OpportunityTitle: Rural Assistance Center for ORHP Cooperative Agreement
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: An applicant must be a public or private entity with a service commitment to and experience with rural issues.  Applicant should have prior experience working with the full range of key rural intrest groups. Please refer to program guidance for more information regarding the eligibility criteria.
Description: The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) will fund a cooperative agreement to support a Rural Assistance Center (RAC). The RAC is a gateway to information on rural health and social services for residents in rural areas of the United States and for all others interested in these issues. Through daily interactions and responding to inquiries and concerns, the RAC will be able to ensure that ORHP and the Department of Health and Human Services are informed of developing and ongoing grass-roots issues in the rural U.S. The RAC is also tasked to support a Rural Health Information Network (RHIN). For the RHIN the applicant must identify ways to solicit and distribute information for key stakeholders concerned about rural health care. This will include planning and conducting at least two meetings in the Washington DC area to bring together individuals and organizations concerned with rural health and human services. The role of ORHP as the Department of Health and Human Services&apos; focal point rural information allows its staff to identify key regulatory and statutory issues. The staff of ORHP will work collaboratively with the RAC to prioritize key issues and develop information resources to share with callers and web users. It is also expected that RAC staff will review RAC proposals for publications to ensure that critical issues are appropriately identified. When publications are prepared for release, ORHP and Department staff will review then for accuracy and completeness. The applicant must be able to gather, organize, and index information from a wide range of sources that deal with aspects of rural health care and human services. ORHP will also coordinate information sharing between the RAC and the Rural Health Research Centers, the Rural Recruitment and Retention Network, State Offices of Rural Health, and other projects that are funded by the Office. RAC staff will work with ORHP to develop strategies for dissemination of key research findings and for providing synthesis of key research findings. The applicant should be familiar with providers of Technical Assistance (TA) for rural health care and human service providers funded by ORHP and be able to make referrals, avoid duplication of services, and ensure that rural residents are directed to appropriate resources for their information needs. The applicant will also be expected to provide support to the &quot;Improve Rural Health Care&quot; Initiative, originally announced in the President&apos;s 2010 budget. The initiative seeks to strengthen partnerships amoung rural health care providers, recruit and retain rural health care professionals, and modernize the health care infrastructure in rural areas. Another key part of the Initiative will involve focusing ORHP&apos;s grant programs on building an evidence base for successful health care models in rural communities. ORHP has developed an extensive evaluation and performance measurement focus within its community-based grant programs. It is expected that the applicant will play a key rold in broadly disseminating thewse promising practices from rural communities. The intent is to support rural community health improvement nationally and to build an ongoing evidence base for successful rural health interventions and projects.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Contact HRSA Call Center at 877-Go4-HRSA/877-464-4772;301-998-7373 or email
GrantorContactText: CallCenter@HRSA.GOV&lt;br/&gt;CallCenter@HRSA.GOV&lt;br/&gt;