Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Worcester Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health - Completing its first Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) in 2013 and going through the process again in 2015, the community of Worcester, Massachusetts is seasoned in community-driven health improvement efforts. Where the first CHA and CHIP brought together disparate partners to work toward common goals in ways many of those partners had not before, the second round more thoughtfully centered the process in the community and with the singular explicit goal of health equity. It is under this framework the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester (“the Coalition”) and the Worcester Division of Public Health (WDPH) operate to center decision-making, investments, and policy change in the hands of the community, rather than the typical actors whose practices have historically contributed to health inequities, such as healthcare systems and government entities. While progress has been made in Worcester to reduce health disparities and promote health equity, such as groundbreaking work in food access, childhood asthma prevention, and youth violence, disparities in health outcomes and environmental conditions persist, particularly for communities of color. As Worcester’s population increases, social service agencies, schools, and healthcare systems are seeing their patient population continue a trend of increased patients who are recent immigrants, patients of color, and patients whose first language is not English. While the population rapidly shifts, the systems that serve them are not adapting at the same pace. For example, in 2011, UMass Medical Center put through an average of over 200 requests for Spanish interpreter services per day and greater than 40% of Worcester Public School students, but only 7% of WPS teachers identify as “Hispanic.” The purpose of this proposal is to build intentional, meaningful, and lasting connections to the Latino community by the Coalition partners, from Community Health Centers, to small non-profit organizations, to large boards and funders. For decades, work to improve the health of this population has been scattered, under-resourced, and largely outside of the direction and oversight of Latino organizations. This funding opportunity represents an opportunity to rectify these issues, by funding representatives of the Latino community to participate in and lead initiatives to combat health disparities, leveraging the public health expertise of partner organizations. The Coalition for a Health Greater Worcester will serve as the Coordinating Organization for this project, leveraging its strong and committed partnerships with dozens of organizations to maximize impact. The Latin American Health Alliance will serve as the Community Mobilizing Organization for this project, contributing their history and expertise in improving health for the Latino population in Worcester. The Worcester Division of Public Health will serve as the fiscal agent as well as the Strategic Public Health Organization, bringing to the table their vast experience in evidence-based community health in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, tobacco, and community-clinical linkages, as well as quality improvement. The contributions from each of these organizations should have the primary outcome of a Latino community engaged in the resources needed to promote, improve, and maintain health. Strengthened engagement in those resources will lead to the secondary outcomes of greater access to food, greater access to physical activity resources, less exposure to smoking, and strengthened clinical linkages to community resources. The approach of investing resources in the community, a core principle of the CHIP, will represent a sustainable and lasting shift from simply culturally-sensitive public health programming to community-centered public health programming.
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).