LYNN — The city of Lynn has created a call center to assist Lynn and Nahant residents with scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Lynn Tech vaccination site.
The call center opened its lines last Monday and has received about 100 calls per business day since.
The center is open on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. To schedule an appointment, call 781-595-7747.
With about 12 part-time employees working remotely, the city has been able to use a $70,000 grant from Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) to form the call center and provide onboarding and employee training.
Mayor Thomas M. McGee thanked MGB for partnering with Lynn and providing funding.
“It is estimated that one out of every three Lynn residents do not have easy access to the internet, which has only been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” McGee said. “This call center is staffed by 12 local people — some of whom can communicate in both English and Spanish — tasked with ensuring those residents who do not have technology readily available to them are able to easily schedule a vaccine appointment.”
Kimberly Eng, the chief operating officer at Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), said LCHC is thrilled to have launched this call center specifically to schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.
“As this phone number gets out into our local groups and neighborhoods, our hope is to continue ensuring access to the communities of Lynn and Nahant,” she said. “We are proud to be partnered with the city of Lynn and MGB Salem to provide this service.”
The effort is part of a partnership with MGB and Archipelago Strategies Group (ASG), the communications firm the state has contracted to do equity initiative work.
ASG has implemented door-knocking and mailing campaigns to spread awareness of the call center and the accessibility of vaccines at Lynn Tech. The call center in Lynn is scheduled to last about 10 weeks and is open to anyone from Lynn or Nahant over the age of 16.
The equity initiative work tasked by ASG promotes COVID-19 vaccine equity in the 20 communities, including Lynn, most disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
ASG is working with Lynn to provide hyperlocal, population-specific communication resources like the call center. ASG specializes in grassroots mobilization and partnering with local leaders, community organizations and media partners to develop community-based solutions.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
