In 2020 the Wichita Black Alliance launched the #FactsNotFear COVID-19 communication campaign to address the alarming and disproportionate rate of African Americans impacted by the virus nationally and also locally. The efforts were supported with the award of a $532,500 CARES Act grant through Sedgwick County, in partnership with the Wichita African American Council of Elders. The #FactsNotFear marketing campaign helped to overcome misinformation about COVID-19, provided IT support, food assistance and mental health support to Wichita’s Black community. The campaign is responsible for the distribution of more than 18,000 free masks since summer 2020. 

 

The campaign also shared health messaging through billboards, yard signs, TV and radio commercials, print and digital advertisements, podcasts and social media. #FactsNotFear promoted COVID-19 vaccination drives, testing sites, community town halls with health professionals, as well as food and mental health resources.

 

The successful outcomes documented by Wichita Black Alliance within the city’s African American community inspired an expansion of those efforts to also reach the Asian, Hispanic/Latino and Native American communities by Facts Not Fear ICT. 

 

In August 2021, the City of Wichita accepted a $4M award to support the city-wide expansion efforts of Facts Not Fear ICT. The grant application was a collaboration between the City of Wichita and Community Connections Consulting Services, LLC. It is part of the “Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19” grant, administered through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health (OMH). The OMH awarded $250 million in grants to 73 local governments as part of a new, two-year initiative to identify and implement best practices for improving health literacy to enhance COVID-19 vaccination and other mitigation practices among underserved populations.

​

 

The Wichita Black Alliance is a coalition of Wichita-area organizations, community members, activists, and black elected officials.  The community organizations also include The Greater Wichita Ministerial League, Wichita Branch of the NAACP, Wichita Urban Professionals, Wichita State University, African American Faculty and Staff Association, State Senator Letha Faust-Goudeau, State Representative Gail Finney, State Representative K.C. Ohaebosim, and Wichita District 1 Councilman Brandon Johnson. Black Alliance will develop partnerships and collaborate with Sedgwick County’s Faith Community, the Urban League, NAACP, and other organizations to promote the #FACTSNOTFEAR effort to inform the African American community about COVID-19 and the steps people must take to protect their families from the disease.