The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) was awarded a $960,090 Cooperative Agreement by the National Center for HIV/AIDS, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under the HIV Prevention Activities Health Department Based (CFDA 93.940) federal grant program. The 5-year award, effective January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029, aims to accelerate tuberculosis (TB) elimination in Arkansas by enhancing TB diagnosis, contact tracing, and treatment of latent TB...
This $100,000 Project Grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the Rural Health Care Services Outreach, Rural Health Network Development and Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement program (CFDA 93.912). The grant recipient, the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership (ARHP), will use the funding to create regional and state-level strategic plans to strengthen the rural health workforce in Arkansas. The...
The Durham County Department of Public Health was awarded a $2 million Project Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health under the Community Programs to Improve Minority Health Grant Program (CFDA 93.137). The grant will support the Bull City Strong initiative, a community partnership in Durham County, North Carolina. Led by Durham County DPH in partnership with North Carolina Central University and community organizations, the initiative...
This federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), under the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program (CFDA 14.267), provides $218,680.00 to the City of Pine Bluff Economic & Community Development Division to deliver a range of housing and supportive services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Pine Bluff, AR. The funding will support activities such as permanent housing, transitional housing, rapid rehousing, supportive services,...
The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) was awarded a $5,358,220 Cooperative Agreement grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the Public Health Emergency Response: Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response (CFDA 93.354) program. The grant funding will be used by ADH to increase the state's public health capacity to rapidly mobilize, surge, and respond to a novel respiratory disease pandemic in Arkansas. Key activities to be supported include enhancing disease...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), under the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research program (CFDA 93.307), provides $2,065,719 to New York University (NYU) and the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation to conduct a community-based behavioral intervention study. The goal is to increase COVID-19 and influenza vaccination rates among African American/Black and Latino (AABL) individuals who are not up-to-date on these...
This Project Grant award of $1,601,966, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (CFDA 93.307 Minority Health and Health Disparities Research program), supports research to identify situations that increase bias among healthcare providers, which can contribute to health disparities. The University of Arkansas is the prime awardee, with sub-awards to Carilion Medical Center, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Florida State University, and the University of...
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health awarded a $600,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.137 Community Programs to Improve Minority Health) to the Georgia State University Research Foundation Inc. to implement the "Inverting the Burden of Navigating Health and Social Services with Community Resource Hubs: A Metro-Wide Patient-Centered Social Needs Referral Network" project. The project aims to improve hypertension control and address food insecurity and other...
This Project Grant award of $15,000,000 was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Congressional Directives (CFDA 93.493) program. The funding will support the construction of a new nursing education building at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), a Historically Black College and University located in the underserved Arkansas Delta region. The state-of-the-art facility will include advanced classrooms, simulation labs, faculty offices, and community...
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) was awarded a $6 million Project Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration under the Public Health Training Centers Program (CFDA 93.516). UAMS will implement the Community Health Worker Training and Apprenticeship Program to train and place 270 community health workers and health support workers over three years. The program aims to expand the public health workforce and address...
CITY OF PINE BLUFF ADVANCING HEALTH LITERACY PROGRAM - THE CITY OF PINE BLUFF (PINE BLUFF), ARKANSAS, WITH A POPULATION OF 43,840, IS DEFINED AS AN URBAN CLUSTER AREA ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT U.S. CENSUS AND IS THE COUNTY SEAT OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WHICH HAS A POPULATION OF 64,338. TWENTY-NINE PERCENT OF THE RESIDENTS OF PINE BLUFF LIVE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE WITH AN AVERAGE PER-CAPITA INCOME OF ONLY $17, 334 14.6% OF THE POPULATION LACKS A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA. OF THOSE EMPLOYED, 32%.9 OF THOSE UNEMPLOYED, AND 13.5% OF THOSE NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE LACK HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE. THE PREDOMINANTLY BLACK (77.9%)[2] POPULATION OF PINE BLUFF HAS SEEN DRASTIC AND DISPROPORTIONATE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. THE FIRST CONFIRMED CASE OF COVID-19 IN ARKANSAS OCCURRED IN PINE BLUFF AND AS OF 4/19/2021 JEFFERSON COUNTY HAS AN ANTIGEN POSITIVITY RATE OF 10.5% AND A PCR RATE OF 8.6%. OVERALL, JEFFERSON COUNTY HAS THE 6TH HIGHEST COVID-19 DEATH RATE IN ARKANSAS WHILE ONLY BEING THE 11TH MOST POPULATED COUNTY. THE DEATH RATE PER-CAPITA IN THIS REGION IS DOUBLE THAT OF MANY LARGER COUNTIES WITH 7 HAVING A POPULATION OF 200% OR MORE OF JEFFERSON COUNTY BUT A LOWER COVID-19 DEATH RATE. THE LEVEL OF COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION IN JEFFERSON COUNTY IS RANKED AS ?SUBSTANTIAL? ACCORDING TO THE CDC COVID-19 DATA TRACKER. THIS RANKING MEANS THERE WERE 50-99.99 NEW CASES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS IN THE PAST 7 DAYS AND 8-9.99% OF NAATS WERE POSITIVE. MEANWHILE, ONLY 15% OF THE POPULATION IN JEFFERSON COUNTY HAS BEEN VACCINATED. THE CITY OF PINE BLUFF PROPOSES A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH WORKING WITH COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS (MSI), LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AND COMMUNITY AMBASSADORS TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT HEALTH LITERACY STRATEGIES THAT WILL IMPROVE ADHERENCE TO COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICES AND ADVANCE HEALTHY PEOPLE 2030 OBJECTIVES WITHIN THE HIGH-RISK AND UNDERSERVED POPULATION. THIS OUTREACH AND EDUCATION INTERVENTION WILL BE INFORMED BY THE NAT IONAL STANDARDS FOR CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICES (CLAS STANDARDS) AND UTILIZE EVIDENCE-BASED STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING HEALTH LITERACY AND EDUCATION IN BLACK COMMUNITIES SUCH AS THE RACIAL AND ETHNIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY HEALTH (REACH) PROGRAM AND WILL INCLUDE OUTREACH THROUGH TRUSTED MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY (COMMUNITY AMBASSADORS) SUCH AS CHURCH ELDERS, BARBERS AND BEAUTY SALON OWNERS, COLLEGE CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS, FRATERNAL GROUPS, AND COMMUNITY SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS AS WELL AS A MULTIMEDIA EDUCATION CAMPAIGN INCLUDING RADIO, TELEVISION, SOCIAL MEDIAL AND PRESENCE AT COMMUNITY EVENTS. IN ADDITION TO THESE OUTREACH EFFORTS THE PROPOSED PROGRAM INCLUDES QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AND EVALUATION ACTIVITIES TO INFORM PROGRAM ACTIVITIES AND DOCUMENT OUTCOMES AND SUCCESS.