Sunday, March 30, 2025
3/30/2025
Developing Health Literacy in Chicago Health Equity Zones - The Chicago Department of Public Health submits this proposal for funding to implement a health literacy and health outreach program in the urban high vulnerability neighborhoods of Chicago. Highly vulnerable neighborhoods were identified by social and COVID-19 vulnerability assessment and neighborhood ranking (Chicago COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index). These neighborhoods experience COVID-19 testing, infection, prevention, and vaccination disparities, which have been mitigated but not yet eliminated by community engagement efforts, emphasizing the need for community-based partnership to reducing disparities. The sustainment and growth plan proposed by CDPH is to expand community engagement through a Health Equity Zone model. High vulnerability neighborhoods are also vulnerable to social determinants of health and chronic disease, which themselves increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Therefore we aim to create health outreach that mitigates COVID-19 health disparities but develops a sustainable program for chronic disease and healthy living health literacy and outreach. We will use a community-clinical linkage model by staffing community health workers to neighborhoods in Chicago, organized within the Health Equity Zone infrastructure that is being established, with a focus on high vulnerability neighborhoods. The population of the high vulnerability neighborhoods is over 900,000 primarily Black and Latinx Chicagoans. The total impact of our outreach, however, extends across all Health Equity Zones, population 2.7 million racially and ethnically diverse Chicagoans. We will work with local partners on Community Health Worker training and on development of a culturally-relevant and foundationally-based framework of health literacy. Community Health Workers will work with community-based organizations and health centers to implement health literacy principles and framework at the resident-facing level and for organizational communications. Evaluation and quarterly quality improvement will be supported by community research evaluators at University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, a minority-serving institution. The program will be managed centrally from the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which proposes a budget to increase program staffing support in order to centrally convene and align the literacy framework and outreach strategies.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).