Announcements

Hi everyone,

We invite you to attend NACCHO's office hours tomorrow from 1:30-2:30 PM EST. This hour is a chance for you to ask TA-related questions and gather helpful resources to aid in your work. Zoom information is below.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Join Zoom Meeting

https://naccho.zoom.us/j/89004272328?pwd=d1pTSVJTWnBxQWw1TzZOb3YxcmVNZz09

Meeting ID: 890 0427 2328

Passcode: 447698

Happy New Year!

We will continue our quarterly Community of Practice (CoP) on Tuesday, January 10th. Fill out the Google Doc attached below to list topics you would like to discuss. Please email me directly at baldridge@naccho.org if you are interested in facilitating discussions on any topic.

TODAY, Tuesday, December 13, from 3-4 PM EST
This year’s two-part Model Practice Webinar series will finish with the topic of School & Workplace Safety. Continuing the crucial conversation around how we can ensure the safety of all individuals in both our schools as well as in the workplace. As we transition from our work from home offices, it is important to have conversations on how we can continue to protect ourselves and look out for our children and peers, making the reality of having our shared spaces feel safe for all people. 
 
Each presenter will discuss their award-winning Model & Innovative Practice from their Local Health Department, sharing the lessons and experiences they gained throughout the process of beginning each of their community health initiatives.

• Fairfax County Health Department: Leveraging Community Health Workers to Improve COVID-19 Isolation/Quarantine Protocol Adherence
• Lake County Health Department: Impact of Test to Stay on Transmission of SARS-CoV2 in K-12 Schools, Lake County, Illinois 
• Los Angeles County Health Department: Public Health Councils Program to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission in Workplaces 

City Health Dashboard is a NACCHO Bronze Affiliate Business Partner. 

Local data is powerful because it allows cities, leaders, and residents to dig deeper into health and the factors that drive health in their city. It can highlight successes while also illuminating the gaps and challenges facing communities. But access to accurate, local data about health and the social determinants of health has, historically, been a challenge at the city and neighborhood level – especially for small and midsize cities. The City Health Dashboard has changed that for 900+ U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 and larger. 

This webinar will take place on Thursday, December 15, at 2 PM EST

With support from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO), NACCHO is pleased to offer a funding opportunity for up to two consultants to develop culturally responsive educational materials for Black, Indigenous, and  People of Color (BIPOC) and/or Refugee, Immigrant, and Migrant (RIM) communities based on the 2020-2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Two awards, with funding up to $10,000 each, are available. Selections will be made by December 15, 2022, and the project period will run from the date of contract execution to July 31, 2023. Applications must be submitted no later than December 11, 2022. All necessary information regarding the project and application process may be found in this Request for Proposals (RFP) here: https://www.naccho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/FY23-Culturally-Nutrition-Resource-Development-RFP.pdf 

Available at: Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project 2.0 

In June and July 2022, the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project, based at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (Boston, MA), hosted a new, thoroughly updated and revised FREE 4-day  virtual trainings on why & how to analyze population health and health inequities in relation to census tract, county, and other georeferenced societal and environmental data. Each training included 75 participants, comprising a diverse mix of students, faculty, and staff at health departments, health care agencies, and community-based organizations from across the US and several other countries as well. 

The team is now thrilled to make freely available the resources they developed for these trainings, including an easy-to-navigate online manual! 

The resources are available at their website.

 

Topics covered included: 

• the history and context of, and rationale for, conducting this type of work 
• conceptual & methodological issues involved in creating area-based social metrics (ABSMs) 
• summarizing health inequities by ABSMs 
• multilevel & spatial models for health disparities research 
• & the content covered is summarized in their graphics below 

The materials available at their website include: 

• The training manual 
• Recordings of the lectures
• The data & code for the 5 case examples (see below), so that you can work your way through the material covered!

Case example #1 (premature mortality – Massachusetts data)

Case example #2 (breast cancer mortality – Massachusetts data)

Case example #3 (COVID-19 – Chicago, IL data)

Case example #4 (Temporal Trends in health insurance – American Community Survey (ACS) data, US)

Case example #5 (Comparing Health insurance in ACS + CDC’s PLACES data, US)

 

Please explore these resources & use them to advance the work for health justice!

 

Be sure to check this webpage's library for the new Community of Practice folder! There, you can find recordings of CoP calls and other relevant notes from each CoP.

The “1,000-day window” as an organizing agenda is a new and relatively unknown concept in the United States despite its established role in global health. But, there is opportunity to unite public health communities through the relevant, compelling framework.

We believe further focus on creating the best conditions for families in their 1,000-day window can change the trajectory of the path we’re on. We seek to present a comprehensive picture of the state of the science, research needs, and a policy agenda for optimal maternal and child health in the United States through a dedicated series in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH).

A child’s brain develops faster from birth to age three than at any later period in life, building the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health. However, an unfortunate “best kept secret” is the role nutrition plays as the building block for this rapid growth. How well or how poorly mothers and children are nourished during this time has a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and thrive. Save the date – the American Journal of Public Health will publish a special series about nutrition in the 1,000-day window – the time from pregnancy to the baby’s second birthday – on October 26, 2022. Three papers from the series have been released ahead of the issue launch.
To learn more about the series and access turnkey tools, such as social media graphics and template materials, the 1,000 Days initiative of FHI Solutions built this marketing toolkit: https://adobe.ly/3LbzHTD. Help us reinforce the need for nutrition security so that all families have consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being. 

 

NACCHO is hosting a second installment of the Infectious Disease Quick Hits Webinar on Thursday, October 13^th from 11am-noon ET. This webinar will feature speakers from the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) who will briefly cover three infectious diseases that are of pressing interest to our members. The topics will include updates and information CDC has for local health departments regarding seasonal influenza, polio, and acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). Seasonal influenza and polio were selected by attendees of the first ID Quick Hits webinar. Following the presentations there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions. This webinar will be recorded and distributed to those who are registered. 

Speaker information:

• Seasonal influenza - Dr. Tim Uyeki (Influenza Division, CDC)
• Polio and AFM - Dr. Janell Routh (Division of Viral Diseases, CDC)

The City of Chicago Department of Public Health is doing a webinar around health equity and data sharing on October 13, 2022 at 2:30 PM CT/3:30 PM ET. Read on for more details.

Understanding the ties between ZIP Code and health is critical to the work of public health officials. Yet, it can be challenging, if not impossible, to identify specific needs and measure progress because data is too siloed or difficult to share.

That’s why the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) has focused on making data accessible, understandable and sharable via the Chicago Health Atlas. That’s also why we’re hosting a webinar to share their story which provides a roadmap of what’s possible with better access to better data to fuel collaboration.

Join us on October 13 at 2:30 pm CT to learn how investing in this data strategy enabled CDPH, its partners, and community leaders to quickly and deliberately create data insights and make data-driven decisions to advance health equity – and how it will continue to drive their strategy and impact into 2023 and beyond.

Register now to attend the webinar featuring Megan Cunningham, Managing Deputy Commissioner at CDPH and Nik Prachand, Director of Epidemiology at CDPH.

 

 

RFA Opportunity: Seeking Mentors for Health Equity and Overdose Prevention Mentorship Program 

NACCHO, with support from the CDC, is continuing to accept applications to participate in our Health Equity and Overdose Prevention Mentorship Program (details available on our webpage). At this time, we’re actively recruiting for mentors only. Our mentors are really the backbone of our program, and we want to make sure that we have enough to support our mentees. As such, we are extending the mentor application submission deadline to Friday, October 7, 2022. In addition, we’ve increased the amount of funding from up to $20,000 per mentee to up to $50,000 per mentee. The new project period of performance will be from contract execution, (approximately) November 2022 to July 2023. 

 

The RFA can be accessed here. Please view our webpage for the recording of our August Info Session and FAQs. Final applications are due via email to IVP@naccho.org by Friday, October 7, 2022, at 8:00pm ET.  

 

Reach out to Jasmine Akuffo at jakuffo@naccho.org or Ronique Taffe at rtaffe@naccho.org with any questions. 

Apply to get your custom AI chatbot to fight COVID-19 misinformation

Who: LHDs serving over 500,000 constituents
Deadline: Apply by September 15th 
Apply Here

Johns Hopkins University is seeking to partner with 25 health departments to launch an AI chatbot to counter COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in your state, city, or county, at no cost to health departments. VIRA is a COVID-19 vaccine chatbot created by the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center and IBM to provide users with instant answers on vaccine questions 24-7. VIRA, which works in English and Spanish, understands users’ questions in natural language and responds with facts and empathy. It’s continually updated with new evidence and guidelines on COVID-19 vaccines, covering over 200 topics. Partners in the VIRA X NACCHO collaboration will receive technical support to embed VIRA in your own web page and related health campaigns, as well as real-time data showing trending and emerging concerns surrounding COVID-19.  

For departments serving over 500,000 constituents, you can apply to the VIRA X NACCHO competition to access a VIRA Local, a fully custom version of VIRA for free. This includes access to all VIRA’s expert-vetted database responses as well as social messaging insights for your district and customized answers specific to your jurisdiction. 

 Apply by September 15!

The Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine will be introducing anti-racism core competencies into the teaching curriculum. To ensure the effectiveness of these competencies, Tulane is requesting your feedback via survey. Please, if you are able, take 15 minutes of your day to take it here.

For more details, please watch the video at the link below. At the end of the video, you will find the QR code that directs you to the survey linked above.

Thank you for your assistance!

NACCHO, with support from the CDC, is accepting applications to participate in our Health Equity and Overdose Prevention Mentorship Program. This will be the second iteration of our mentorship program and will include opportunities for local health departments (LHDs) to learn from peers, share experiences and exchange strategies for integrating health equity into drug overdose prevention and response work.

There are separate mentee and mentor applications; requirements and full details of the project are available in the respective RFAs as well as their linked deliverable schedules. NACCHO hosted an informational webinar on July 27, 2022 to review this funding opportunity, the recording can be reviewed here, along with the FAQs here. If you have any questions, please email IVP@naccho.org.

Applications must be submitted to NACCHO’s Overdose Prevention Team at IVP@naccho.org by Friday, August 19, 2022, at 8:00 pm E.T. LHDs that would like our feedback in advance for a stronger application can submit it by Friday, August 12, 2022, at 8:00 pm E.T. Submissions after the final deadline, August 19, 2022, will not be considered.

Happy 1st Day of August!

The July monthly roundup is available to view in the library under "Monthly Roundups." The video recaps some NACCHO-sponsored events that took place in July. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions.

As mentioned in the June Monthly Roundup, below is more information on the third and final session of our community health improvement series. We hope you can join us!

COVID Health Equity Community Health Improvement Session #3 – Community Engagement

The COVID Health Equity community health improvement (CHI) series continues on July 13, 2022, 4pm EST. Register here. In this session, participants will learn about and discuss best practices for community engagement in a CHI process. We will have a guest speaker from Lake County, IL share their experience engaging community members in CHI, and participants will have opportunities to share with each other.

 

Happy Friday!

The June monthly roundup is up and ready for you to view in the library. Take a look as it recaps events from June and also highlights events coming up in the near future.

Hi everyone,

Please check the library of this discussion board for a brief video that recaps programs offered in May and continuing to be offered in the coming months. This monthly roundup is a great way to stay abreast of things happening in relation to the OT2103 grant.

If you have questions or suggestions for video content, please let me know!

Happy Friday!

For those familiar with Community Commons, there is a newly launched Community Commons Space called the Public Health and Equity Resource Navigator (PHERN). This space will allow you to "navigate resources focused on ending the pandemic, advancing equity, and building a resilient, robust, sustainable public health system for the future."

Consider perusing PHERN as a helpful tool for COVID-related projects and beyond.

Hi all,

NACCHO's Medical Countermeasures (MCM) Workgroup is developing a resource guide to disseminate best practices and lessons learned from the COVID-19 response. Please read on and/or check out the linked blog post for more details.

Information sharing and medical countermeasure (MCM) dispensing and administration by local health departments (LHDs) played a critical role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. NACCHO’s MCM workgroup would like to hear from those involved in information sharing and MCM dispensing and administration during COVID-19. The goal is to collect lessons learned/best practices from LHDs to share broadly with NACCHO’s membership.

Please submit your lessons learned/best practices for both topic areas to gamaniel@naccho.org by Tuesday, May 31.

Hello, OT2103 grantees! Welcome to your virtual community, where you can share resources and ideas as well as give and receive support among fellow grantees. NACCHO staff and some of our partners are here as well. We hope this community will prove to be fruitful! Should you have any questions or comments, please relay them to Brianna Aldridge, one of the community admins.

Project Firstline will host a virtual event TOMORROW, March 16th at 1 p.m. ET to celebrate health care workers and unveil new resources to help them prevent and control infections. Register here to participate in the March 16 event, which will feature CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and a new video showcasing the project’s work.