Spring 2022 Newsletter

How can you help protect immunization? Introducing our new Parent Action Network 

Nurture KC and MAIC are launching a new Parent Action Network (PAN) to help keep our Kansas City community healthy. How? PAN educates and advocates for vaccine safety and effectiveness.

If you are a parent who believes in routine childhood vaccines for such diseases as polio, measles and mumps; and understands immunizations are safe, preventative tools that save lives, we want to hear from you! PAN is an easy way to become involved in vaccine advocacy at a local level and make a difference in your own community. Your time commitment is minimal, but your impact is far-reaching in protecting local health.

Click here to learn more or to join PAN.

Legislative Update on Immunization

Legislative sessions in both Kansas and Missouri have come to a close. Through MAIC’s steadfast advocacy, along with our partners, we were able to overcome many harmful bills that would have eroded public health and our defense against vaccine preventable diseases.

Anti-vax bills were defeated in both Kansas and Missouri, but there were efforts to continue to chip away at our current laws up until the final hour. Most recently in Missouri, HB 2452 contained language that could have expanded interpretation of religious exemptions for vaccinations. It was ultimately dropped from the calendar and not voted on. In Kansas, Governor Kelly recently vetoed SB 34 which had several anti-public health provisions that would have interfered with future control of infectious diseases.

While we are taking this moment as a win, we know we have to get back to work as the fight for protecting community health continues. 

MAIC is Back in the Community 

This Spring, we are thrilled to be attending events in person!

A sampling of our recent outings include:

• Providing education on childhood vaccines at a Teen Mom Baby Shower at the Quindaro Community Center in Kansas City, Kansas (pictured at right).

• Promoting immunization schedules for school-aged children at the Hanthorn Early Education Center in Independence, Missouri.

• Promoting immunization schedules for school-aged children at Banneker Elementary's Parent Resource Fair in Kansas City, Kansas.

 We also encourage parents/guardians to get vaccinated at all our events.

On the virtual side of the house ...

MAIC sponsored a live webinar on April 26 with partner United Methodist Health Ministry Fund on "Navigating Vaccine Hesitancy with Families." 

Former Anti-Vax Moms Share Stories

Our partners at the Immunize Kansas Coalition (IKC) recently hosted two webinars on “Engaging Vaccine Hesitancy" ...

Part 1 - Q&A with Former Anti-Vax Moms

Part 2 - Successfully Talking about Vaccines: The Voices for Vaccines Method

Both videos can be found on IKC's Portal Resources. In order to view, you will need to register with IKC through this link if you haven't already done so.

"Hearing from real moms who went from anti-vax to vaccine confident is powerful. It's helpful to understand their journey and how science ultimately won out for the health of their children," said Ali Hilton, MAIC Director. "A big 'thank you' to IKC for hosting and making the replays available."

Check Out Nurture KC's Annual Report

Who does Nurture KC help? What does MAIC do? What other programs fall under the Nurture KC umbrella? To learn all of this and much more, access Nurture KC's 2021 Annual Report which was published earlier this Spring.

The report is a great snapshot of our organization. It shows the immense amount of work we do and how many families we help. Please share with your networks! Be sure to note the MAIC spread on pages 10 to 11.