticed how few men understand pregnancy before they experience it with their partner. Because early pregnancy symptoms are often invisible, he says, men may underestimate how much support a mom-to-be actually needs.

“Sometimes they may not realize they don’t know much about pregnancy and what to expect in those three trimesters,” Lovell says. “I tell a lot of the men that just because you can’t see [she’s pregnant] doesn’t mean that she won’t appreciate your intense support in that first trimester.”

Education about pregnancy and postpartum recovery, he says, can change how men support their partners.

Teaching Advocacy in the Delivery Room

Another major focus of Lovell’s counseling is preparing men to advocate for mothers during labor.

“Helping men understand what pregnancy looks like: what delivery is going to look like, and what are the realistic expectations that I should have of myself in postpartum,” he says.

Lovell encourages partners to be honest about their expectations for what will happen during delivery. He helps them prepare for the big day by discussing the birth plan and knowing how to quickly recognize problems. Clear communication, he says, prevents misunderstandings.

He regularly trains men to ask their partners detailed questions about their expectations during and after pregnancy. Advocacy in medical settings can be especially important and requires attention to details the mother may not be able to address.

“It’s always important to fine-tune things and truly understand what helps your partner feel most supported,” Lovell says. “Instead of guessing, you should ask.”

Lovell recalls a moment during the birth of his first child when he had to take that role.

During the delivery, “I felt like something wasn’t as sanitary as I’d like it to be,” he says. “I asked, ‘Hey, can you switch those out? Can you change your gloves?’”

Lovell has a succinct but powerful message he regularly shares with clients’ families, and he shared it with attendees at last month’s event.

“Just to believe women,” he says. “I’ve worked with different couples, and sometimes I’m not really sure that there’s enough empathy from the men.”

That includes how women express pain.

“If a woman says, ‘my pain is at a nine,’ just because how you would express yourself at a nine is different than how she’s expressing herself at [that level] doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe her,” he says.

Empathy, he says, can change outcomes far beyond the delivery room.

“We’ve got to believe women when they’re talking about their experiences and their feelings and their pain,” he says. “I think there’s a lot that we can prevent if we empathize better.”