A major health insurance company has announced it’s teaming up with a Boston civil rights group to deliver financial support to small businesses willing to encourage vaccination in Fall River and New Bedford, two coastal cities with persistently low vaccination rates that have started to attract concern from health organizations in other parts of Massachusetts.
Close to half of New Bedford’s residents remain unvaccinated, according to data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Fall River’s vaccination rate is closer to 57 percent, which still falls significantly below the state’s average of 70 percent.
Lawyers for Civil Rights indicated there are almost no restrictions on how small businesses in the two cities can use the $1,000 grants they are administering. The grants can cover the cost of time off for employees willing to take the vaccine, or pay for signs that display new policies about masking and vaccination.
“We really see these small businesses in these two cities as pillars of the community,” said Angelia Heimsoth, an attorney working with Lawyers for Civil Rights’ business support program. “We think that they are trusted members of these two cities and that they can spread awareness about the vaccine.”
Heimsoth said the grants are intended for businesses owned by immigrants, women and people of color — which she said have suffered higher-than-average rates of closure during the pandemic.
Point32Health, Massachusetts’ second-largest health insurance company, is bankrolling the program, which aims to support at least 20 businesses in New Bedford and Fall River as they promote the vaccine.
“They know better than we do what works in their block and in their business,” said Kevin Rasch, a business diversity officer at Point32Health.
“It’s an interesting and novel way to address vaccine hesitancy on more of a grassroots basis,” Rasch said. “It is bigger and it is a better approach than simple advertising.”
To request a grant, business managers can fill out a short form online explaining what they’d do with the money. Applications can be submitted through Thursday of this week.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org.
