Community Engagement to Strengthen Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis

Rebekah Horowitz
rhorowitz@naccho.org

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) will provide funding for public health agencies to engage community members to develop a plan to decrease syphilis burden in the local community.

Two separate opportunities are available.

1. Community Engagement to Strengthen Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis among American Indian/Alaska Native Populations
2. Community Engagement to Strengthen Local Health Department (LHD) Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis

Strategies and activities should include:

• Build community connections to identify, reach and involve populations disproportionately affected by syphilis and mobilize public health partners to actively engage in addressing syphilis.
  • Identify a specific subpopulation, affected by syphilis or congenital syphilis, to involve in community engagement activities (people who are unsheltered, who use drugs, are in corrections, or are pregnant, youth, men who have sex with men, or others as identified via local data)
  • Conduct formative data collection, as needed, of the community engagement process
  • Design an equitable process to ensure meaningful community involvement in developing the plan and designing or adapting interventions to decrease syphilis that are tailored for the prioritized population
  • Establish and/or engage with community advisory groups that reflect the populations affected by syphilis disparities
  • Inform community members and stakeholders of the impact of syphilis and public health efforts, by utilizing local data
  • Leverage collaborations with public health partners and other partners that work with uninsured and other populations disproportionately impacted by syphilis to increase future linkage to support services associated with syphilis risk
• Develop a community-informed plan to decrease syphilis that is tailored to the affected community and addresses the issues identified during the community engagement process
  • Focus the plan to reduce syphilis burden on the specific subpopulations who were involved in community engagement activities
  • With community members, explore innovative intervention strategies that could be adapted and utilized in syphilis prevention efforts among the prioritized population
  • With the community, design and conduct or utilize an existing environment scan of the local healthcare infrastructure, community-based organizations, and associated services that support syphilis prevention
  • Conduct or utilize an existing recently conducted community needs assessment among populations disproportionately affected by syphilis
  • Describe how prevention resources and services will be adapted to increase access to quality syphilis screening and treatment by adopting and adapting evidence-informed intervention strategies, identified during the engagement process, that could decrease syphilis and promote sexual health practices within the target community

Eligible applicants include city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal health departments that demonstrate either a burden of primary and secondary syphilis and/or congenital syphilis or a trend indicating a rapid increase in rates of either within the priority population or geographic area over a specific time.

Award ceiling: $150,000
Award floor: $75,000
Project period: 12 months

Select the appropriate opportunity from the program website.

Community Engagement to Strengthen Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Populations:

• AI/AN application instructions
• AI/AN online application

Community Engagement to Strengthen Local Health Department (LHD) Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis:

• LHD application instructions
• LHD online application