Vaccine Buddies

Vaccine Buddies is a program that pairs computer-literate volunteers with seniors to help seniors “bridge the digital divide” and access their critically-needed vaccines.  

Developed by Interfaith Volunteer Care Givers of New Haven, which pioneered this project in Connecticut, local director Jane Farrell has helped NVCN roll it out to the nation and materials are now available in the NVCN Toolbox.  

As we know, implementation of state and local vaccination programs often fail to account for seniors’ limited or non-existent internet access possessed by seniors, and the difficulties many of our seniors will have in navigating online portals or phone apps.  A Vaccine Buddy will be assigned to a senior or seniors, to help with getting online, accessing vaccine appointment information, making the appointment, arranging for transportation… and then doing it all over again for the second dose!

 FEMA has been working with NVCN to offer Vaccine Buddies as a resource to the Volunteer Area Liaisons across the country.  Learn more about how your local Volunteer Caregiving Organization can easily implement this or a similar Vaccine Buddies program:

• To refer seniors with limited mobility who have been identified as needing a Vaccine Buddy to help coordinate online registration, appointments and/or transportation to the immunization center.
• To work with FEMA to provide access to mobile vaccine units for seniors where a Vaccine Buddy will not be sufficient.

To advance this endeavor, your local program may need (if you haven’t already) to secure:

• Priority access to the vaccine for older volunteers who have had to withdraw due to their own health threats/sheltering in place.  This program works because when our volunteers are able to offer their support.
• Once those volunteers are mobilized again, we would be able to offer the template for local volunteer caregiving programs to implement a vaccine buddy program and help our most vulnerable–and isolated–seniors.  This isolated segment of our population may be one of the worst incidents of collateral damage from COVID-19.