National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) is offering a funding opportunity to support the development and coordination of a national-state/territorial/tribal-local network of public and community-based organizations that will disseminate COVID-19-related information; disseminate effective response, recovery and resilience strategies; and ensure service linkages for racial and ethnic minority, rural and disadvantaged communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. OMH expects funding to be used to: 1) develop a strategic information dissemination network of national, state, tribal, territorial and local organizations who are trusted and usual information sources for racial and ethnic minority, rural and disadvantaged communities, including State Offices of Minority Health; 2) develop and disseminate culturally and linguistically diverse multi-media outreach and education, via a variety of communication methods, through the information dissemination network; 3) identify states/tribes/territories with geographic high impact areas of racial and ethnic minority, rural and disadvantaged individuals at substantially greater risk for COVID-19 infection and adverse outcomes (e.g., due to prevalence of underlying health conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and COPD/lung disease; structural and systemic barriers to physical distancing; challenges to accessing healthcare and social services; etc.); 4) partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) who are trusted voices within these high impact areas to disseminate public health messaging and link at-risk individuals to testing, healthcare and social services; 5) identify and disseminate successful state, tribal, territorial and local strategies addressing immediate response, recovery and resilience for racial and ethnic minority, rural and disadvantaged populations; 6) develop and implement a monitoring, evaluation and quality improvement plan; and 7) document and disseminate project findings, including successes and lessons learned. OMH will fund one award annually for a project period of up to 3 years and up to a total project budget of $40,000,000. Successful applicants will be required to meet performance metrics developed with and agreed to by OMH,

BACKGROUND: Emerging data suggests racial and ethnic minority populations are experiencing disproportionate impact and worse health outcomes from COVID-19. Past public health crises, like the H1N1 pandemic and Zika epidemic, have demonstrated and amplified the vulnerability of these populations. Specifically, when combined with a greater baseline prevalence of underlying health conditions, a public health crisis like COVID-19 further exacerbates the higher morbidity and mortality for racial and ethnic minority communities. Due to lack of resources and limited capacity to provide healthcare and social services, rural communities are also vulnerable to adverse COVID-19 outcomes in the immediate and long term. To mitigate the effects of COVID-19, engagement of trusted messengers and state, tribal, territorial and community partners is critical to ensuring rapid coordination and connection of racial and ethnic minority, rural and disadvantaged communities with culturally and linguistically diverse information and needed healthcare and social services.

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