In February 2021, the Board of Health authorized the Health District to submit a grant application to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) for the “Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19” funding opportunity.
The total award is $4M for a two-year period beginning July 1, 2021. The funding is required to demonstrate the effectiveness of local efforts to improve the access, use, and outcomes of vaccination, testing, contact tracing, and health behaviors related to COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minority populations, including those in rural communities.
The Board authorized hiring up to 6.5 FTE to carry out work and deliverables associated with this grant at its July 13 meeting. Staff mentioned that they would be bringing forward memorandums of agreement (MOA) and/or interlocal agreements with key partners involved with the work, which is a required deliverable within 60 days. These include Bastyr University, Edmonds College, Snohomish County and Sno-Isle Libraries.
A simplified MOA had been drafted, but HHS has requested that the District combine the MOA and typical interlocal or professional service agreements into one document. These must be fully executed and submitted to HHS by September 1.
Exhibit A represents a revised draft template that, pending final approval from legal counsel, will be modified for each of the partners. Exhibit B provides a high-level overview of what each of the partners will be responsible for during the two-year grant. The budgets for each of the partners to carry out the work as proposed in the grant application are as follows:
- Snohomish County $600,000 total
- Bastyr University $275,000 total
- Edmonds College $250,000 total
- Sno-Isle Libraries $ 75,000 total
The proposed budget also reserved approximately $100,000 for other partners identified as the project continues.
Staff are requesting authorization to have the Administrative Officer to sign memorandums of agreement with key partners for the HHS Advancing Health Literacy grant, subject to final approval by legal counsel.