New CDC Grant Awards Present Opportunity to Shape a System of Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded 193 new grants totaling nearly $212 million to support collaborative efforts by state and local governments, public health organizations, healthcare providers and community organizations to reduce and prevent chronic disease. At Prevention Institute, we’re excited by these new initiatives and their potential to move the nation to a focus on prevention through partnership.
We applaud Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell for her leadership and her statement that the awards will further the effort “to transition from a health care system focused on treating the sick to one that also helps keep people well throughout their lives.”
The funds will be used to “coordinate prevention activities” and address the leading risk factors for chronic disease—tobacco use, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity—in an effort reduce the high rates of death and disability these risk factors help to cause. Collaboration is built into the design of the grant programs “because public health cannot solve these problems alone,” as the funding announcement says. Recipients include states, large and small cities and counties, tribes and tribal organizations, and national and community organizations.
We extend our congratulations to the 193 grant recipients as their work to build healthier communities continues. Prevention Institute remains a committed partner in these efforts as we work with health, public health and community coalitions across the country to improve community environments in ways that help prevent chronic disease, improve safety and strengthen the integration between community-level prevention efforts and clinical care.
Now is the time to develop a true system of prevention that goes upstream to address the community conditions that lead to poor health in the first place. Building on the real progress that's been made in increasing access to care, we must unleash a new spirit of innovation and develop new ways to implement, finance and sustain community-level prevention efforts while providing high-quality community-centered care.
A complete list of the awards can be found
here.