By Fred Alvarado Fred is a community journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

The DTE Vaccine Engagement was a key project funded by the City of Toronto to provide access to vaccines and health support to marginalized communities in the Downtown East.

On April 12th, 2023, the Downtown East Community Vaccine Engagement Consortium marked the end of a two years of the Vaccine Engagement project with an appreciation event at the 519 Church St community centre.

The 519 Community Centre was the lead agency for the DTE Vaccine Engagement Team in a monumental effort to build confidence and access to vaccines for Toronto’s diverse Downtown East and Regent Park residents in response to the Covid-19 pandemic difficult times.

The celebration had food, a DJ and dancing, an ambassador photo-voice exhibit, and lots of warmth and appreciation to the invaluable ambassador teams, partners and social service agencies who provided support and guidance along the way. Their work led to direct positive impacts on the health outcomes of Downtown residents, often disconnected from meaningful, low-barrier health services and supports.Barb Dos Santos works at The 519 as the DTE Vaccine Engagement Team Coordinator. Barb was proud of the work done during the two years project and was pleased to share her thoughts with RPTV at the project ending party.

“I feel proud of the work that we did together, and I think that the most important thing that we did was building a structure that we can keep together to build more access to health and vaccines to our communities which needs so much support especially as we recover from Covid-19. I’m grateful to Regent Park Focus, Regent Park Community Health Centre, Sherbourne Health, ASAP, Progress Place, Sunshine Centre for Seniors.We have so many partners that are key to everything that we do. And I hope that we can continue because that is the good thing that came out of everything, so thank you very much”, said Barb to RPTV News.