Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency

Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency, doing business as Health Department Of Northwest Michigan, is a U.S. local government entity (county health department) headquartered in Charlevoix, Michigan that operates as a federal grant recipient and sub-recipient, delivering public health, substance abuse prevention, maternal and child health, immunization, and emergency preparedness services to rural northern Michigan. The organization competes exclusively as a prime or sub recipient under federal health and human services grant programs, with no federal contracting activity; 91% of its recent federal award footprint consists of sub-awards from state pass-through entities, primarily the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The Health Department's capability portfolio centers on evidence-based community health interventions grounded in federal public health priorities. As a direct grant recipient, it administers the RISE: Empowering Youth and Building a Drug-Free Otsego County project under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Drug-Free Communities Support Program (CFDA 93.276), a $125,000 award running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2031, which engages all 12 required community sectors to reduce youth alcohol and marijuana use through parent education, media campaigns ("Lock It Up" storage safety messaging), alternative drug-free youth events, and skill-building workshops measured by Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth survey data. It also received a federal Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP Act) award from the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (award date September 30, 2024, completion date September 29, 2028) under the SAFE In Northern Michigan coalition, targeting 5,299 middle and high school youth across Antrim, Charlevoix, and Emmet Counties with alcohol outlet density scans, policy advocacy, and leadership development. A third direct award from the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (CN Farm to School Supplemental, July 18, 2022 through June 30, 2024) provided supplemental nutrition programming in northern Michigan schools.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward federal HHS agencies administered through state pass-throughs. The top five funding agencies account for 68% of recent awards, led by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (26 awards) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (43 awards combined across two listings), with the Health Resources and Services Administration (16 awards) and the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (10 awards) completing the active set. The vast majority of this volume—127 of 140 awards—flows through sub-awards from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which pass federal CDC, HHS, and HRSA funding for public health infrastructure, tuberculosis control, immunization action plans, WIC breastfeeding and resident services, children's special health care services (CSHCS) care coordination and outreach, Medicaid outreach, family planning, breast and cervical cancer control coordination, and public health emergency preparedness. A single sub-award from the Michigan Department of State Police (October 1, 2025) funds the regional expansion of the Otsego County Teens Driving Safely Initiative into Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet, and Otsego Counties using evidence-based Teens in the Driver Seat programming and youth-led peer-to-peer education on seat belt use, distracted driving, and impaired driving prevention.

Activity has grown substantially from 2022 to 2024 (six to 44 awards) and remains robust at 30 awards in 2025; only one award (the July 1, 2026 RISE grant) appears in 2026 data. The organization faces one award recompete in the next twenty-four months. The Health Department operates with $13.8 million in combined dollars obligated across its entire award portfolio and serves 24 distinct federal customer agencies, almost exclusively through state intermediary vehicles rather than direct federal contracting relationships.