Apply for CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grants

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the release of $373 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to fund the first part of a new $650 million public health initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work. This initiative will put money into the hands of communities, states, and territories with the goals of reducing risk factors for chronic diseases and promoting wellness.

The initial $373 million will support grants which will be awarded through a competitive selection process to communities to support evidence-based prevention strategies for youths and adults and to promote partnerships across communities and sectors.

Funded projects will emphasize high-impact, broad-reaching policy, environmental, and systems changes in schools (K-12), communities, and states. For example, states and communities will be encouraged to get comprehensive smoking bans into place and to provide quality physical education in the nation’s schools.

Approximately 30-40 community awardees will be selected for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative. Eligible entities include: large cities (population > 1 million), urban areas (population > 500,000, but less than 1 million), tribal communities, and State-coordinated small cities and rural areas (populations of up to 500,000 people). The application deadline for the community projects is December 1, 2009.

Applicants are required to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to be eligible to apply for this program. The deadline for submitting a Letter of Intent is October 30, 2009.

Several forms of pre-application support will be available. Specific information about how to access this support will be posted shortly as a featured item on CDC’s Community Health Web Portal .

(1) A dedicated mailbox for inquiries as been established. Questions can be emailed to: CPPW@cdc.gov. Answers to submitted questions will be posted for all website users to view on www.cdc.gov/CommunityHealthResources.

(2) A series of expert-led webinars will be offerred, each offered live and then available by web archive covering the following topics: Obesity/ Physical activity/ Nutrition Policy, Tobacco Policy, and Evidence-based Policy Intervention. The scheduled dates and times for these webinars will be located on CDC’s Community Health Web Portal.

(3) A single source for community tools for application development is available via CDC’s Community Health Web Portal .

To find out how to apply for the awards, read the Funding Opportunity Announcement . The application deadline for the community projects is December 1, 2009.