August 28, 2019
New Federal Funding Opportunity for the Delta States Rural Development Network Grant Program
On Tuesday, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) published a new Notice of Funding Opportunity. The Delta States Rural Development Network Grant Program (Delta) will support up to 12 organizations, which are either public or nonprofit private rural entities within the Delta Region. The Delta Region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. Each applicants needs to represent a network and/or consortium of three or more participants. Organizations that meet eligibility requirements are eligible to apply. Faith-based, community-based, and tribal organizations are also eligible to apply for these funds if they meet the rural eligibility. For-profit or urban-based organizations are not eligible to be the applicant organization, but can participate in the network. All services must be provided in a non-metropolitan county or rural census tract. HRSA expects to invest approximately $12 million for this program to support the development of integrated health care networks to address unmet local health care needs and prevalent health disparities in rural Delta communities.
The Delta program’s goals are: (i) to achieve efficiencies; (ii) to expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) to strengthen the rural health care system as a whole. The Delta Program, competitive every three years, offers rural Delta organizations resources to help rural communities develop partnerships and jointly address health programs that affect the Delta Region. Previously funded organizations under this program implemented multi-county evidence-based projects that address the following key focus areas: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and acute ischemic stroke. In addition to the required key focus area(s), grantees could also devote a percentage of grant funds toward another issue identified as a need in the service area. Programmatic activities across the service regions were implemented with particular effort and resources directed towards the most underserved communities with the highest unmet health care and health promotion needs to promote sustainability of rural health networks and strengthen local communities.
Full details of the program and requirements for applicants are available at Grants.gov
Applications will be accepted until December 6, 2019.