Well Women, Well Communities

Transcription

1 Well Women, Well Communities REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS Applications Due by April 16, 2018 a 11:59 PM EST 1

2 WELL WOMEN, WELL COMMUNITIES CityMatCH is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the Well Women, Well Communities. This project builds on the success of The Well-Woman Project, which was due in part to the participation of eight (8) urban health departments (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Jackson, Nashville, New Orleans, Oakland, Omaha). In the Well Women, Well Communities three (3) teams will gain the opportunity to foster authentic community engagement to maximize women s ability to be healthy and seek preventive/well-woman care in their communities. Approaches will be thoroughly evaluated, with results and impact of local initiatives broadly disseminated. 2

3 BACKGROUND There are many benefits to utilizing preventive health care. Annual preventive healthcare visits can identify unknown health conditions before they become problematic, help manage existing chronic conditions, and provide a venue for needed lifestyle counseling. Along with these benefits, preventive healthcare visits could also serve as a way to address the many health disparities that exist in women s health. In 2016, CityMatCH and the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) partnered to conduct the Well-Woman Project. The Well-Woman Project centered around the annual preventive healthcare visit for women, also known as the well-woman visit. This preventive healthcare visit, the well-woman visit, is the focus of National Performance Measure #1 (NPM-1) within the Title V Performance Measurement Framework. This visit is covered without outof-pocket expenses for women under most Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans. Although this healthcare visit is covered, many women do not utilize it and rates of utilization differ based on income, insurance status, and race and/or ethnicity. To better understand why women are not accessing preventive health care, this project aimed to elevate women s voices. Women s voices were gathered via listening sessions with women in urban communities across the U.S. and via online storytelling with the goal of better understanding what barriers exist that prevent women from being healthy and accessing preventive/well-woman care. The women revealed the following: 1. The healthcare delivery system is not woman-friendly. 2. Women s competing demands and priorities make accessing health care difficult. 3. Women weigh costs vs. benefits when deciding to access care. 4. Relationships with providers are key to women s decisions about accessing care. 5. Health & insurance literacy empower women to advocate for themselves and others. 6. Positive mental health is integral to being a healthy woman. 7. Healthy food, safe environments, and opportunities for physical activity are vital for women. 8. Social support systems facilitate women s willingness and ability to seek care. 9. Fear is a pervasive component of many women s healthcare experiences. 10. Lack of child care and transportation are major impediments to accessing health care. Despite community-based barriers being some of the biggest contributors to why women are not pursuing well-woman visits, most health departments focus solely on interventions that increase access to health care. To reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes for women in the U.S., there must be a shift to look at the well-being of communities as a whole. Well Women, Well Communities will seek to do this through the implementation of recommendations that emerged from the barriers and themes identified through the Well-Woman Project. 3

4 KEY FEATURES The Well Women, Well Communities is a 2-year collaborative of local public health departments (LHDs) and their multi-sector community partners. The Well Women, Well Communities will help maximize, leverage, and accelerate the transfer and application of science to practice. Additionally, the Well Women, Well Communities will assist LHDs and their stakeholders in developing plans, tools, and strategies for implementing non-clinical or a combination of clinical and non-clinical interventions into practice, including training on community engagement and racial healing activities. A key feature of this project will be the creation and utilization of a Women s Community Advisory Board, which will be comprised of local women from the community. The Women s Community Advisory Board will serve as a vital partner throughout the selected team s work and will play a crucial role in helping the LHDs choose and implement their initiatives. Over the course of the project, selected teams will determine, implement and evaluate two initiatives aimed at increasing women s access and utilization of preventive health care through addressing systems-level gaps within the project s community. Initiatives: If selected, CityMatCH will assist your team in the development of two (2) initiatives which will be: determined by participating teams with guidance from CityMatCH, national experts, and the Women s Community Advisory Board. based on the list of existing barriers and recommendations from the Well-Woman Project, and the expressed needs of the community. designed for success in the specific local context. implemented utilizing best practices in knowledge translation. evaluated to produce evidence, i.e., to add to the evidence base. If selected, your team s two (2) initiatives will be developed to include: 1. A DOWNSTREAM initiative that includes strategy aimed at producing measurable improvements in accessing and utilizing women s preventive health care. This strategy will be one that leads to measurable changes in the 2-year span of the Well Women, Well Communities. 2. An UPSTREAM initiative that includes a strategy aimed at addressing the known driver(s) of inequities in accessing and utilizing women s preventive health care (e.g., poverty, racism, racial healing, safe environment, access to nutritious foods, etc.) with a special focus on systems-level issues. The Well Women, Well Communities Framework: The learning collaborative will be delivered over a two-year period. Content will cover the following areas: reproductive justice; drivers of equity in women s health; leadership; community engagement and organizing; evaluation. 4

5 BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION Benefits of Participation Well Women, Well Communities teams will have full access to CityMatCH resources and tools such as leadership development, concept mapping, assistance with epidemiologic analysis, community needs assessments, health improvement planning, and strategic planning. Collaboration: The Well Women, Well Communities will offer enrolled teams a forum to network, share ideas, and problem solve with colleagues nationwide working on similar issues. Well Women, Well Communities Framework: Content developed specifically for the Well Women, Well Communities will be delivered to enrolled teams by CityMatCH staff, expert national faculty, and guest speakers. Evaluation Support: CityMatCH will assist teams in assessing the local impact of their initiatives. Technical Assistance: Technical assistance (TA) will be specific to the team s local initiatives, and tailored to the individual needs of each team. The primary purpose of TA is to ensure scientifically sound initiative selection, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. Travel Support: Travel support will be provided for two (2) team members to attend on-site meetings of the Well Women, Well Communities in year two (2). In addition, a minimum of one (1) site visit will be made in year one (1) from CityMatCH Well-Woman Project staff and experts to promote and tailor the work for each enrolled team. Team Responsibilities 1. Create a multi-sector Woman-Centered Community Advisory Board (CAB) to identify community priorities and magnify women s voices. Members must be women from the local community. 2. Use your CAB meetings to develop a Well Woman Action Plan. These plans will build upon recommendations from the Well-Woman Research Project, and, while focused on women s health care, will also look at the realities of women s lives, including policy recommendations around safe communities, healthy homes, nutritious foods, and adequate income to thrive. Action Plan will also be based on available, local data. 3. Document your progress monthly using a CityMatCH-approved evaluation system. 4. Participate on monthly TA calls, bi-monthly peer calls and webinars with other teams. 5. Travel to one in-person training. CityMatCH will fund the travel of two (2) team members, and teams will be expected to self-fund travel for an additional one (minimum) to three (maximum) travelers. At least one (1) travel team member should be a representative of the Women s Community Advisory Board. 5

6 APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS General Instructions: Pages should be double-spaced. Font should be 12-point and Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial. Application should be ed as a Word document. Application must be received by 11:59 EDT on Thursday, April 16, Your Well Women, Well Communities application requires the following four components: 1. Statement of Need (3 page limit). Please describe the need for your community to improve women s access to and utilization of preventive health care. Make sure to include assessment and other relevant data that supports your need (state and/or local level data, if available). If available, please include current data being collected on the well-woman visit and/or preventive women s health care in your city. 2. Capacity and Readiness (4 page limit). The following elements address your team s capacity, collaborative skills, and initial thoughts on how to address the specific systems-level gaps that prevent women from accessing and/or utilizing preventive health care in your community: Explain the specific assets/capacity of your team as a whole to address your systems-level gaps, including resources your community has (e.g., funding, talents, time, etc.) to sustain this work both during the Well Women, Well Communities and following its completion in Describe any recent and on-going efforts or pending opportunities to close systems-level gaps that impact women s health in your community, especially those from organizations represented on your team. Describe how your team members have collaborated on previous initiatives. Define community engagement and how you have and will include community members in your work. Specify how you plan to recruit community members for the Woman-Centered Community Advisory Board and where/when you will hold your meetings (i.e.: day of the week and time of day). 3. Letters of Commitment. Please provide a letter from the convening organization and the team coleads (complete with electronic signatures) detailing your commitment to improving women s health by addressing the systems-level gaps in your community. Additional letters of commitment from other team members organizations are also encouraged. 4. Team Roster, Roles and Responsibilities (Appendix A). Please complete the spreadsheet (Appendix A) detailing the contact information of each team member, their expertise relevant to your team s proposed work, and their role(s) and responsibility(ies) on the team. Please clearly indicate the people who will serve as your two (2) team co-leads and main points of contact. 6 APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS continued page 7.

7 APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS Continued Home Team: Each Well Women, Well Communities team must have a full, home team that, at minimum, includes: 2 team co-leads with at least 1 from the CityMatCH member health department At least 2 representatives from the local Women s Community Advisory Board (see Key Features section for more information about Women s Community Advisory Board) 1 leader from a non-health sector (e.g., community-based organization, education, law enforcement, social services, city planning, housing, etc.) 1 member with data analysis and/or epidemiology skills Additional team members might include those with programmatic design, implementation, and evaluation experience; policy development experience; skills and experience with health disparities, equity and racism work; and knowledge of local issues with access to quality preventive care for women. Travel Team: Additionally, Well Women, Well Communities teams must identify a travel team that will represent the home team at in-person trainings. Each travel team, at minimum, should include: 3-5 members of the home team, two (2) of whom will be supported by CityMatCH funds for travel At least one member must be a representative from the Women s Community Advisory Board 1 member representing the CityMatCH member health department Please submit all required application materials electronically to Regan Johnson, CityMatCH Senior Project Coordinator, at regan.johnson@unmc.edu. The full application, which should not exceed 15 pages in length (including appendices), must be received by 11:59 pm EDT on Thursday, April 16, You will receive an confirmation within 48 hours of receipt of your application. If you have any questions, or do not receive a confirmation, please contact Regan Johnson. Timeline RFA Informational Call: March 19, :30 pm EDT Applications Due: April 16, 2018, 11:59pm EDT Teams Announced: April 26, 2018 Team Agreements Due by: May 2, 2018, 11:59pm EDT Orientation Call: May 2, 2018 at 3:00 pm EDT In-Person Training: Exact dates & location (TBD) 7

8 8 Appendix A. Well Woman Project: Implementation Phase Team Composition Spreadsheet

9 Appendix B. Well Woman Project: Implementation Phase Application Review Criteria REVIEW CRITERIA The following criteria will be used to score applications. Final selections will also be based on other factors, such as creating a compatible cohort. 1. Statement of Need (30%): The extent to which the application describes the local need to increase access to and utilization of well-woman care, and includes assessment and other relevant data that support the need. 2. Capacity and Readiness (30%): The extent to which the application demonstrates the necessary capacity and collaborative skills to increase access to and utilization of well-woman care. a) The extent to which the applicant describes the team s current level of collaboration, and demonstrates their readiness and ability to address systems-level gaps that impact a woman s ability to access preventive health care. b) The extent to which the applicant identifies related efforts, assets and resources (time, talent, funding and people) available to them and their community, and their community engagement efforts. c) The extent to which the applicant identifies and describes potential initiatives to close systems level gaps inhibiting access to and utilization of well-woman care. 3. Team Roster, Roles and Responsibilities (30%): The composition of the team meets eligibility requirements and is appropriate to the scope of the Well Woman Project: Implementation Phase. a) The extent to which the applicant demonstrates appropriate organizational representation and identifies two co-leads. b) The extent to which the applicant adequately engages diverse partners, relevant to their identified systems level gaps. c) The extent to which members have expertise in the required areas. 4. Letters of Commitment (10%): The letters of commitment convey the organizational and team commitment to pursue new strategies to reduce systems-level gaps inhibiting access to and utilization of well-woman care. 9