The Metro Public Health Department will receive more than $10.5 million over the next five years from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The money will be used across 14 different bureaus and divisions within MPHD, according to a press release, though priorities include modernizing data collection and analysis and paying for certification and licensing for certain employees. The funds will also bring the organization’s existing community health worker program, a partnership with Siloam Health and Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, under MPHD funding.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted several key areas where MPHD’s infrastructure needed to be strengthened,” says MPHD Director of Health Dr. Gill Wright. “This grant will allow us to better invest in our current employees while ensuring the needs of the public health workforce of the future will be met.”
Metro Public Health Department spokesperson Matthew Peters said the funding will be used mostly for behind-the-scenes workforce development at the organization but will include a few new hires. The Health Equity Bureau formed in October 2021 in response to COVID health inequities played an integral part in securing the grant, Peters said.
Stephanie Kang, health equity director at MPHD, said, “As MPHD continues to fulfill its mission to advance health equity, the Health Equity Bureau will leverage the grant to support and sustain our workforce, modernize public health infrastructure and data systems to remove barriers to services, and build sustainable partnerships and community trust in immediate and future public health efforts.”
The grant is part of a $3.2 billion effort announced late last month aimed at strengthening the public health workforce and infrastructure.
This article first ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
