Building Bridges: A Celebration of Science, Family, and Community
On September 18, 2022, we hosted “Building Bridges” at CH Northeast in Portland. It spotlighted our critical work, exciting new projects, and sponsors. Our keynote speaker Taylor Stewart, founder of the Oregon Remembrance Project, inspired us, and music by Bridge City Soul brought us to our feet. We proudly awarded Taylor Pinsent, Boost Oregon’s board president, as our volunteer of the year. If you missed it, you can watch the livestream right now.
In developing a theme for this year’s event, we focused on what sets Boost Oregon apart. Building bridges has always been integral to Boost Oregon. We created this organization in order to build a bridge between concerned parents and medical experts. Parents felt dismissed for their concerns about their children’s vaccines, and medical providers felt disrespected or misunderstood by parents who pushed against their recommendations. We built a bridge of trust and understanding between parents and providers in order to give our children the best shot at a healthy life.
We also have built bridges across cultures, languages, and faiths. We partner with Oregon’s diverse communities in order to listen, learn, and support them in whatever ways they request. We create culturally-specific materials and programs, and we revise and update according to feedback from community members.
Consider Native Boost, a partnership between Boost Oregon and the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. We use culturally relevant frameworks for messaging and community engagement. We provide educational materials and support to providers, parents, and caregivers. Together, we are increasing vaccine confidence and childhood immunization rates in Tribal communities across Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
We also build bridges to public health officials and medical providers around the nation. They look to our expertise in understanding vaccine hesitancy and effectively communicating with the public. The demand for our services has never been greater, and we work hard to meet the need.
Every little bridge matters. Your donation counters the rising tide of mis- and disinformation. We need your help to build more bridges.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that TV commercials, billboards, and radio ads are not changing people’s minds. Traditional approaches by governments and public health officials are not working in our current environment. We know that, for far too many Oregonians, vaccine refusal is now an aspect of their political, religious, or social identities. How do we reach these people? How do we have productive, respectful conversations?
We get closer through motivational interviewing, also known as MI. MI is a collaborative, person-centered form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change. Historically, it has been used to address medical patients’ struggles with drug addiction, tobacco use, and weight loss. We are now applying it to vaccine confidence.
Next month, Carrie Bader, one of only two dozen certified motivational interviewing experts in Oregon, will join our staff. She will develop and implement culturally-aware training programs to teach healthcare workers, public health employees, and social service providers to use MI to increase vaccine confidence among their clients. Trainings will be available in-person and online and will be individually tailored to each audience. We also will create video and audio content and printed and digital materials to refresh and deepen participants’ MI skills.
We can’t do it alone. We need your donations to make this happen. Thank you to everyone who joined our event and donated already. We surpassed our fundraising goal of $50,000, but every additional dollar enables us to reach farther and change more lives. Thank you for partnering with us to build a healthier future for all Oregonians.