The purpose of the program is to establish, expand, and sustain a public health workforce to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19. This includes mobilizing community outreach workers, which includes community health workers, patient navigators, and social support specialists, to educate and assist individuals in accessing and receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. This includes activities such as conducting faceto-face outreach and reaching out directly to community members to educate them about the vaccine, assisting individuals in making a vaccine appointment, providing resources to find convenient vaccine locations, assisting individuals with transportation or other needs to get to a vaccination site. The program intends to address persistent health disparities by offering support and resources to vulnerable and medically underserved communities, including racial and ethnic minority groups and individuals living in areas of high social vulnerability.
HRSA will fund recipients that have demonstrated experience and expertise in implementing public health programs, particularly in medically underserved areas. Award recipients will need to clearly describe how the funding will directly serve and impact vulnerable communities; and demonstrate how they will prioritize hiring individuals from the communities they will serve by providing outreach, education and assistance related to the COVID-19 vaccine.
This program will focus on providing resources to local and/or regional communitybased organizations (CBOs). CBO applicants may engage as individual organizations or create a network of multiple eligible organizations partnering together to complete program activities (i.e. one award recipient with multiple subrecipient organizations).
NOTE: Multiple applications from an organization are not allowable.
Interested applicants from within Duke should contact dukeiln@duke.edu as early as possible.
Deadline: June 9, 2021