PPHF National Public Health Improvement Initiative

The National Public Health Improvement Initiative is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's larger effort to increase the performance management capacity of public health departments in order to ensure that public health goals are effectively and efficiently met. On March 30, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (PL 111-148). This legislation established a Prevention and Public Health Fund (Title IV, Section 4002) to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public sector health care costs. ACA and the Prevention and Public Health Fund make improving public health a priority with investments to improve public health services, establish meaningful and measureable health indicators, and to achieve long-term improvement in health outcomes. The 5-year "Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure for Improved Health Outcomes" cooperative agreement program is designed to support innovative changes in key areas that improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the public health infrastructure to better enable the delivery of public health services and programs as specified within ACA. In this continuation announcement, the CDC proposes to award approximately $33.7 million to fund 74 grantees using a formula. Eligible applicants are limited to current Awardees. In this continuation funding is available to ALL current awardees to provide support for: • accelerating public health accreditation readiness activities • providing additional support for performance management and improvement practices and, • developing, identifying and disseminating innovative and evidence-based policies and practices. This program supports the Healthy People 2020 focus area of addressing Public Health Infrastructure (http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/). Cross-jurisdictional (state, local, tribal, territorial, regional, community, and border) collaborations are encouraged to increase the impact of limited resources, improve efficiency, and to leverage other related health reform efforts/projects. Measurable outcomes of the program align with the following performance goals: 1) Increased efficiencies of program operations, 2) Increased use of evidence-based policies and practices, and, 3) Increased readiness for applying to and achieving accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board PHAB. (More information on accreditation activities can be found on the PHAB web site at http://www.phaboard.org/.

Eligible applicants include all 50 states, Washington, D.C., 9 large local health departments supporting cities with populations of 1 million or more inhabitants (Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Houston Texas; Los Angeles, California; New York City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, California), 5 U.S. Territories 3 U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, and up to 7 federally-recognized tribes with an established public health departments structure (or their equivalent) that provide public health services to their tribal members or their bona fide agents.

State health departments, large local health departments supporting cities with populations of 1 million or more inhabitants, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories, tribal health organizations and the general public.

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Project funds may be used for costs associated with planning, organizing, and the implementation of other program elements to strengthen State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial public health core infrastructure. Recipients may only expend funds for reasonable program purposes, including personnel, travel, supplies, and services, such as contractual.

Financial assistance is available for a 12-month budget period within project periods ranging from one to five years. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: lump sum.

Applicants must download application forms from www.Grants.gov. Applications must be submitted electronically at www.Grants.gov. If an applicant does not have access to the Internet, or if they have difficulty accessing the forms on-line, contact the CDC Procurement and Grants Office Technical Information Management Section (PGO-TIMS) staff. For this, or further assistance, contact PGO-TIMS: Telephone (770) 488-2700, Email: PGOTIM@cdc.gov

Applications will be evaluated based on: (1) clearly provide a plan that include quantitative process and outcome measures (2) provide adequate and clear information to enable the reviewer to gain a reasonable understanding of the applicant's recent and current efforts to address the issues and (3) provide a realistic plan with activities that can be achieved in year one and subsequent years. Other criteria will be listed in the individual funding opportunity announcement.

Applications that are complete and responsive will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit and receive support. CDC will not review incomplete and non-responsive applications. Applications that are complete and responsive will undergo and objective review process, receive a written critique and be scored according to the published review criteria. Successful applicants will receive a Notice of Award (NOA) from the CDC Procurement and Grants Office. The NOA shall be the only binding, authorizing document between the recipient and CDC. The NOA will be signed by an authorized Grants Management Officer. Initial award provides funds for the first budget period (usually 12 months) and the NOA will indicate support recommended for the remainder of the project period, allocation of Federal funds by budget categories, and special conditions, if any.

Renewals will be based upon availability of funding under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.