— 2021 Building Community Resilience through Collaboration Project will award four communities up to $20,000 —

Washington, DC, October 28, 2021 —The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has announced the 2021 awardees for the Building Community Resilience through Collaboration project. NACCHO has awarded Jefferson County Public Health, CO; Louisiana Office of Public Health, LA; Tri- County Health Department, MO; and Western Peninsula Health Department, MI, with up to $20,000 each. The funds will build community resilience and improve the lives of pregnant people, birth parents, and their infants by strengthening partnerships between maternal and child health and emergency preparedness programs within local health departments.

Jefferson County Public Health ($20,000) is using the grant to expand on their current efforts around their Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E) plan, which began in 2018 when the health department recognized their preparedness capability gap around safe infant feeding. This grant will enhance their capacity to map out a shared action plan to build community resilience and engage their community. Their objective is to co-create disaster communication plans for their county and then with regional and state partners to replicate IYCF-E planning and response across the state of Colorado.

Louisiana Office of Public Health – Bureau of Family Health ($20,000) is using the grant to build and strengthen relationships between emergency preparedness programs within Louisiana’s two health departments and other maternal and child health stakeholders. They will identify strategies for improving emergency response plans related to the needs of perinatal persons and infants/children who are 0-2 years of age. The Bureau of Family Health will collaborate with the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center, a local and nationally recognized community partner, to provide training to a critical mass of emergency responders throughout the state. Trainings will include information on how to support breastfeeding, safe infant feeding techniques, handling of artificial breastmilk, and management and distribution of formula donations in emergencies according to international codes and guidelines.

Tri-County Health Department ($17,909.80) is using the grant to increase capacity within their health department to better serve their maternal and child health population. They plan to strengthen collaboration between Maternal and Child Health and Emergency Preparedness and Response departments through the creation of an emergency preparedness advisory panel comprised of local health department staff and community members. This panel will help inform their preparedness work and gather information around the needs of maternal and child health and women of reproductive age populations. Tri-County Health Department serves DeKalb, Gentry, and Worth counties in Missouri.

Western Upper Peninsula Health Department ($20,000) is using the grant to strengthen their communication and relationship between Maternal and Child Health and Emergency Preparedness and Response departments to enhance their future preparedness planning. They plan to prioritize women of reproductive age and maternal and child health populations in emergency preparedness and response planning to meet their specific needs during public health emergencies and hope to develop a model for other frontier communities. Western Peninsula Health Department serves Keweenaw, Houghton, Ontonagon, Baraga, and Gogebic counties in Michigan.

For more information on NACCHO’s Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health work, visit NACCHO’s webpage.

# # #

About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation’s nearly 3,000 local health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.