AFRO Connecting the Black community to COVID-19 Testing

While the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spread throughout the world over the last year, it has impacted communities in unequal ways. Socioeconomic factors, such as whether someone is an essential worker or is able to do their work from home, or the number of people in the home and the ability to self-isolate, all play a role in where and how quickly the virus spreads.  

In Waterloo Region, the Covid-19 pandemic has been especially difficult for neighbourhoods with higher proportions of Black and newcomer residents. The Black communities AFRO serves have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.  

The Waterloo Region Record reported that the five neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of Black residents had a 73% higher Covid-19 infection rate compared to the regional average, while the top-two newcomer neighbourhoods had a 138% higher infection rate. 

As the pandemic continued to grow, and as neighbourhoods and populations were being identified as being more at risk, a few Black community leaders and organizations worked together to advocate for greater access to COVID-19 testing for Black communities in Waterloo Region.  

Ruth Cameron from ACCKWA and Stephanie Pearshell from St. Mary’s Hospital, connected with Mona Loffelmann, Executive Director at AFRO, and together they advocated and worked with Public health for more specific outreach to Black communities.  

Mona played a role in connecting this initiative to community centres anchored in neighbourhoods with the highest levels of virus transmission. Working with Kelly Steiss, Manager of Community Centres with the City of Kitchener, St. Mary’s was able to hold COVID-19 testing events for Black seniors at Victoria Hills and Kingsdale Community Centres. Additionally, AFRO played a role in reaching out to Black healthcare professionals to recruit them to take part in the events.  

AFRO heard from many in the community that there was some hesitancy in accessing testing, and also works with many community members who speak English as a second language, and may struggle to access reliable and local information. “I think it’s important for seniors in our community that AFRO and other Black-led organizations were involved and representing them,” said Mona.  

By reaching out to the community and inviting them to take part, AFRO added a trusted voice to this initiative. From her experience being present at the testing events, Mona could see that representation made a difference. “I had people recognize me, and I could see they immediately felt more comfortable being there.” 

In addition to providing logistical and outreach support, AFRO was also on site distributing our COVID-19 Care Packages to support our seniors in staying safe and healthy during the pandemic.  

We want to thank Ruth, Stephanie, Kelly, ACCKWA, St. Mary’s Hospital, Waterloo Public Health, Victoria and Kingsdale Community Centres, and all of the staff and volunteers who made these events possible.  

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