September 26, 2024
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- The CDC has awarded more than $176 million to 48 public health partners to strengthen and improve public health infrastructure.
- The awards will fund the first of 5 years of work.
The CDC announced that it has awarded more than $176 million to 48 public health partners to strengthen the public health infrastructure and workforce in the United States.
“CDC’s public health partners are critical to building trust with communities and providing the essential services and capacity needed to face health threats,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, said in a press release.
The CDC awarded $176 million to 48 entities to strengthen the country’s public health infrastructure. Image: Adobe Stock
The funds, awarded through the agency’s National Partners Cooperative Agreement (NPCA), cover the first year of a 5-year funding cycle to increase the knowledge, skills and abilities of the public health workforce, as well as to improve organizational structures and systems capacity to address public health priorities.
The NPCA funds are distributed to organizations that work with government public health entities and related organizations to deliver “capacity-building assistance” in prioritized strategic areas to address needs in the public health sector, according to the CDC.
The CDC has distributed more than $2.5 billion to more than 70 public health partners through the NPCA since 2008.
Previous initiatives funded through the NPCA have included a rural public health curriculum for public health professionals and students, helping state, territorial and local health departments investigate, analyze and share data on drug overdoses, and creating tools and best practices for community health organizations that work with schools and parents to improve mental health among adolescents and young adults.
“By working together with our valued partners, we can build a resilient public health system capable of addressing evolving challenges,” Leslie Ann Dauphin, PhD, director of the CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure Center, said in the release. “These awards will help build a strong public health infrastructure with enhanced ability to detect and control diseases, promote healthy lifestyles and provide essential health care services to all communities.”
The agency has announced initiatives to improve and grow the nation’s public health infrastructure since the COVID-19 pandemic revealed gaps and areas for improvement. These efforts have included $3.2 billion in funding aimed at expanding, training and modernizing the workforce, and $262 million for a new disease outbreak response network to modernize surveillance systems.
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