NH75OT000026

Harris Cares: Embrace Hope (Healing, Opportunity, Prosperity, Equity) - Harris County Public Health (HCPH) intends to develop the Harris Cares: Embrace Hope (Healing, Opportunity, Prosperity, and Equity) initiative. This initiative aims to initiate and mobilize the transition of public health response from emergency recovery to the mitigation of COVID-19 and long-term impacts of health due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative utilizes four CDC strategies to improve health equity in disproportionately impacted communities. Strategy 1 focuses on maintaining and growing contact tracing and case investigations in disproportionately impacted communities, while ensuring a representative and equity-trained workforce.

Strategy 2 focuses on securing foundational data collection and automation for disease surveillance. It also aims to expand on disparity analyses to inform both operational COVID-19 response decisions and long-term health impacts related to the social determinants of health.

Strategy 3 focuses on expanding public health infrastructure for health equity planning, both internally and jointly with community stakeholders.

Strategy 4 focuses on mobilizing partners through a three-pronged approach. This strategy leverages partnerships with a historically black college/university for outreach and community engagement. It also leverages the well-established Health Equity Collective for the development of a community information exchange and alignment of strategies on social determinants of health with 130+ community organizations. Lastly, it provides funding for population-based approaches to collective impact with local community organizations that have a history of serving disproportionately impacted communities.

These strategies are based on HCPH's Harris Cares 2020 report, ongoing and existing analyses of COVID-19 disparities in Harris County, HCPH's Equitable Testing Strategy (2020), and Vaccine Equity Strategy (2021). Additionally, reports provided by partners on the perceived impacts of COVID-19 on the health of Harris County have also informed these strategies.

County Of Harris

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]

Harris, Texas 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 05/31/26.