SPTHB Public Health Resilience Project - The Southern Plains Tribal Health Board’s (SPTHB) Tribal Epidemiology Center (TEC) is one of 12 TECs in the nation and supports 43 federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Our agency has long history of providing training and technical assistance (TTA), guidance, and consulting services to public health professionals, nurses, doctors, community health representatives, community members, tribes, state and local agencies, non-profits, and many other organizations, as well as acting as the fiscal agent responsible for multiple funding opportunities. Tribes are increasingly involved in public health activities in rapid response to the changing health needs of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Strong public health performance can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of programs and services and improve health outcomes. Public health performance improvement efforts, or capacity building, are most effective when using a systems approach. A systems approach is one where multiple stakeholder work together and coordinate efforts to deliver the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS), rather than trying to deliver them in isolation, without the help or input of others. This program will focus on three of the Essential Services of Public Health (EPHS), including: EPHS #3 Communicate effectively to inform and educate people about health, factors that influence it, and how to improve it, EPHS #4 Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health, and EPHS # 8 Build and support a diverse and skilled public health workforce. Under each of these services, we will target two core elements. These core elements are: Area of Focus: EPHS # 3 Core Elements: a. Developing and disseminating accessible health information and resources, including through collaboration with multi-sector partners e. Employing the principles of risk communication, health literacy, and health education to inform the public, when appropriate. Area of Focus: EPHS # 4: Core Elements: a. Convening and facilitating multisector partnerships and coalitions that include sectors that influence health (e.g., planning, transportation, housing, education, etc.). b. Fostering and building genuine, strengths-based relationships with a diverse group of partners that reflect the community and the population. Area of Focus: EPHS # 8: Core elements: a. Providing education and training that encompasses a spectrum of public health competencies, including technical, strategic, and leadership skills. h. Fostering leadership skills at all levels. The primary activities that will ensure we achieve our outcomes include building diverse and inclusive multi-sectoral partnerships and advisory group to help align activities to community needs; developing and implementing tools and process to get community input on materials, resources, and training needs; host a large convening of area stakeholders to gather priority information; and implementing all trainings for capacity building. We will be utilizing our work plan and logic model for evaluation and measures to ensure we meet all outcome goals.
