Sunday, May 22, 2022
5/22/2022
Allegheny County, PA is applying for a CDCReach grant on behalf of the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) to implement Live Well Allegheny; Lifting Wellness for African Americans-LWA2. LWA2 aims to enhance health equity in Allegheny County by addressing several of the risk factors associated with chronic disease in African-American/Black populations living in 6 high-risk target areas of Allegheny County. Over five years, multiple partners will collaborate to improve nutrition, physical activity and community-clinical linkages for some 39,000 African Americans living in target communities through a variety of activities ranging from expanding healthy food policies to implementing a pharmacist navigation and referral program. LWA2 will also launch a culturally competent communications strategy and fund a community ambassador program to amplify the strategy. In 2014, ACHD convened a large Advisory Coalition of multi-sector organizations including health care, public health, transportation, housing, education, faith-based organizations, and more. The Coalition was responsible for conducting the community health assessment and prioritizing issues for the Plan for a Healthier Allegheny-PHA, the county health improvement plan. Both health equity and social determinants were major thematic issues along with five priority areas that included access and the chronic disease behaviors of smoking, physical inactivity and poor nutrition/obesity. The community health assessment and subsequent data collection, has helped define populations and areas of the county with the largest health disparities. Analysis reveals that all target communities for this proposal have smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer rates that are generally higher than County or national rates. Since 2014, the Advisory Coalition has had five operating workgroups which have develop metrics for each area of the PHA and have worked together to develop collaborative approaches to improve health. The Chronic Disease workgroup which will serve as the leadership committee for LWA2 has a history of collaboration including working on the county-wide health and wellness campaign: Live Well Allegheny. LWA2 , which will be considered part of the larger Live Well Allegheny campaign, provides the opportunity to take a focused approach to solving health disparities for African Americans living in target communities. To achieve the outcomes of improved health, expanded access to healthy food, physical activity opportunities, better connection to clinical and community resources, and reduced disparities in chronic disease for African Americans living in target communities, ACHD and 11 partners will implement activities that have been proven to improve health. Over the next five years, LWA2 will: 1) Improve access to healthy foods by working with institutions in target communities to adopt procurement and group purchasing processes; Increase the number of people in the priority population who have access to fresh fruits and vegetables by expanding the number of vendors in farmer?s markets who offer healthy food and EBT/SNAP access, design a master plan for public transit to food access; 2) Increase the share of people who are physically active by assisting target municipalities in planning active transportation projects and adopting complete street policies 3) Launching a culturally competent communications strategy, funding a community ambassador grant program to amplify communications, providing a pharmacist navigation and referral program, and increasing promotion of locally based health prevention programs such as DPP, WIC, food access This program depends upon the full and continuing engagement of our PHA Advisory Coalition and the chronic disease workgroup. They are committed, have been involved in this proposal, and are ready to implement once fu
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).
