Monday, May 19, 2025
5/19/2025
MRC-STTRONG: Building Public Health Response Capacity for the 21st Century - The recipient, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, supports this two-year MRC-STTRONG project on behalf of the state’s Public Health Reserve Corps (PHRC) program and four regional PHRC units. The project goal is to expand upon nascent efforts to increase preparedness levels of persons with access and functional needs and other disproportionately impacted populations during natural or technological disasters as well as core public health emergencies. The objectives are to: 1) disseminate information to persons with access and functional needs whose medical conditions and/or limited mobility may hinder their ability to evacuate during severe weather events; 2); overcome barriers to full utilization of our licensed medical volunteers; 3) build our capacity to provide meaningful volunteer support to federally supported PODs; 4) grow our PHRC units’ capacity to support potassium iodide (KI) distribution following nuclear emergencies; and 5) realize opportunities for process improvement and PHRC leadership development that were identified during COVID. The expected outcomes of this project are: 1) increased human resources for public health emergency response; 2) vulnerable populations will be better prepared and more resilient during disasters and emergencies; and 3) PHRC staff will be currently knowledgeable of volunteer management best practices and prepared to apply them to the PHRC program. Products will include: 1) standardized protocols for the deployment of PHRC volunteers to different PHRC service areas across the state; 2) training modules for KI distribution, POD site development, federally supported POD operations and more; and 3) after-action reviews and lessons learned from tabletop exercises, drills and full-scale exercises to test new and existing processes.
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).