NH75OT000013

CDC National Initiatives to Address COVID-19 Disparities in the Nashville, TN Area - Metro Public Health Department of Nashville and Davidson County (MPHD), Tennessee will implement a collaborative, multilevel, culturally informed approach to expand access to COVID-19 testing and vaccine administration and reduce disparities among Nashville's underserved African American, Hispanic, immigrant, and refugee communities.

The geographic focus of the priority populations is North and South/Southeast Nashville, which are identified as areas of greatest need based on population presence, COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and health outcomes data.

The action plan addresses the four priority strategies, and each intersects at the community, neighborhood, organizational, and individual levels. A community-wide health literacy informed communications approach will be tailored to our priority populations to aid in understanding COVID-19 and remove barriers to accessing testing and vaccination by community health worker navigation support. Tailored organizational efforts will reach across diverse venues and people of all ages, including faith communities and other settings. Programmatic strategies will engage youth and young adults to educate and mobilize peers and families.

Improvements will be made to data collection and reporting to assure more immediate access to vital information to address systemic barriers for our priority populations, as well as improving future response efforts. This includes a feasibility review and actions to improve data collection and reporting, expanded data collection and analysis of social determinants of health, and listening sessions with priority communities and qualitative surveillance and analysis of barriers to accessing services.

To achieve mitigation goals, access to COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and case investigation, and vaccinations among the populations of focus will be expanded. We will build community capacity to address identified barriers in programs, policies, and systems by establishing a county-wide multi-sector COVID-19 health equity coalition and priority population community advisory groups to address immediate needs and future responses.

Building and expanding a public health workforce that is representative of the priority populations will be a key activity of this project. A community health worker navigation program will be established, reflective of and embedded in the communities to provide assessments, referrals to wrap-around services for COVID-19, and respond to concerns and effects. Project staff will be trained in culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) standards.

A continuous quality improvement approach will be applied to all activities to facilitate the effectiveness of efforts. Collectively, the activities of this initiative will seek to reduce inequities in access to services, reduce disparities related to COVID-19, and build sustainable partnerships, community capacity, and trust in the immediate and future response efforts.

Metropolitan Government Of Nashville & Davidson County

NOT APPLICABLE

93.391 - Activities to Support State, Tribal, Local and Territorial (STLT) Health Department Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises

CDC Office of Financial Resources (OFR) [HHS - CDC]

Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (CSTLTS) [HHS - CDC]

Davidson, Tennessee United States

County-Wide

National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities (CDC-RFA-OT21-2103)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 05/31/23 to 05/31/24 and the total obligations have decreased 49% from $4,930,248 to $2,504,859.