Laudergill, Fla. – With the Black community in Broward County hit the hardest by the impact of COVID-19, the City of Lauderhill is stepping up efforts to bridge the disparities among the Black and white populations.

The Black community has the highest infection and death rates and hospitalization since the pandemic commenced in 2020.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and Office of Minority Health awarded Lauderhill a grant in the amount of $3.8 million in response to the pandemic’s impact on minority and immigrant communities that are vulnerable to the widespread disease.

Leslie Johnson, communications director for Lauderhill, said the grant will be used to implement evidencebased health literacy strategies that are culturally appropriate to enhance COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and other mitigation measures (public health prevention practices and vaccination) in racial and ethnic minority populations.

She said through the grant, the city created the Lauderhill Advancing Health Literacy Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19, which is also designed to create usability of clear and consistent public health information and services, and provide access to accurate health information and supports lifelong learning and skills to promote good health.

She said minority residents and the business community will benefit from the grant.

Johnson said Lauderhill has partnered with Nova Southeastern University which will help the city achieve its goals and objectives for the grant.

"Accordingly, the overall goals of the project are to reduce health literacy disparities among Lauderhill’s minority populations, increase COVID-19 testing and vaccination rates within the city, and increase healthy behaviors among Lauderhill residents," said Johnson. "Given the needs that exist within Lauderhill, this project and its intended impact are particularly valuable to the city."

Johnson said Lauderhill previously was awarded federal grants to assist residents affected by the coronavirus.

But the new grant allows the city to address the disparities in the Black community compared to the white community.

According to the Florida Department of Health, Broward County had $614,000 reported COVID-19 cases and 5,852 deaths since beginning of the pandemic.

Broward County is second in Florida with the highest infection and death rates behind Miami-Dade County, which has over 1.2 million COVID-19 cases with 10,921 deaths.

All in all, Florida has a total of 6 million reported cases and 74,295 deaths.

Broward County had 70 percent for people 45 years and older, which is the highest percentage of Florida’scounties.

About 35 percent of the county’s population is Black.

In addition, the Black community in Broward is at a higher risk of developing heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other underlying conditions that make Blacks more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 and dying at a faster rate than whites.

Lauderhill Vice Mayor Melissa Dunn, who championed the latest grant, said the city can overcome the challenges for the minority community in addressing COVID-19 healthrelated issues

"Research shows that communities of color like the City of Lauderhill have been plagued by health disparities," Dunn told the South Florida Times. "These disparities make us vulnerable to higher rates of infection and hospitalization from COVID-19. The grant will allow us to create culturally relevant messaging that informs the community about COVID-19 in English, Spanish and Creole.

Lauderhill Mayor Ken Thurston said the city of Lauderhill is committed to helping its residents become healthier.

"This grant is intended to educate our residents about COVID-19 vaccines and ideally help them become vaccinated," he said. "With a diverse community it is crucial we meet our residents where they congregate and utilize pertinent materials."