Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Thursday announced the Bringing Summer Back get-out-the-vaccine campaign that will engage community organizations across the state to fully vaccinate as many people as possible by summer.

To date, more than 3.6 million adults in North Carolina have been vaccinated with at least one dose. While the state has made great progress in helping people schedule and get to their vaccine appointments, more than half of the adult population is still completely unvaccinated, putting them at higher risk of contracting and spreading the virus.

Being fully vaccinated means getting back to hugging loved ones who are also fully vaccinated, gathering with fully vaccinated friends and family and going to small indoor gatherings with less worry. Getting the majority of North Carolina’s adults vaccinated by summer means getting back to the summer activities we all love — like backyard gatherings with families and friends, public fireworks, outdoor festivals or parades — all without wearing masks.

The Bringing Summer Back campaign is a fun, flexible and community-centered approach that creates a space for every organization and individual to roll up their sleeves and do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19 and get everyone back to the people and places they love. The campaign will run during two weeks in May (May 9-15 and May 16-21) and two weeks in June (June 6-12 and June 20-26), during which organizations across the state will rally together to promote vaccination.

Organizations can get involved in a number of ways:

* Organize volunteer days: Invite members, volunteers and others to participate in a day(s) of phone banking, door knocking or other forms of outreach to the communities they serve.

* Distribute resources: Notify communities about efforts to help people get COVID-19 vaccine appointments through emails, social media or other creative ways.

* Host a get-out-the-vaccine challenge: Create friendly competition. See who can reach out to the most people via phone, door knocking, social media or other ways. Offer an incentive to get people motivated and involved.

* Get creative: Come up with your own approach to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Organizations that would like to get involved can register to participate and access toolkit materials at covid19.ncdhhs.gov/BringSummerBack (Spanish: covid19.ncdhhs.gov/Devueltaalverano) or by emailing BringingSummerBack@dhhs.nc.gov.

The toolkit offers steps everyone can take to navigate people to an appointment, such as calling loved ones who haven’t been vaccinated yet, sharing their experience on social media and asking if anyone needs support in getting vaccinated.

For more information about COVID-19 vaccines in North Carolina, visit YourSpotYourShot.nc.gov or call the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Help Center at 888-675-4567. Appointments can be made by visiting myspot.nc.gov.