We hope you had a great week. This is our final newsletter of 2020 and your chance to catch up on all things CORE in the greater Atlanta area and the state of Georgia and learn what’s coming your way this week.
REMEMBER: GET TESTED AND RETESTED FOR COVID-19
WEEKLY UPDATES
The total number of COVID-19 tests administered by CORE Georgia week of 12/21/20 – 12/27/20
10,268
Keep up the great work, CORE Georgia team!
CORE GEORGIA HIGHLIGHTS IN 2020
Recap Highlights from CORE’s COVID Relief Efforts in Georgia
Happy Holidays! As we close out the year, we bring you another special edition of our CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) Georgia Community Newsletter to recap our top highlights in 2020!
Thank you to our foundational partners that have supported our operations since inception and been key in our growth and impact in 2020.
CORE Georgia: Strike Team
CORE Georgia Expands COVID-19 Relief Operations
CORE worked to expand across the Greater Atlanta area, partnering with local foundations as well as several Fulton County government groups. Our first collaboration with Fulton County was the “Test & Vote” initiative, to bring mobile COVID-19 test sites to local polling places, strategically positioned to encourage voters to get tested. Then we successfully launched a mobile testing model in the county to take testing to the communities and increase accessibility to vulnerable populations.
We opened up a pop-up testing site in Savannah, Ga., Hall County, on Buford Highway, and in Clarkston, Ga. We also traveled outside of Georgia to Washington, D.C. and North Carolina to provide pop-up testing. In June CORE Georgia opened our headquarters in Alpharetta, at 4700 N. Point Pkwy. Alpharetta, GA 30022, which now serves as a permanent community test site.
In late July, we launched CORE’s first ever Strike Team — a mobile unit designed to travel outside Fulton County to neighboring counties including Gwinnett, Cobb and Douglas, and DeKalb counties, and eventually neighboring states, to train local staff to run testing operations in their communities to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
CORE is proud to record that since late April, we have administered nearly 300,000 free tests at two fixed and 12 mobile test sites, across five counties within Georgia.
Walk-up patients watching a demonstration before being tested at our test site in Clarkston, GA, which is home to Georgia’s largest refugee and immigrant population.
CORE Georgia Provides COVID-19 Relief Services to Vulnerable Populations
CORE specifically targets underserved, hard-to-reach, and under-resourced populations with holistic relief when disasters strike. Our Georgia operations focus on serving vulnerable communities including ethnic / cultural groups in the African American, Asian, Cauasian, Latinx, and Refugee/Immigrant communities. This year, we also targeted subgroups of carriers of K-12 and college-aged students, the elderly community, essential workers, the homeless/transient community, and the LGBTQ+ community. In September, we added a community outreach and mobilization unit to deepen engagement and advance CORE’s community-centric goals in these communities.
CORE, Fulton County and Fulton County Board of Health leadership at the press conference commenorating our official partnership in August 2020.
CORE Georgia Garners Government Funding
With a $3-million grant from the Fulton County Board of Health, CORE entered into its first government funded partnership with Fulton County to provide streamlined testing, contact tracing, and supported wraparound services through the remainder of 2020. This partnership would help Fulton County achieve its goal of 1 million tests within the County by the end of 2020. CORE Georgia also secured millions of dollars in funding from the Fulton County Board of Health and the City of Atlanta to provide COVID relief to recovery support with contact tracing and resource coordination to engage hard-to-reach COVID-positive patients in Fulton County.
CORE Georgia Diversifies Services
In addition to the provision of COVID-19 tests throughout metropolitan Atlanta and Georgia as a whole, CORE’s services have expanded considerably since operations started in Georgia. In September, the contact tracing unit launched a community case investigation team. This team is responsible for in-home wellness checks for those who have tested positive for the virus, conducting basic public health inquiries and connecting individuals with free essential public health services and resources. In addition, CORE Georgia has been coupling free flu vaccination services with free COVID-19 testing at select locations and offering free HIV testing through partners Empowerment Resource Center since October, increasing the convenience factor for individuals and adding to the efficiency CORE uses to support vulnerable populations.
A MESSAGE TO THE COMMUNITY
It is crucial for the community to take extreme precautions and follow CDC safety protocols to help halt the spread, especially as the numbers are spiking.
Follow social distancing and sanitation guidelines
Wear a mask at all times in public
Isolate when possible
Even if you aren’t experiencing symptoms, GET TESTED (and re-tested)!
Get Tested, Georgia!
We want to hear from YOU!
If you are a leader of a community, organization, or workforce of any kind in Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, or Gwinnett County, let us know how we can bring a mobile testing site to your community.
We make it EASY!
In addition, we will provide communications and marketing materials for your community testing outreach efforts:
You received this newsletter because you are a member of the Greater Atlanta community.
As we expand our efforts throughout Georgia, we rely on the generosity of our supporters to ensure as many state residents, including those in uninsured, undocumented, and underserved communities, as possible have access to testing.
If you would like to support CORE’s COVID-19 relief efforts, please consider making a donation. Any amount you can afford is welcome.
