767: AmeriCorps NOFO, Supporting Data Modernization

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, October 9, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers.

Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

MIEKA SANDERSON: 

It's a way to bring in new voices and fresh energy into your organization, and fairly immediately, add capacity to help extend the footprint of your services.

SILVERS: 

Mieka Sanderson with Public Health AmeriCorps tells us about the latest Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO.

SANDERSON: 

Essentially, from this Notice of Funding Opportunity, you get funding, and that funding you use to recruit individuals, to pay for all of the administrative costs related to funding those individuals and supervising them and implementing your program.

SILVERS: 

Sanderson says the funding can be used to enhance capacity. But that's not all.

SANDERSON: 

In addition to the grant funding, AmeriCorps layers on additional benefits that not only make the service opportunity more attractive, but it helps ladder individuals into a public health career. These benefits include an Education Award upon successful completion of service, that may be used towards getting a degree, a certification, paying down student loans.

SILVERS: 

Sanderson says the funds are flexible depending on public health needs.

SANDERSON: 

So, it's encouraged that organizations use data and their own experiences in the community to really hone in on what the focus of their program will be.

SILVERS: 

Learn more about the latest NOFO opportunity by clicking the link in the show notes.

Amy Wodarek O'Reilly from Mathematica Policy Research is ready to assist the Public Health Infrastructure Grant partners on the National Implementation Center program to support data modernization.

AMY WODAREK O'REILLY: 

Between all of our organizations, the Mathematica Implementation Center, as well as the other three, we have the ability to help meet public health agencies wherever they are, to help advance their connectivity goals.

SILVERS: 

Mathematica Crisp, Shared Services, and Guidehouse all have been selected as Implementation Centers.

O'REILLY: 

The PHIG partners have identified a large number of organizations that can support them as Implementation Centers, so that there is the capacity to do a lot of work with a lot of agencies simultaneously. Any agency went in their pairing might have worked with one of us previously, so that might inform who they get paired up with going forward. But it's not a limiting factor.

SILVERS: 

O'Reilly is ready to help public health agencies address certain needs with sporadic funding.

O'REILLY: 

One of the challenges agencies have faced is how to bring together funding that can be intermittent or have a really narrow focus to help meet IT modernization goals at a higher level, and so this is an opportunity for those higher-level goals to be met during the course of participation.

SILVERS: 

ASTHO has many resources about the Implementation Center Program online. Use the link in the show notes to learn more.

Also today, ASTHO has an upcoming webinar focused on how to best navigate the rulemaking process. Speakers from ChangeLab Solutions and the Washington State Department of Health will be in attendance. If you want to learn more about what the webinar has to offer, check out our interview with ASTHO's Andy Baker-White. We'll link that episode in the show notes. We will also have a link to sign up for the webinar.

SILVERS: 

And O'Keyla Cooper has an update on Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health, or DELP.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

Applications are now open for ASTHO's Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health program. This 10-month program helps mid-senior level public health professionals build their leadership skills, expand their networks, and advance their careers regardless of their background. Visit the link in the show notes to learn more or to apply.

SILVERS: 

Finally, on tomorrow's newscast.

FRANCESCA PROVENZANO: 

I think ASTHO does a great job of developing that. Those needed materials or creating forums for the exchange of ideas and advocating for us as DPHPs.

SILVERS: 

Francesca Provenzano outlines the pluses of the directors of public health preparedness peer network. Follow the show, and you'll have the episode on your mobile device at 5am. Just tap the plus sign in the upper right corner of the screen you're looking at right now.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition.

Have a great day.