Educating State-level Stakeholders on Strategies to Address Winnable Battles in Public Health

The purpose of this project is to reduce the burden of leading causes of death and disability by providing capacity building assistance to states to address priority health issues. Using CDC's Winnable Battle Initiative as a framework, the project is intended to help increase the uptake of interventions known to successfully address high burden health issues by helping decision makers prioritize issues to address, and educating them on the interventions with the best evidence to support them. The activities to be implemented through this project will contribute to the ultimate reduction of health, financial and social costs of these health challenges across the nation.

Applicants should be sufficiently connected to state executive branch and/or legislative branch members across the United States in order to accomplish the goal of working with a geographically diverse set of states from all regions of the U.S. Further, the applicant must be well versed both in public health issues such as CDC Winnable Battles and in how states approach and implement policies and practices that impact public health.

n 2010, CDC launched the Winnable Battles (WB) Initiative to focus attention both on a set of public health challenges with large scale impact on death and disability, and on an approach to prioritizing and addressing high-impact health problems. The focus areas of the Winnable Battles were determined based on the magnitude of the health problems, and that each has evidence-based interventions or best practices which, if implemented, could result in measurable impact in a relatively short time. By identifying priority strategies and clear targets and working closely with states and other partners, CDC has focused on making significant progress in these health areas. The Winnable Battles identified by CDC are: • Tobacco- Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the U.S. • Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity- More than 72 million adults and 12 million youth in the U.S. are obese • Food Safety- Foodborne diseases sicken 1 out of 6 Americans each year • Healthcare- Associated Infections (HAIs)- 1 out of 20 hospitalized patients contracts an HAI • Motor Vehicle Safety- Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among Americans ages 1 to 54 • Teen Pregnancy- The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy of any developed nation in the world • HIV- More than 1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV Progress in reducing the burden of these health challenges is dependent upon implementation of strategies that are known to positively impact each Winnable Battle focus area, yet many of these known interventions are underutilized. Oftentimes, those in the position to adopt and implement policies and practices that can make a difference are unfamiliar with the interventions, and are unclear about their potential effectiveness and the value they may yield in terms of return on investment. This project is intended to help increase the uptake of interventions known to successfully address health issues with high burdens, by helping policy makers prioritize the issues to address, and educating them on the interventions with the best evidence to support them. The activities to be implemented through this project will contribute to the ultimate reduction of health, financial and social costs of these health challenges across the nation.

Financial assistance is available for a 12 month budget period and 5 year project period.

All applications will be reviewed initially for completeness by CDC PGO staff and will be reviewed jointly for eligibility by the CDC OD and PGO. Incomplete applications and applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not advance to Phase II review. Applicants will be notified that their applications did not meet eligibility or published submission requirements. A review panel will evaluate complete, eligible applications in accordance with the criteria below. Approach Maximum Points: 25 * Describes an overall strategy to achieve the outcomes, as set forth in CDC's approach in Part II above, with specific and appropriate time lines. * Describes activities that are evidence-based, achievable, and appropriate to achieve the outcomes of the project, and that will build on the prior work described in Section II A.1.e., Relevant Work. Includes how it will * Identify target states and assemble multi-sector teams * Create or assemble needs assessments for target states * Plan and execute effective learning opportunities for state teams * Facilitate teams' work to develop actionable plans * Provide technical assistance and ongoing learning opportunities to support implementation of states' action plans for current and previous years' states * Describes how it will collaborate with partners to expand opportunities to involve and educate state decision makers, and to ensure that subject matter experts are accessible to project participants as needed. * Provides examples of past work involving the above activities, including collaboration with partners. * Describes clear monitoring and evaluation procedures and how evaluation and performance measurement will be incorporated into planning, implementation, and reporting of project activities. * Feasibility of the applicant's plan to meet the outcomes, the extent to which the specific methods described are likely to achieve the outcomes, and whether the proposed use of funds is efficient. Evaluation and Performance Measurement Maximum Points: 25 * Describes an evaluation plan that clearly identifies key evaluation questions, type(s) of evaluations to be conducted, how and by whom evaluation will be conducted, data collection and analysis plans, how data will be reported, and how evaluation and performance measurement findings will be used to demonstrate the outcomes of the FOA and for continuous program quality improvement. * Provides an evaluation plan that is feasible, ethical, methodologically sound, and engages key stakeholders. * Describes measures of effectiveness that are consistent with components of the work plan and are likely to measure the intended performance outcomes. Applicant's Organizational Capacity to Implement the Approach Maximum Points: 50 * Demonstrates relevant experience, infrastructure and capacity to achieve the goals of the project, as set forth above in the Organizational Capacity of Awardees section; describes past experiences with similar projects, including the outcomes and impacts of such projects. (20 points) For example: * Describes the ability, directly and/or through existing organizational relationships and partnerships, to bring together and effectively facilitate teams of diverse individuals from the executive and legislative branches from throughout the United States; provides evidence of past success in doing such activities. * Demonstrates expertise or the ability to access through existing partnerships subject matter expertise in all CDC Winnable Battle focus areas; * Describes the ability to and prior experience in planning effective virtual and in-person meetings, learning opportunities and technical assistance; provides examples. * Describes infrastructure and experience in widely disseminating educational information to constituency. * Provides a staffing plan and project management structure that will be sufficient to meet the goals of the proposed project and which clearly defines staff roles. Provides an organizational chart and provides resumes of key staff; describes how it would replace staff in a timely way should key staff leave during the project period. (20 points) * Demonstrates existing partnerships as described above in the external organization collaboration section. * Demonstrates experience and capacity to implement the evaluation plan. (10 points) Not more than thirty days after the Phase II review is completed, applicants will be notified electronically if their application does not meet eligibility or published submission requirements. Applications will be funded in order by score and rank determined by the review panel.

Phase I Review All applications will be reviewed initially for completeness by CDC PGO staff and will be reviewed jointly for eligibility by the CDC OD and PGO. Incomplete applications and applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not advance to Phase II review. Applicants will be notified that their applications did not meet eligibility or published submission requirements. Phase II Review A review panel will evaluate complete, eligible applications in accordance with the criteria below. i. Approach ii. Evaluation and Performance Measurement iii. Applicant's Organizational Capacity to Implement the Approach Phase III Review Applications will be funded in order by score and rank determined by the review panel.