On Apr. 29, 2021, the National Institutes of Health announced it was funding $29 million in ad itional grants for the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. The awards provided $15 million to 11 teams already conducting research and outreach to help strengthen COVID-19 vaccine confidence and access, as well as testing and treatment, in communities of color. An additional $14 million will fund 10 new research teams to extend the reach of COVID-19 community-engaged research and outreach.

Eleven research teams received $17 million in grants in 2020 to reach residents at risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Spread throughout the country, CEAL research groups have used different strategies to coordinate educational outreach, raise awareness about the importance of inclusive participation in COVID-19 testing, vaccine uptake, and clinical trials, and conduct research to understand barriers surrounding prevention and treatment. CEAL researchers also study the best ways to address these challenges and establish trust in the scientific process, while equitably distributing COVID-19 resources tailored to each community. For example, mobile units in the Mississippi Delta helped rural residents access COVID-19 vaccines, while pop-up vaccine clinics played similar roles in California, Michigan, and other

Throughout 2021, CEAL researchers will tap community leaders, trusted organizations, and experts familiar to their communities, including NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) testing centers, state health departments, and certified diabetes educators, and community health workers.  These community assets will partner with each other to strengthen a national response to COVID-19 by focusing on local outreach. As teams within the CEAL Alliance personalize these outreach strategies, they will also share their findings with each other and the broader community of those working to move the country past the pandemic. states. Focus groups in multiple CEAL regions identified information-based needs and perceptions about vaccines and treatment, including concerns about medical mistrust, which guided future outreach.