KODOCARE featured in Illinois Department of Human Services’ ALL IN! Stakeholder News

Dear Partners,

It continues to be a hopeful time as Illinois deploys vaccinations across the state as vaccine supplies ramps up. As you may have heard, IDHS has tried to play a part in supplementing and supporting vaccination efforts in Illinois. In this regard, I wanted to share with the details of my recent visit to one of our community providers, Trinity Services, who stepped up in dramatic ways to be a partner to us and so many others.

On a cold Wednesday morning in February, I was greeted by Art Dykstra in the parking lot. Behind our masks were huge smiles as we had not seen each other in person for almost nine years; we bumped elbows as we made our way into the building. Art is the former executive director of Trinity Services; and his legacy of leadership, grace, and generosity has been firmly implanted in the organization’s DNA. He came to meet me for my visit to Trinity’s new apartment complex that will soon open to be the home for people with disabilities. The opening was delayed, because Trinity Services, now led by Thane Dykstra, offered its space, staff, capacity, and resources to help IDHS offer two vaccine clinics for its peer organizations. There were other players that made this happen – KodoCare Pharmacy and the Saint Francis University Nursing program. Together, these vaccine clinics included 22 organizations across the region reaching over 500 CILA residents and staff.

I was able to witness this amazing partnership in action. When CILA residents and staff pulled up in their vans, they were greeted, and administrators ensured that their paperwork was in order. Once this was completed, they parked and entered the building. They were escorted to an apartment unit where they waited for their shots. Some nursing students were drawing vaccine from the vials into the syringes on the main floor, and other students were administering them in the different apartment units. Once the shots were completed, the residents and staff exited the side door to ensure that there was no unnecessary interaction with other people.

At the end of the day, there were excess doses due to last minute cancellations and more doses per vial than anticipated. The IDHS leads, Carolyn Cochran Kopel and Dana Kelly, with Thane called their back up lists of 1A and 1B people to come get their shot. Amongst those that were able to appear were two individuals over 80 years old. At the end of the day, I am proud to share that not one shot was wasted.

I

can’t do justice in words what I was able to witness. My heart was bursting with pride and joy to see the generosity of the human spirit. Partnership is a word too easily used. In this instance, we see the gold standard for this word. Those 500 people would not have received their COVID-19 shot if it were not for every organization who contributed their part. Further, we saw good and tenacious government in action through the leadership of our team. Their relentlessness and ingenuity in pursuit of a solution is a shining example of why government matters.

IDHS values and cares deeply for the people of Illinois, for its providers, and those we and they serve. We were glad to have leveraged our capacity to vaccinate our own staff and residents and patients in our facilities and hospitals to expand beyond our own walls. As you can see, we can’t do that alone.

In the coming weeks, IDHS will continue to expand its vaccination capacity to reach those we support who have the highest barriers to vaccination access and the highest risk to infection.

As always, thank you for your work. I hope that you have been able to celebrate Black History Month in some way throughout your organization. We, at IDHS, has used this as a time to recognize the great accomplishments of Black and African American leaders and to wrestle with the work at hand as we strive toward racial justice.

Continue to be well and take good care.

Sincerely,

Grace B. Hou,, Secretary, IDHS