NH75OT000063

Pima County Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities - Pima County Health Department (PCHD) will implement multi-sectoral strategies to address COVID-19 disparities among underserved and minority communities, co-designed and driven by community members.

A Community Advisory Engagement Committee comprised of community-based organizations, local tribal authorities, faith-based communities, business and labor groups, and advocacy organizations representing people with disabilities, older adults, LGBTQ individuals, and urban and rural primary care and community health service providers, will guide the proposed work plan. Proposed strategies were selected for their potential to disrupt systemic and structural barriers and inequities, bringing together national experts and community stakeholders.

PCHD will implement programs and processes under the following four strategy areas:

1. Resources and Services: Expand testing strategies, including at-home testing kits and increased mobile testing to ensure accessible, available, agile, timely, and equitable COVID-19 detection, education, and prevention.

2. Data and Reporting:
- Identify new data sources that can be used to evaluate and analyze data systems to determine our capacity to deliver meaningful indicators of health equity.
- Build plans for collecting and reporting timely, complete, representative, and relevant data on testing, incidence, vaccination, and severe outcomes by membership in one or more population groups known to be disproportionately affected by health disparities.
- Develop key principles and resources for collecting, analyzing, reporting, and disseminating health equity-related data to inform action during a public health emergency.
- Create and support a public health disparities data services focus.

3. Infrastructure Support to Build Resilient Communities:
- Establish an Office of Health Equity.
- Expand and develop a sustainable community public health workforce.
- Implement community rebuilding and resiliency initiatives.
- Create a public health-legal partnership.
- Create an applied-academic public health partnership.

4. Partner Mobilization:
- Issue "calls for engagement" to both rural and urban community-based organizations, with rural and urban re-granting funds to offer direct financial support for action at the grassroots level.
- Establish a digital COVID-19 vaccine ambassador program featuring vaccine toolkits, mobilizing trusted opinion leaders to counter misinformation and disinformation.
- Develop a newly-established community engagement advisory committee on COVID-19, with facilitated listening sessions and transformative dialog sessions focused on healing from trauma and building trust.

Pima County will develop an evaluation and performance measurement plan post-award and will seek to contract an independent evaluator for the two-year funding period. Each strategy will be designed, implemented, and evaluated using health equity assessment tools and ensure genuine engagement of the people that we intend to help.

Pima County

NOT APPLICABLE

93.354 - Public Health Emergency Response: Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response

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

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

Pima, Arizona 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.