Dad's Garage Theatre Receives CDC Foundation Grant To Build Vaccine Confidence

Dad's Garage Theatre is being funded to create innovative staged improv comedy shows that will harness the power of the arts to engage audiences and participants of all ages in overcoming COVID-19 and influenza vaccine hesitancy. Through support from the CDC Foundation, Dad's Garage will create theatre about the importance of vaccines to the health and wellbeing of our community.

As part of this project, Dad's Garage will perform a series of improv shows in partnership with local public health leaders to craft a pro-vaccine message. In a well-loved format (which Dad's Garage has used with other community-based organizations), a community champion will share brief experiences from their life and work in public health. Dad's Garage improvisers then use these stories as inspiration for improv scenes. The result is entertaining and light, all while highlighting the importance of public health measures like vaccines.

"We believe comedy can be used to say something serious," says Dad's Garage Artistic Director Tim Stoltenberg. "Humor can help people see an issue, such as the importance of vaccination, from a new perspective. Our hope is that by getting people to laugh, we will also create lifelong vaccine supporters."

Dad's Garage has a long history of engaging young adult audiences, who have some of the lowest vaccination rates in our community. By combining the credibility of public health messaging with the power of comedy, our goal is to inspire as many people as possible to get vaccinated. While our current focus will primarily be on COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, we also hope to create lasting support for other vaccines, such as the flu shot. We plan to perform this program in spaces around the community, in addition to some performances at our theatre.

"We are excited to bring the arts and science together in a really powerful way with these partnerships," said Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "Through their chosen art forms, these organizations will be able to create accessible and inspiring work that communicates essential health information about the safety and importance of vaccination in protecting communities from COVID-19 and influenza."

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. Since January 2020, the CDC Foundation, through the support of its donors, has addressed a wide variety of critical needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work has included providing personal protective equipment for frontline responders; care kits for schools, jails and the unhoused; studies examining the impact of COVID-19; work to strengthen communities and community-based organizations to improve vaccination uptake and address misinformation; more than 100 projects focused on health equity; and much more.

Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.