Though traditionally focused on chronic disease prevention, the Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant can be used to build infrastructure and workforce capacity throughout your jurisdiction and across programmatic areas.
Awardees have broad discretion about how to use PHHS Block Grant funds. The doubling of resources in this program is a tremendous opportunity to 1) prepare for public health accreditation; 2) build performance management (PM), quality improvement (QI), and workforce development (WD) into all initiatives addressing Healthy People 2020 objectives; and 3) create lasting capacity for improving public health outcomes.
Grantees can take many steps to seize this opportunity:
- Fund technical assistance and training (QI, PM, strategic planning, QI planning, WD) through the PHHS Block Grant
- Identify where building PM, QI, and WD capacity will strengthen the effectiveness of programmatic and administrative areas grantees’ Block Grant objectives
- Review PHF’s Sample Service Packages to get started planning a comprehensive approach.
- Support with PHHS Block Grant funds data sources that will benefit health assessments and improvement plans
- Support with PHHS Block Grant funds a TRAIN subscription to facilitate remote training, workforce development planning, and tracking of training across the state
- Consider the value of coordinating the PHHS Block Grant program from a part of the health department that impacts programmatic areas (e.g., Office of Performance Improvement, Office of Local and Community Support)
Please contact Margie Beaudry (mbeaudry@phf.org or 202-218-4415) if you would like to discuss the types of QI, PM, and WD technical assistance and training you may wish to include in your PHHS Block Grant work plan.