Category A: Territorial Health Departments - The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) is submitting a proposal to develop and implement a national Pasifika Wellness Together CBA Initiative/Program. AAPCHO is well-poised to address priority organizational-level capacity-building assistance (CBA) needs of territorial health departments within the US Affiliated Pacific Islands and has demonstrated a 35+ year history of providing CBA through technical assistance, training, information sharing, technology transfer or materials development to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities. For more than 30 years, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) has served as a national association that supports increased access to quality, affordable health care for nearly three-quarters of a million medically underserved AA&NHPIs. AAPCHO is a non-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to promoting advocacy, collaboration, and leadership that improves the health status and access of AA&NHPIs in the United States, its territories, and freely associated states. AAPCHO’s 33 members, including 29 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), are located in communities with high concentrations of medically underserved A/AAs and NH/PIs. Through our growing membership and partnerships with health departments in the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands, AAPCHO aims to build upon our capacity building activities to support the needs of health departments to increase access to care, improve health outcomes, and promote health equity. As a selected CBA provider and network partner for the National Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, AAPCHO will work with its extensive partnership network resources to increase access to quality CBA services and products through culturally responsive technical assistance, training, information sharing, and interdisciplinary coordination of AA- and NHPI-serving territorial health department partners and their staff in the USAPI. AAPCHO has an extensive history of delivering quality CBA services and products such as culturally responsive technical assistance, training, information sharing, and interdisciplinary coordination to CHCs, including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), and other organizations on topics related but not limited to: (a) documentation and dissemination of promising practices, facilitation of training, coordination of stakeholder meetings, and other CBA activities relevant to A/AA and NH/PI-serving health centers; (b) providing support to A/AA and NH/PI-serving CHCs to implement evidence-based and promising practices to address A/AA and NH/P health priorities; (c) supporting health care transformation through enhancement of standardized data collection including enabling services and SDOH; (d) collaborating with and leveraging resources across and among other providers as well as other state stakeholders to maximize impact. AAPCHO’s proposed project will provide CBA to Territorial Health Departments to ensure outcomes that support 1) improved organizational and systems capacity and capability to address equity focused public health priorities, 2) improved effectiveness of organizational and systems infrastructure and performance, and 3) improved health outcomes and reduced health inequities.
