National initiative to address covid-19 health disparities among populations at high-risk and underserved, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities - the new york state…

National initiative to address covid-19 health disparities among populations at high-risk and underserved, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities - the new york state department of health (nysdoh) is proposing a comprehensive set of activities to support the four strategies and achieve the outcomes of the CDC grant to address ?covid-19 health disparities among populations at high-risk and underserved, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities.? The enclosed application was developed by the nysdoh?s office of rural health, the office for minority health and health disparities prevention, and the center for community health, recognizing the scope and breadth of the work needed to address health disparities and promote health equity. The nysdoh has extensive experience engaging communities as partners and funding community-based organizations (cbos) to identify underlying issues impacting their communities and to implement community-centered solutions with support from the nysdoh in the form of access to infrastructure, data, and evidence-based interventions. During the initial phase of the grant period, nysdoh will engage existing community partners who serve african american, hispanic, asian american, pacific islander, native american and other racial and ethnic minority groups as well as people living in rural communities. Within the first six months, nysdoh will develop and implement procurements for cbos to implement a coordinated and holistic approach that builds on culturally, linguistically, and locally tailored strategies to reduce covid-19 risk and ensure equitable access to covid-19 related services for populations at higher risk, underserved, and disproportionately affected. Nysdoh will engage established cbos as well as smaller, newer, or non-traditional partners to ensure broad engagement and equitable access to funding and support. Recognizing that community leaders are the trusted messengers, the majority of the funding will be allocated directly to the communities. In addition, nysdoh will increase capacity of communities with investments in infras tructure. Nysdoh will procure contracts to build CBO staff?s health literacy; understanding of covid-19, including increased knowledge about covid-19 testing, clinical care options, vaccine development and administration, and historical and structural/systemic barriers that impact vaccination; access to high quality, factual resources, materials, and messaging; and training on how to engage, coordinate, and collaborate with healthcare providers in their communities. Nysdoh will also invest in improving data completeness and quality by expanding the use of a toolkit designed to help clinical providers understand the importance of race/ethnicity information and build their skillset to engage patients and community members. Nysdoh will also invest in data infrastructure to improve data quality, analysis, and dissemination.nysdoh is eligible for up to $33,726,393 with a required rural carve-out of $3,021,950. The rural carve-out requirement is exceeded though contracts totaling $3,402,000 with community-based organizations that serve rural communities as defined by the US department of health and human services.