Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Category A: Tribal Health Departments - Abstract: Background: The capacity of Tribal health departments to address persistent public health challenges, and those unique to American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, is significantly lower than mainstream public health agencies operating at the national or state levels. The challenges (including, but not limited to, fragmented programming, lack of access to reliable surveillance data, strained workforce, inconsistent ability to address emerging public health threats, and lack of inclusion in the mainstream public health system) are exacerbated by a lack of available Tribally-specific capacity building services,lack of awareness of Tribal public health promising practices, and lack of access to Tribally-specific and culturally responsive products, materials, and public health workforce. Purpose: NIHB proposes to provide nation - wide support for Tribal health departments to strengthen their capacity to provide public health services through developing, identifying, and distributing trainings and resources, providing technical assistance, and building relationships across organizations. NIHB will address key priority areas, including developing a well-trained Tribal public health workforce; improving data access for Tribes and the organizations that support them such as Tribal Epidemiology Centers; providing data on Tribal public health infrastructure that Tribal health departments can use for advocacy, resource allocation, and decision making; and creating a central resource center for Tribes to exchange ideas, build relationships, and learn from one-another on promising and wise practices for Tribal public health. These resources are expected to improve Tribal planning for more consistent services, access to data, a reliable workforce, a stronger capacity to network and identify best practices when responding to public health threats, and the resources needed to advocate for inclusion in the mainstream public health system. With this strengthened capacity, Tribal health departments will be well positioned to significantly advance health equity for their citizens. Outcome: Over five years, NIHB expects to achieve the following outcomes: 1) increased awareness of best/promising practices and/or tools by Tribal health departments of CBA services and products, 2) increased availability of and access to CBA services and products that address strategic areas, and 3.) increased use of CBA services and products by population of focus. We specifically expect to achieve these outcomes through our proposed work across four strategic areas: 1) Workforce-develop a youth fellowship program to build Tribal health department workforce, 2) Data Modernization, Informatics, and Information Technology-develop tools and trainings on Tribal data sharing and data modernization, 3) Partnership Development and Engagement-conduct a national scan on Tribal public health capacity and provide training and resources on using this training to improve capacity, and 4) Policy and Programs -develop a Tribal health department learning community and resource center dedicated to elevating the sharing of best/promising practices for Tribal public health.
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).