¿Hablas Español? Your Skill Is Needed at Vaccine Drive
Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics Seeks Bilingual Volunteers
¿Hablas Español? Bilingual volunteers are needed for the vaccination drive ongoing at the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, where 65 percent of patients speak mostly Spanish. The clinics currently hold vaccinations by appointment, rotating between La Cumbre Junior High on the Westside and Direct Relief near the airport, on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Those will increase to Monday through Friday, in the morning and the evening, as more vaccine becomes available.
Taryn Ouellette, who is coordinating the volunteers for Neighborhood Clinics, asks volunteers to commit to four hours per event and said the work can involve patients and no patients: “The patient-facing positions include checking in patients, guiding them through the clinic, checking them out post-vaccine, and observing patients post-vaccine for any side effects,” she wrote in an email. “If someone is interested in doing data entry, they will need to come into our admin office for a few hours of training. The other positions can be explained the day of, no problem.” The vaccine clinics run indoors at the moment, though the check-in station is outdoors when the weather permits.
An application for bilingual volunteers is available by emailing Ouellette, and a TB skin test is also required. To help, please contact Taryn Ouellette at taryn.ouellette@sbclinics.org.