Compton Unified School District and St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, the largest health care provider in South Los Angeles and Compton, have reached an agreement to operate mass community vaccination sites at schools throughout the city, it was announced today.
The partnership is the first of its kind in Los Angeles County, and will result in the ability to vaccinate tens of thousands of Compton residents once community vaccination begins. Compton Unified is the first school district in the state to establish schools as mass vaccination venues, according to the district.
St. John’s will provide nurses and frontline staff to provide thousands of vaccinations per day. Compton Unified — which has more than 30 campuses and serves over 20,000 students — will provide school gymnasium and auditorium sites as well as staff to support the effort.
“We realized that we have the space, and in ideal locations throughout the community to help health officials reach many in our Compton community,” said Micah Ali, president of the school district. “We greatly appreciate the opportunity to lock arms with St. John’s Well Child and Family Center to ensure that Compton residents receive the vaccine as soon as possible once it becomes available.”
The agreement comes after almost a year-long partnership between St. John’s and Compton Unified to provide COVID-19 testing to students, staff and residents of Compton.
“We are honored and excited to have put into place this agreement that will eliminate health disparities and inequities in COVID-19 vaccine administration,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s. “With thousands of low-income African American and Latino residents of Compton being vaccinated every day, we will ensure that we eliminate the health disparities
that have plagued Compton for far too long.” St. John’s operates four community health centers in Compton and one school-based health center. It provides services for more than 450,000 patient visits each year in South Los Angeles and Compton.
