November 2022

• The Biden Administration outlines its plan to increase COVID-⁠19 vaccination ratesand manage cases across the country, and LeadingAge issues a joint statement with the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) with a commitment to continued efforts to increase booster rates in nursing home residents and family members.

“We’re All In!” 

• The White House releases the COVID-19 Winter Preparedness Plan and LeadingAge jumps to action, joining forces with multiple agencies in a range of initiatives and partnerships. A plan focused on making vaccinations, testing, and treatments even more widely available and accessible aligns perfectly with initiatives already in the works at LeadingAge. 

December

• The All Hands on Deck hub is created to help keep LeadingAge members up-to-date on the developments, partnerships, and activity of this critical initiative.
• LeadingAge awards all of the $80,000 for grant funding to members as part of our ongoing partnership with Community Catalyst and the Vaccine Equity and Access Program (VEAP), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiative.
• Communications messaging guidance is released by LeadingAge to help members with new strategies for talking with residents, family members and friends, and staff about the importance of staying up-to-date on vaccines—to include state-specific assets, graphics and social assets, and tips for how to spread the word. 
• LeadingAge successfully advocates for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to change policy that enables long-term care providers to administer COVID-19 vaccines to all residents and staff. 
• Free COVID tests for Section 202 Housing providers are arranged for LeadingAge members through a partnership with the departments of Housing and Development (HUD) and Health & Human Services (HHS) in an easy-to-use ordering portal.

January 2023

• Free COVID tests are offered for ALL provider settings through a LeadingAge/HHS partnership and ordering form on LeadingAge.org.  
• LeadingAge continues to report weekly to HHS on All Hands on Deck, outlining all Association activity in support of the partnership forged with HHS and AHCA/NCAL to increase nursing home uptake of bivalent boosters.

Upcoming

• LeadingAge works with HHS to finalize grant funding for members to raise updated booster awareness and increase vaccination among residents, family members, and communities. 
• The partnerships and best practices of VEAP member grants will be delivered to all members in a toolkit designed to support relationship and partnership building in communities across the country, along with English and Spanish language creative materials.