Implementing a Covid-19 Testing Intervention in African American Testing Deserts in Chicago: an Academic-Community Partnership to Promote Covid-19 Health Equity.

Publication date: Jun 24, 2026

To design, implement, and evaluate a church-based community intervention to provide access to COVID-19 testing in African American neighborhoods in Chicago identified as testing deserts. In collaboration with the Alive Faith Network (AFN), we created a network of church-based COVID-19 testing sites in underserved African American Chicago neighborhoods identified as testing deserts. Sites offered free SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction-based testing, culturally tailored education, and linkage to care and social resources. Over time, we transitioned to community sites due to low turnout at churches. We administered a total of 4005 COVID-19 tests across 27 community sites (11 churches and 16 non-church sites) at 397 testing events over 321 testing days. We tested 1847 unique participants, 535 (29. 0%) of whom were tested more than once. In summary, 1483 of the 4005 tests (37. 0%) were performed in churches and 2522 (63. 0%) in community sites such as food pantries, community-based organizations, children and family sporting events, and community celebrations. Because of our established relationship with the AFN, we were able to provide an important resource of COVID-19 education and testing for high-risk African American community members in Chicago. The changing nature of the pandemic necessitated real-time changes in our intervention strategy. Our study underscores the importance of robust collaborations between healthcare providers and community organizations to ensure a flexible, seamless and equitable response to future public health emergencies.

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