PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philly Counts celebrated its members and volunteers Saturday with a spring community appreciation day — that doubled as a day of action.
As Executive Director Stephanie Reid explained, the city established Philly Counts to help count residents ahead of the 2020 U.S. Census.
"Then the pandemic happened and we ended up doing a lot of work around connecting people to services that they needed during that time," she said.
"So when the census came to an end, we've been working primarily on COVID vaccination. So we've also been doing things like helping people sign up for child tax credit ... a lot of different things."
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Volunteer Frances Conwell detailed her approach while canvassing, which started with learning what impacts people.
"So are you vaccinated? Do you need information about vaccines? Are you registered to vote? Do you need information about registering to vote?" she said.
Before heading into West Philadelphia to canvass about vaccines, boosters and mail-in ballots, Reid said the group wanted to gather at Wyalusing Park to thank the volunteers.
"We're also celebrating how much we've done together so far. Philadelphia is the most vaccinated large city and scores equally high on equity across our vaccinations," she said.
"You can see it's because people in the community are the ones who have been out helping make that happen."
How did the president of West Chester University navigate his school community through the pandemic? Find out on KYW Newsradio In Depth.
