What is the National Network of Immunization Coalitions?
The National Network of Immunization Coalitions is a project of Immunize.org, a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
We’re glad you’re here because that means you’re interested in being part of, or learning more about, the nation’s immunization coalitions.
We know something about being a coalition. Immunize.org started as a small group of healthcare workers and community members on the west side of St. Paul, Minnesota.
What brought our grassroots coalition together was the realization that newly arriving Southeast Asian refugees to our community were not receiving CDC-recommended hepatitis B screening and vaccination.
The coalition’s further growth was spurred on when we learned that in addition to not receiving hepatitis B vaccine, many of these refugee children were not receiving most of their recommended vaccines. Measles took the lives of three of these children in 1991, and led to the hospitalization of many more.
And this is how other coalitions get started too. Community members identify a problem and come together as individuals and organizations to find solutions.
Immunization coalitions are comprised of a variety of community partners, including healthcare and public health professionals, community leaders, parents, businesses, and anyone else who is interested in improving vaccination rates in the region that the coalition serves.
Immunization coalitions are also made up of people, dedicated people who have organized themselves together to improve the blanket of protection that vaccines offer their communities. Those communities may be local, regional, statewide, multi-statewide, national, or even international. They have variable sizes, structures, leadership and ways of operating.
Coalitions focus on different areas of immunization such as making sure children get vaccinated before school entry or senior citizens receive influenza vaccine, raising community awareness about the value of vaccines, and dozens of other arenas where their expertise and hard work can increase immunization rates.
Our grassroots coalition history is the basis of our passion and determination to support the hundreds of immunization coalitions throughout the country by providing them with the kind of assistance each one needs to flourish.
In 2001, Immunize.org developed its first website for immunization coalitions and in 2010 we expanded efforts to support the nation’s immunization coalitions by founding the National Network of Immunization Coalitions. We engaged directors of immunization coalitions in discussions about building a communications network and open communication channels among coalitions throughout the year rather than solely at the biennial immunization coalitions conference.
The Network offers multiple channels for communication among local, state, regional, national and international immunization coalitions. We promote immunization coalition activities, offer resources of importance to the network, and provide an interactive searchable online database of local, state, regional, national, and international immunization coalitions.
Network members have the opportunity to participate in free webinars featuring national experts, to engage in conversations via a private electronic discussion group (listserv), and to sign up for our free e-newsletter Network News.