CDC-RFA-TU24-0142 Regional Centers for Public Health Preparedness and Response, Region 5 - The University of Minnesota School of Public Health (UMN) proposes to establish the Region 5 Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response (R5CPHPR) in conjunction with academic partners at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UMSPH), the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health (UIC), the Ohio State University School of Public Health (OSU), the Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health (IU), and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW). Our combined Schools of Public Health have extensive histories of collaboration with each other and with state, local, and tribal public health agencies and private partners to address a wide range of public health emergency preparedness and response activities and population groups that are at increased risk. Our linked network of academic health programs will form the nucleus of the R5CPHPR Steering Committee (SC), convening and facilitating discussions to identify needs, resources and priorities within individual states that can be synthesized with the input of state, local and tribal health officials and private partners in our R5CPHPR Regional Coordinating Body into an effective Five-Year Work Plan to increase the use of evidence-based strategies and interventions (EBSIs) to improve PHPR across the region. During the first year of the 5-year project period, we will establish a Regional Coordinating Body (RCB) composed of representatives from state, local and tribal health officials, academic Centers for Public Health Practice, health care coalitions, and groups representing underserved populations, including tribal communities from across the region. The RCB will establish a 5-year regional work plan that will be implemented and evaluated with oversight by the SC in collaboration with CDC. We will address important barriers to implementing EBSI, including lack of EBSI and lack of clarity regarding which practices are evidence based. Based on the risks identified by regional Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement awardees and the strengths of the academic partners, the R5CPHPR will initially focus on infectious disease threats including zoonotic threats to agricultural workers, climate change intensification of weather-related impacts on rural and urban communities, environmental exposures in occupational, residential and recreational settings, and the specific impacts of these threats to tribal communities and urban American Indian populations. In addition to establishing the R5CPHPH (Component A), we are applying for Component D, Strategy 7 (address opportunities to enhance the evidence base through development, implementation, and evaluation, and translation of strategies and interventions to address active emergencies or public health recovery efforts) and Component D, Strategy 8 (to enrich education and training of practitioners to enhance the PHPR science workforce).
