August is National Immunization Awareness Month, an opportunity to recognize the role vaccines have played in protecting individuals, families and communities—and to underscore the importance of having access to reliable information when making decisions about our health.
At JFS, helping community members access trusted, understandable information has long been part of our work.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when families were navigating an overwhelming amount of new and sometimes conflicting information, JFS worked with local leaders and community partners to help people understand the COVID-19 vaccine and make informed decisions in consultation with medical professionals.
In 2021, JFS CEO Lino Covarrubias joined Framingham health and community leaders in a multilingual video initiative discussing the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and the importance of protecting ourselves, our families and our community. Videos were made available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, helping important health information reach more members of our diverse community. Click here to learn more.
JFS also partnered with volunteer and recent Stanford University graduate Emma Rashes to share her children’s book, Lily the Llama Helps Her Herd. Through a child-friendly story, Lily learns from her doctor why getting vaccinated can help protect not only herself, but also those around her. With translations and video read-alouds supported by JFS, the story was made available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Click here to learn more.
A New Moment for Community Health Education
Five years later, the circumstances are different, but the need for trusted information remains.
Across the country, declining childhood vaccination rates and growing vaccine hesitancy are contributing to a resurgence of measles. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the United States had recorded 2,465 confirmed measles cases as of August 6, 2026—the highest annual count in decades. The school reports that national MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination coverage is approximately 92%, below the roughly 95% level needed to prevent measles from spreading easily through communities.
Behind those numbers are parents and caregivers trying to make decisions for their children in an increasingly complicated information environment.
Questions and concerns about vaccination can arise for many reasons, including worries about safety and side effects, questions about effectiveness, cultural considerations, misinformation and declining trust in public health institutions. Research also reinforces the importance of trusted messengers: physicians and other health care professionals remain important sources of vaccine information, as do community and faith leaders.
That lesson closely reflects JFS’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bringing Trusted Information to the Community
Today, JFS is once again working with community leaders and local organizations to help ensure that families have access to credible, understandable information about vaccination.
As part of this effort, JFS is working with its collaborative partner, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA), to use Lily the Llama Helps Her Herd as a tool to increase awareness about the importance of the MMR vaccine and encourage families to speak with their health care providers about vaccination. JALSA has a long history of using community organizing, advocacy and educational programming to engage communities and build partnerships around issues that affect people’s health, safety and well-being.
The goal of this initiative is not to dismiss parents’ questions or concerns. Rather, JFS and JALSA want to help families find reliable information, connect with trusted medical professionals, ask questions and make informed choices about their children’s health. By bringing Lily the Llama back into the community, we hope to make those conversations approachable and accessible for parents and children alike.
You can help us bring this important information to more families. Please consider making a gift to support this initiative and JFS’s work with children and families. Click here to complete the JFS donation form and, under “Please designate my gift to,” select “Child and Family Programs.”
National Immunization Awareness Month reminds us that community health is built not only through medicine, but also through trust, communication, access and partnership.
JFS is proud to continue working alongside community partners to help families navigate important health decisions—and to ensure that language, access to information and uncertainty are not barriers to making informed choices.
And sometimes, helping a family understand a complicated health topic can begin with something as simple as a children’s story.