Infinite Legacy collaborated with local faith-based, healthcare, youth, and recreational organizations to collect data, share our findings, and discuss concerns surrounding donation and transplantation. Three focus groups were conducted over the course of 18 months with community members to identify attitudes and barriers towards donation. Residents shared many perspectives during these focus groups; primarily, their distrust of the medical community and the belief that they were too sick to donate.  

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As a result of the focus group findings, Infinite Legacy created the following goals: 

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• Establish a strong community presence to give back to those in need 

• Understand and dispel root causes of donation myths and misconceptions   

• Share personal testimony from transplant recipients and family members of donors  

• Provide reliable educational resources throughout the area 
   

We discovered that while each goal is fundamental to increasing donor designation and authorization rates*, each neighborhood requires unique mechanisms to overcome these barriers, and that there is no “one size fits all” approach.  

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RESULTS
 

While Infinite Legacy makes no claim that correlation means causation, there have been significant increases in both donor designation (+500%) and authorization rates (+71%) within the priority zip code, 21215, since the implementation of The Decision Project® from 2016-2019. Infinite Legacy continues to analyze these trends. Additionally, this initiative has linked services to those most in need in these communities, including fresh food accessibility, COVID-19 screenings and vaccines, accessibility of school supplies for children, and more. It is a privilege to carry out our mission and serve these communities that have traditionally struggled with access to resources.

 

CHALLENGES 
 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of opportunities to safely have in-person events has been substantially reduced. Infinite Legacy has since transferred its efforts to online platforms, which understandably may not be accessible to those in underserved communities.  

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GOALS
 

The continued success of TDP in 21215 has led Infinite Legacy to expand its efforts into Baltimore City’s 21205 and 21213 (East Baltimore) and Howard County’s 21044 and 21045 zip codes. We hope to determine the unique needs of these communities and increase donor designation. 

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KEY COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS