NACCHO, with support from the Division of Reproductive Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is pleased to offer a new funding opportunity designed to build community resilience and improve the lives of pregnant people, birth parents, and their infants by strengthening partnerships between maternal and child health (MCH) and emergency preparedness (EPR) programs within local health departments.

NACCHO will award up to $20,000 to up to four health departments and will facilitate virtual action planning processes to support recipients to identify priorities for collaboration and take concrete steps to increase the prioritization women of reproductive age (WRA) within EPR programs over the course of a nine-month project period.

Expectations

Selected LHDs will be required to complete the following during the project period of April 1, 2021 – January 15, 2022:

• Participate in a project kick-off call with NACCHO, CDC, and other grantees.
• Complete a baseline capacity assessment to assess partnership within the LHD. Findings will be used to formulate strategies for strengthened collaboration and guide EPR plans.
• Participate in a virtual pre-conference workshop at NACCHO’s Preparedness Summit to kick-off action planning and participate in a technical assistance activity. The conference will be held from April 12-15, 2021. For more information, visit here.
• Plan and convene, in collaboration with NACCHO, a series of virtual action planning meetings with LHD staff and, if relevant, additional stakeholders. The purpose of these meetings will be to strengthen collaboration between MCH and EPR departments by sharing priorities, goals, activities, and responsibilities of MCH and EPR departments; facilitating relationship building; prioritizing EPR plans and exercises for MCH inclusion, and developing an action plan to support partnership building with the ultimate goal of incorporating WRA into preparedness plans.
• Finalize an action plan to strengthen partnership and coordination between MCH and EPR departments with the ultimate goal of including WRA in preparedness plans and exercises.
• Initiate implementation of the action plan.
• Participate in monthly phone calls with NACCHO to plan for project activities, address challenges, and assess project progress.
• Revisit the capacity assessment and use findings to celebrate improvements and identify areas for continued growth.
• Participate in an all-grantee call to share project results, success stories, and lessons learned.
• Complete a worksheet that summarizes progress in achieving action steps and partner engagement strategy. Include as examples of changes to any existing health department plans that reflect increased integration of MCH and EPR.
• Application submission deadline: 11:59 PM ET on March 26, 2021. No applications will be accepted by fax or postal mail.

Interested?

View the Request for Applications for full details about this project.

For more information or questions, email Hitomi Abe at [email protected].