In 2021, a coalition of national museum and library associations awarded the Peale (Baltimore, Maryland) a Communities for Immunity grant. The goal of the project is for trusted, local institutions to engage their communities in order to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Since being awarded the grant, we've been gathering stories from people about their experiences with COVID and getting the vaccine.
Whitney Frazier (00:00): If you can introduce yourself, please.
MonTressa Tripps (00:03): Absolutely. My name is MonTressa Tripps. I have been a resident of Baltimore city the majority of my life. I am currently a community health worker where I do outreach in the community, providing harm reduction tools, as well as overdose education and distribution of Naloxone. I just really enjoy being in the community, engaging individuals, giving resources, talking with them about what they may need to help them live successful lives. Yeah.
Whitney Frazier (00:50): Tell us what a typical day looks like for you with your work.
MonTressa Tripps (00:57): So, with my work in outreach, I generally have a lot of sites through the city where we go in saturated areas of drug activity and we distribute Narcan. A typical day is going on one of the major corners in Baltimore city, standing outside, talking with individuals, engaging them, giving them resources as well as the overdose reversal medication of Narcan.
MonTressa Tripps (01:34): During those times, I get to familiarize myself with the day-to-day thoughts and activities of average Baltimore city citizens. I really find it thrilling just to be able to sit and talk with those that have been in certain communities for years. And they express to me what they see and tell me how they believe change can come. So on a daily basis, that's part of my day. The other parts of my day, I collaborate and interact with a lot of different Baltimore city agencies to assist them in getting the information out there to the citizens as they need it.
Whitney Frazier (02:22): I'm going to keep going with a couple more questions about your work, because I find it really amazing and intriguing and not something I know a lot about. So if you don't mind answering a few more questions. So I guess one question is what brought you to do this work? How did you get involved in that type of work?
MonTressa Tripps (02:46): Actually, it was the blessing of receiving a job as a outreach worker. I was looking for part-time work while I was pursuing my bachelor's degree and during that I was fortunate enough to come across a agency that was willing to hire me. I started from the ground up, I moved through . . . And in speaking with them at the interview, what really engaged me and excited me was the fact that I could do what I love best, and that's give information.
Asset ID: 2022.05.22
Find a complete transcription on the Peale's website.
