Sorority membership doesn’t end with college graduation. Alumnae chapters around the country actively encourage a lifelong commitment to service and sisterhood, and for some—including Philadelphia-area chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.—those efforts have taken on a whole new dimension in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As organizations serving primarily communities of color, the chapters are among the community groups the CDC Foundation staff has connected with to provide technical and capacity-building assistance, to increase partnership and outreach opportunities for sharing fact-based information about COVID-19 and vaccines.
Diedre Patterson, president of the Phi Beta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Dr. Cheryl Oakman, co-chair of the COVID Response Team in the Philadelphia alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Leslie Marant, co-chair of the COVID Response Team in the Philadelphia alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
“After talking to CDC Foundation Technical Assistance Officer Andrea Malloy, I reached out to other AKA sorority chapter presidents and Greek organizations in the Philadelphia area and said, ‘Let’s collaborate and do some things together using the CDC Foundation for technical assistance.’ And they were onboard,” said Deidre Patterson, president of the Phi Beta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. The first thing the larger group collaborated on was a video for social media last June encouraging vaccination and mask-wearing.
The CDC Foundation also provided guidance to Phi Beta Omega as it launched a series of webinars called “COVID Conversations” featuring local black doctors, who are trusted voices in the community. The first conversation focused on vaccine safety, effectiveness and equity, and the second on the importance of—and need for—diversity in clinical trials.
“The impact has been huge,” Patterson said. “We’ve had a lot of community participation; we had a good hundred or so people tuned into Facebook Live, and there were a lot of questions during the Q&A. We know we made a good impact by the questions and by the answers, and then we got very favorable responses in our post-event evaluations.” Planning is underway for additional conversations and outreach in the months ahead to address COVID-related topics such as vaccination for kids under 12.
When Malloy connected with the Philadelphia alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., they had already held a successful webinar on vaccine hesitancy. And they were looking for additional ways to mobilize their 500+ members in the education and social action effort. In mid-February 2021, the chapter established a COVID Response Team as part of its ongoing Physical and Mental Health Program Committee work. The team, co-chaired by Leslie Marant and Dr. Cheryl Oakman, partnered with the city of Philadelphia, the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, the Black Clergy and others to help ensure equitable access to the vaccine.
We had an opportunity to...really have conversations and address a lot of questions that people had about the vaccine and how it could affect them.
“We had an opportunity to call individuals and really have conversations and address a lot of questions that people had about the vaccine and how it could affect them,” Marant said. “The team also helped connect people who wanted the vaccines to the partners who were providing them.” Team volunteers secured vaccination appointments for close to 400 people throughout the Philadelphia area.
Dr. Oakman says partnerships and collaboration have been key to reaching people in their own networks and beyond. “There’s just no other way to do it.”
Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha are both members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council commonly referred to as “The Divine Nine”—historically black sororities and fraternities with a legacy of service and promoting equity and social justice. The CDC Foundation works with several members of the Divine Nine and a wide array of other community groups and organizations across the country to help build broad coalitions to support the vaccination effort.
“Listening to the community and engaging them early and often is essential,” says Dr. Lisa Waddell, chief medical officer at the CDC Foundation. “We know that one size doesn’t fit all. Prevention is key. Working collectively, we can get all who are eligible vaccinated against this deadly COVID-19 virus and prevent unnecessary and untimely deaths.”
This article is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $68,939,536 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.
