The Missouri Immunization Coalition (MIC) was awarded a COVID-19/RSV/Flu Health Equity Partnership Grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) at the end of last year to address vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, disinformation, and under-vaccination in Missouri communities. To achieve this, MIC has partnered with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to distribute early childhood immunization curriculum sets to every Child Care Health Consultation (CCHC) program in the state. MIC aims to raise awareness about the importance of immunizations and promote vaccine confidence among early child center staff, parents/caregivers, and children in Missouri.
The CCHC Program is a collaborative program between DESE’s Office of Childhood and Local Public Health Agencies (LPHAs) throughout Missouri. The purpose of the program is to enhance child care health, mental health, safety, and wellness practices for child care providers, children age newborn to kindergarten entry enrolled in child care, and their families, through the implementation of CCHC Program services. The Missouri Immunization Coalition is excited to partner with DESE’s CCHC Program to increase confidence in vaccines for children under the age of five in rural and urban Missouri communities and cultivate a learning environment that promotes physical health and well-being.
On June 13th 2024, MIC launched the new immunization curriculum at the Missouri Child Care Health Consultation Program Advisory Meeting in Jefferson City. MIC distributed kits each containing a set of five early literacy children’s books about immunizations with accompanying immunization health promotion curriculum modules, and a set of four tactile plush microbes representing the viruses that cause COVID-19, influenza, measles, and chicken pox (varicella), vaccine-preventable diseases common in early childhood. Each curriculum module provides a guided, 30-minute lesson plan with supplemental learning activity and accompanying letter about the lesson with resources on immunizations to send home for parents. These new resources were developed and curated to promote vaccines and meet the specific educational needs of a diverse range of learners and early child care programs across the state of Missouri.
While this curriculum was specifically written and organized for the Missouri CCHC Program with this funding from AAP, MIC will expand its reach by uploading these lesson plan modules with alternative learning activities for varying age groups with links to purchase the materials (children’s books, activity materials, and plush microbes,) on the MIC website in the near future.
“We anticipate that these resources can be used by parents, school nurses, pediatricians, and other community partners to educate and promote the importance of immunizations and build vaccine confidence across Missouri,” said Nicole Williams, Interim Executive Director.
Be on the lookout for free health promotion lesson plans about immunizations on the MIC website at moimmunize.org.
Published June 27, 2024
