NCDHHS, NC Counts Coalition Announce $500k in Grants To Support Equitable COVID-19 Response | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH     Healthier Together, a public-private partnership between North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and NC Counts Coalition, is releasing a Request for Proposals for community-based organizations to apply for grants ranging from $5,000 - $20,000 (or up to $50,000 for collaborative proposals). Grants will support groups that will help North Carolina achieve its goal of delivering equitable access to vaccines.

    Healthier Together, the Health Equity Action Network, will award $500,000 in grants for short-term vaccine equity initiatives ending August 31, 2021. Funds will go to organizations supporting NC communities that experience health inequities to ensure that individuals from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and other historically marginalized populations are able to access vaccines. Grants will fund activities to conduct vaccine outreach and education efforts, help people schedule appointments and arrange transportation, coordinate local vaccine events at trusted and accessible locations, provide on-site interpretation services and help ensure people get to second dose appointments. The application period opens Tuesday, April 27 and ends Friday, May 14 at 11:59 p.m.

    "We are building a community-based strategy by investing in state, regional, and local partners led by and serving historically marginalized populations," said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. "Healthier Together brings together the expertise and relationships of trusted organizations with the policy tools and resources of state government to create a new partnership model to address vaccine equity."

    Interested organizations can participate in an informational online webinar with the NC Counts Coalition on Monday, April 26, 2021, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The webinar will be available in Spanish, American Sign Language (ASL) and closed captioning, and will be recorded for later viewing. Potential grantees can register for the webinar HERE.

    In addition to providing grants to community-based organizations, the Healthier Together initiative will hire regional health equity teams to support community-based organizations in their outreach and education efforts, use data on vaccination efforts to inform planning and investment of resources, and help match vaccine providers with community-based organizations.

    Healthier Together will implement strategies to drive demand and increase access to vaccines to BIPOC and other historically marginalized populations. This RFP process and the subsequent grants to community-based organizations is a crucial part of those strategies. This program is funded by federal COVID-19 dollars.

    Additional information regarding the RFP process can be found HERE.

    For specific questions about this RFP, please contact Tandra Byrd (tandra@nccounts.org) at the NC Counts Coalition.

• NC Department of Health and Human Services
• 2001 Mail Service Center
• Raleigh, NC 27699-2001
• Ph: (919) 855-4840
• news@dhhs.nc.gov