National Latino civil rights and advocacy group UnidosUS announced they are bringing back its Esperanza Hope for All program this year to provide vaccinations and combat the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and its booster shots.

As the largest Latino advocacy group in the nation, they have elected to use their platform in conjunction with their Affiliate Network to provide accurate information on vaccines, tracking the spread of COVID-19, and provide overall COVID-19 care and information.

This Affiliate Network is composed of UnidosUS’ essential partners that will help lead an educational campaign fitted to Latino culture. This year, UnidosUS will be awarding a total of $2.2 million in grants towards 29 Latino-serving community-based organizations. This will include UnidosUS’ network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).

UnidosUS’ Chief Operating Officer, Sonia Pérez, spoke on the importance of Latino families being given accurate and trusted health care information, a key step in helping the Latino community recover.

“Latinos were hit harder than most communities by the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. “And many are still grappling with the long-term health and economic effects of this virus. UnidosUS, our Affiliates, and the Esperanza Hope for All campaign serve as trusted voices on the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, which continue to give our community and the nation our best chance at protecting our health.”

While a report by the Pew Research Center shows that 76% of Hispanic adults have been at least partially vaccinated, the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating to the Hispanic community, with Hispanics being 2.3 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than non-Hispanic whites.

The campaign is designed to be spread through a broad range of media avenues, the primary form being a mobile educational tour across several cities. The tour will run from July 1 to October 31, visiting six regions: Philadelphia, PA; Denver, CO; the Fort Myers-Naples, FL area; Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM area; and Tucson and Phoenix, AZ. Spanning both urban and rural areas, it will utilize local Affiliates, partners, and influencers alongside on-site activities to increase awareness and give direction to vaccination sites.

In addition to this, UnidosUS will be running a bilingual educational advertising campaign to reach out to Latinos through digital media, radio, out-of-home, and through large-scale print advertising.

Esperanza Hope for All program is funded by a cooperative agreement between UnidosUS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and between HHS’s Office of Minority Health, Morehouse School of Medicine’s National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (NCRN), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.