At BorderLinks, we are committed to the lives, health, and safety of our staff, delegates, community partners, and wider public health. As we begin leading in-person delegations again, we want to do our part to prevent exposure and curb the pandemic. This is why our staff and board has decided to all get vaccinated and require both staff and delegates to be vaccinated, with the legal exception of people who are not vaccinated for medical or religious reasons. We recognize that we have the privilege of access to the vaccination and want to be in solidarity with those at most risk in our community.

We require delegates to take a COVID test 3 days before travel and have a negative COVID result, and are implementing social distancing and mask-wearing protocol aligned with the most up-to-date CDC and local health department guidelines.

We are not requiring community partners to get vaccinated because we recognize hesitancy present in some communities of color from the history of racist medical practices in the United States as well as limited access to the vaccine. Most of our community partners are vaccinated; for those who are not, we will make appropriate arrangements to keep everyone safe, which could include outdoor or virtual presentations.

Within the uncertainty of this constantly evolving pandemic, if a delegation needs to cancel, we have a flexible policy, including offering virtual programming in their place, etc.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Tania Garcia at tania@borderlinks.org.