Lake Ridge Fellowship House resident Christina Logan, 73, receives her long-awaited dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from a mobile health team with CVS pharmacy
Provided by Fellowship Square
The 700+ seniors living in Fellowship Square’s affordable housing communities in Woodbridge and Reston are now receiving the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the state opens phase 1b of vaccinations. The first dose was provided door-to-door in residents apartments on Jan. 19 at Lake Ridge Fellowship House (Woodbridge).
Fellowship Square provides affordable housing to qualifying older adults who live on extremely limited fixed incomes. The senior housing nonprofit is now offering voluntary COVID-19 vaccines onsite to through partnerships with mobile vaccine units of local CVS and Walgreens. With an average resident age of 78, Fellowship Square residents are in the high-risk category for COVID. Most residents live on Social Security or Supplemental Security Income alone, with an average annual income of $10,000/year and a tenuous safety net. Mobile health teams will go door to door in each building, enabling residents to wait in their homes for their vaccination.
“I’m grateful that Fellowship Square was able to bring COVID-19 vaccines to our building,” said Sara Burris, 75, of Lake Ridge Fellowship House. “Everyone has been very helpful in making me feel safe during the entire process.”
Fellowship Square communities have minimized outbreaks and exposures with proactive safety, social distancing and sanitation measures. Fellowship Square has shared regular educational updates in the more than nine languages spoken across its communities; organized a “Check In and Chat” initiative where volunteers call residents to check-in on them as part of efforts to avoid social isolation; and, with the help of donations from local businesses and volunteers, delivered meals, groceries and fresh produce directly to residents’ front doors.
“Fellowship Square has always served not only as a provider of much-needed affordable housing for seniors, but as a resource for the community. We’ve put strict safety precautions in place to protect the health of our residents and closing the communal spaces and preventing social gatherings has been tough on residents and staff alike. While we will continue to keep safety precautions in place, we now at least can offer our residents the additional level of health, safety and security that being vaccinated against COVID-19 brings. There is a lot of excitement among our residents and staff – they have been looking forward to this day for many months,” said Christy Zeitz, CEO of Fellowship Square.
Fellowship Square is a nonprofit organization that provides secure and affordable housing and an array of supportive services for a diverse population of low-income seniors. Fellowship Square operates three communities in Virginia (Lake Anne Fellowship House, Hunters Woods Fellowship House Woodbridge (Lake Ridge Fellowship House) and one community in Upper Marlboro, Maryland (Largo Landing Fellowship House). The vaccinations at the Virginia communities begin today and are now being arranged for Largo Landing in February.
Additional vaccination clinics will be held across all locations for follow-up doses moving forward.
