Get Well Wisconsin 

 The Challenge:

Get Well Wisconsin conducted an outreach campaign to use relational organizing to promote vaccine equity, access, and education for the people of Wisconsin and boost vaccination rates in the state. The program was designed to help move those who were on the fence about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine by empowering those who already received the vaccine to talk to their friends, neighbors, and workmates. 

Open Progress sent over 900,000 texts in this campaign. Since over 72% of the people contacted had already received one dose or more of the vaccine, we utilized relational organizing techniques to empower respondents to talk to their networks about the importance of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. In our conversations we asked our contacts to “triple” the effort, meaning give three names of people who they will tell about the vaccination clinics. 

 We had an over 15% tripling rate, with 70% of those who tripled providing specific information about whom they were going to reach out to. The information they passed along included COVID-19 vaccine clinic locations, hours, and vaccine safety information. We also directly scheduled another 3,200 Wisconsinites for their initial vaccine doses.

 The Result:

As a result of our efforts, Wisconsin is the second most vaccinated state in the midwest. From the time of Open Progress’s participation starting in August, day by day vaccination rates went up nearly double the rates in June and July, resting at around 70,000 vaccinations a day, with over 400,000 vaccinations during the time of our work with Get Well Wisconsin.