Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5/13/2025
North Carolina Building Resilient Environmental Health Capacity Program - North Carolina is situated in the Mid-Atlantic region and extends into the ocean, putting it in the path of hurricanes and tropical storms. Over the past decade, North Carolina has experienced 14 major disaster declarations with five of those declarations a result of hurricanes or tropical storms and another five as a result of widespread flooding due to severe storms. These natural disasters magnify the environmental health challenges in our state, as residents struggle to maintain safe drinking water, functioning septic systems and healthy homes that are free of moisture damage and mold. Water damage from Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael persists to this date, posing a health risk to all those who live or work in buildings impacted by the storms. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Building Resilient Environmental Health Capacity (BREHC) program is proposing to improve the capacity of NCDHHS to identify, detect and prevent exposures to environmental hazards. BREHC will address EH hazards within North Carolina to improve children's health, minority health and rural health. This proposal consists of three components; 1) Component A – Strengthening core capacity to use EH data in NC, 2) Component B1 – Strengthening data capacity to improve access to safe drinking water from private wells in NC and 3) Component C1 – Fortifying EH resilience in response to natural disasters. Within each component, staff will work on (1) strengthening EH data use and informatics capacity, (2) identifying, preventing and controlling EH hazards, and (3) assessing EH intervention effectiveness and impact. BREHC will implement the following activities to improve EH in North Carolina. Through this funding opportunity BREHC will address, prevent, and control EH hazards associated with private wells and natural disasters. BREHC staff will implement trainings to strengthen the capability of EH workforce to identify, prevent, and control EH hazards. BREHC staff will work in cross-sector collaborations to implement and assess interventions to address priority EH hazards. BREHC will work to reduce EH hazards using data-driven decisions and interventions. This will result in improved environmental conditions and community health status while demonstrating the value and importance of EH program services and interventions.
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).