February 07, 2025
This article originally appeared in AABB News, a benefit of AABB membership. Join AABB today to read the rest of this month’s issue.
To address health care disparities in Milwaukee's historically underserved communities of color, Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin opened a first-of-its-kind permanent blood center and community resource center on the city's North Side in June 2024. Versiti on King is part of the ThriveOn King Collaboration, a partnership among Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Medical College of Wisconsin and Royal Capital to eliminate racial, health, economic and social disparities in Milwaukee neighborhoods and beyond. The five-story vibrant community resource hub is located inside the historic former Gimbels-Schuster’s building on King Drive, bringing focus to the importance of the social determinants of health.
Thrive on King provides residents with blood donation services, health and social services, and community resources, including education on conditions prevalent in communities of color, job skill training and a training room for new Versiti phlebotomists.
Versiti on King spoke to AABB News about its strategic efforts to drive change in underserved communities and improve diversity among blood donors below.
Community Impact: Increasing Awareness
In her role as Versiti on King’s community health navigator, Jackie Day serves as a liaison between individuals and health/social services organizations, connecting members of the community to various resources. While interacting with the community during table events, Day noted she discovered a lack of knowledge among community members about the blood donation process, eligibility criteria and benefits. Day recalled educating a young woman whose brother had sickle cell disease (SCD), explaining that she could donate blood to help patients with the inherited blood disorder.
“It was like a light bulb came on for her in that moment,” Day said. “She wasn’t aware that she could donate. Many community members are not familiar with blood donations and the benefits donating provides, such as helping others.”
Additionally, Day provides guidance on health care needs and blood donations, including assisting those deferred from donating blood due to health reasons. “If they are deferred for low iron or high blood pressure, they have the option to sit down with me and discuss dietary and lifestyle changes to become eligible for donation,” Day stated.
Day’s encounters with community members highlight the ongoing need for education to increase awareness and the understanding of blood donations, particularly in areas with a high prevalence of SCD. “There are more than 60 families in the 53212 ZIP code impacted by SCD, so we want to support this patient population and bring awareness to the community and encourage people to donate,” Day explained. “That’s one of the reasons we are here.”
Providing education and outreach to support the sickle cell community is a key priority for Versiti on King. Brian Bautista, Versiti’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, spoke enthusiastically about the organization’s future initiative to increase the diversity of blood research studies to improve outcomes for this patient population.
“Research often faces significant mistrust within the Black community for well-documented historical reasons, so recruiting diverse patient populations for research studies remains an ongoing challenge,” Bautista pointed out. “The Versiti Blood Research Institute in Milwaukee has world-renowned researchers in SCD. As we gain the trust of the community, our goal is to drive and inspire diversity in research so that we can achieve the breakthroughs needed for the sickle cell community.”
Community Presence: Building Trust
The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recently released a report on the motivations and barriers for Black blood donors. The report’s findings—based on research from 12 focus groups of adults aged 18 to 50 years—indicated that younger participants cited distrust and misconceptions as specific barriers for Black communities, especially among the older generations. Older participants cited fear, mistrust of the medical community/blood collection organizers and historical abuses in communities of color (e.g., being used as research subjects without permission) as unique barriers that may prevent the Black community from donating blood.
The report also revealed that participants wanted messaging and materials to address barriers and to include pictures of people who looked like them donating blood, as well as educational materials featuring Black medical professionals debunking myths about blood donation, information about the impact of blood donation on people with SCD and statistics about blood donation.
Versiti on King aims to address these challenges and unique barriers to blood donations by establishing a presence in communities of color, noted Kristen Harris, Versiti’s community outreach manager.
“We've connected with local community members in the past at schools, churches and community events, but those events are not enough,” Harris said. “Our new donor center gives us a permanent presence here, which lets us engage with the community regularly and encourage consistent blood donation,” Harris said. “It takes more than hosting blood drives in the spring and fall to establish trust among patients of color. It’s about being present on a regular basis.”
Bautista noted focus groups conducted with members of the community provided valuable insight on how to effectively engage the community and build trust to expand the blood donor pool. A major takeaway: blood donation should be part of the dialogue instead of leading the conversation.
“In a community that's predominantly African American and already has a deep mistrust of the health care system, we learned early on that gaining trust requires being active in this community, so having a brick-and-mortar location is going to be key,” he said. “Secondly, before you talk about blood donation, you need to earn the opportunity to even have that conversation.”
Bautista recommends establishing trust with marginalized groups by partnering with anchor organizations in the community that will provide endorsement and openly express their support.
“Partnerships for us in the area range from schools to retail spaces and food banks. We're also really connected with the health systems that serve the Southeast Wisconsin area because we're the sole blood provider for all the health systems,” he said. “You have to find ways to serve your community, such as providing education and job opportunities. We chose to address health care disparities through our community health navigator service, which introduces people to blood donation.”
Community Outreach: Building Relationships
The Versiti on King team highlighted their efforts to build relationships and engage with the community through various events and initiatives. Their donor center takeovers, educational outreach and blood typing events are designed to inform residents about the vital impact blood donations have on diverse patient populations.
Bautista emphasized the community’s current need for Ro blood—estimated to be found in 44% of the African American population—and why the rare Ro blood type is crucial in sickle cell treatment.2 To that end, Versiti on King has hosted eight blood typing educational events since its grand opening, resulting in typing 176 individuals and identifying 60 Ro blood donors (22 of the 60 have donated blood).
“We have our labs and staff onsite to perform the finger stick blood test, so we’re able to tell them instantaneously if they are a Ro donor. Then, we educate them on all the benefits of the Ro antigen, such as helping patients battling SCD, and why they are this VIP blood donor,” he said. “They get really interested and excited, and some of them donate right on the spot. It’s been really successful.”
The Versiti on King team has also found success in attracting first-time donors with its donor center takeovers, where organizations, churches and schools take over the blood donor center for a day. This initiative allows groups to block appointments and bring their members to donate blood together. Harris mentioned that these outreach events have made people more receptive to donating blood.
“We come across a lot of hesitant people, but these takeovers have been a hit for us,” Harris said, noting an event where 11 high school students donated blood for the first time. “Some people don’t want to donate by themselves. We work with trusted organizations in the community and give them the chance to meet our team, tour the center and donate that day.”
“The donor center takeovers and the Ro typing events encourage people to donate and educate them about the process,” Day added. “I introduce them to all the phlebotomists to make them more comfortable. It’s great that our lab team can partner with us and be present during these events. I'm just excited that we can be in the community and offer them support with blood donation services and other resources.”
Versiti on King has served 500 blood donors since opening its doors on Juneteenth in 2024. As the first blood center in the nation to be part of a community resource hub, Harris expressed excitement about the success of the Versiti on King initiative and hopes to continue making a positive impact on the community.
“Versiti on King is focused on helping our community become healthier and having a presence to encourage consistent blood donations,” Harris said. “We are looking for every single way to make our donor center successful and look forward to continuing this journey. It's exciting to be a part of it.”
To learn more about Versiti on King initiative, visit versiti.org
4550 Montgomery Avenue
Suite 700, North Tower
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