Community Health Workers for COVID Response and Resilient Communities

For programmatic or technical questions:
Stacy De Jesus
NCCDPHP_CHW@cdc.gov

For grants management or budget questions:
Rhonda Latimer
ito1@cdc.gov

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide non-research grants for the training and deployment of community health workers (CHWs) to build and strengthen community resilience to fight COVID-19 in geographic areas and populations that experience health disparities.

Applicants should apply for one program component.

• Component A: Capacity Building -
  • Identify and collaborate with community-wide efforts to ensure comprehensive acquisition of relevant knowledge, roles, and skills by CHWs
  • Align training opportunities for CHWs with the primary actions of state and/or local public health led efforts
  • Integrate CHWs into organizations and care teams to support the public health response to COVID-19 among priority populations
  • Develop and disseminate messaging that educates organizations and care teams on the critical role CHWs play in delivering services and managing the spread of COVID-19
  • Coordinate and/or promote opportunities within communities and clinical settings to facilitate the engagement of CHWs in addressing the needs of those at highest risk for poor health outcomes
  • Initiate and develop and/or utilize systems to document engagement of CHWs in the care, support, and follow-up across clinical and community settings of priority populations
  • Establish and strengthen partnerships between CHWs and State Medicaid agencies, relevant state or local coalitions, initiatives, professional organizations, providers, and health systems that provide resources and support (including State Offices of Rural Health)
• Component B: Implementation Ready Projects-
  • Identify and collaborate with community-wide efforts to ensure comprehensive acquisition of relevant knowledge, roles, and skills by CHWs
  • Ensure appropriate training opportunities to disseminate messaging for CHWs focused on reaching those with underlying conditions and/or environments that increase the risk and severity of COVID-19
  • Align training opportunities for CHWs with the primary actions of state and/or local public health led efforts to address the underlying conditions and/or environments that increase the risk and severity of COVID-19 infections
  • Integrate CHWs into organizations and care teams to support the public health response to COVID-19
  • Integrate CHWs into public health emergency preparedness and vaccine deployment planning
  • Coordinate and/or promote opportunities, such as messaging/education within communities and clinical settings to facilitate the engagement of CHWs in addressing the needs of those at highest risk for poor health outcomes
  • Facilitate engagement of CHWs in the care, support, and follow-up across clinical and community settings of priority populations at highest risk for poor health outcomes
• Component C: Innovation/Demonstration Projects -
  • Test an innovative approach that accelerates impact to ameliorate effects of COVID-19 through the use of CHWs and builds more resilient communities
  • Project must be implemented in communities or populations at risk for poor health outcomes as a result of COVID-19
  • Must be aligned with the outcomes as described in the logic model
  • Must include a rigorous evaluation to assess the project's impact, outcomes, and effectiveness and develop recommendations for sustainability

Priority populations are those with increased prevalence of COVID-19 that are disproportionately impacted by long-standing health disparities related to sociodemographic characteristics, geographic regions, and economic strata, such as:

• Rural areas
• Racial and ethnic minority groups
• Persons who are economically disadvantaged, justice-involved, experiencing homelessness, or have certain underlying medical conditions that increase COVID-19 risk

Eligible applicants include:

• State governments, including the District of Columbia
• County governments
• Local governments or their bona fide agents
• Territorial governments or their bona fide agents in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau
• Federally and/or state-recognized American Indian and Alaska native tribal governments
• American Indian and Alaska native tribally designated organizations
• American Indian/Alaska Native urban Indian centers
• Health service providers to tribes

Award ceiling: $5,000,000 per year
Award floor: $350,000 per year
Estimated average award: $1,000,000 per year
Project period: 3 years
Estimated number of awards: 70
Estimated total program funding: $300,000,000

Links to the full announcement and online application process are available through grants.gov. The application instructions will be found on the related documents tab.