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News Release

HHS AWARDS $85 MILLION TO ELIMINATE HEALTH DISPARITIES
Medical Research, Community Programs Are High Priorities

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced the awarding of $85 million to support the elimination of health disparities among racial and ethnic minority communities. The awards further augment the department's Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and highlights strategies discussed during the July 2002 national health disparity summit.

"African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Asians and Pacific Islanders suffer an unequal burden of death and disease, despite improvements in the overall health of the general population over the past decade," Secretary Thompson said. "These awards demonstrate our commitment to making real progress to eliminate health disparities in this country."

Specifically, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) provided $74.5 million distributed among a number of its programs -- the Centers of Excellence Program, the Endowment Program, the Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions Program, and Loan Repayment Programs. In additional, HHS' Office of Minority Health (OMH) awarded 65 grants totaling $10.5 million to support community and state-based efforts to eliminate HIV/AIDS and other health disparities in racial and ethnic minority communities. Of this amount, $4.6 million is supported by funding from the Minority AIDS Initiative.

The NCMHD was designated by Congress to lead, coordinate, support and assess the NIH research effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities as they affect racial and ethnic communities and medically-underserved individuals.

"To eliminate health disparities, all of us at NIH must continue to work together with our many research partners across the country to build a more collaborative biomedical and behavioral research enterprise of institutions and individuals from all populations that will benefit all Americans," NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said.

"These programs lay the foundation for our nation's future efforts to eliminate the health disparities that plague so many populations within our country," said John Ruffin, Ph.D., director of NCMHD. "If we are to solve these problems, we must be more inclusive in our research endeavors."

Today's announcement involves the following fiscal year 2002 awards from NCMHD:

• Endowment Program awards totaling $42.8 million have been made to 14 institutions for the purpose of facilitating minority health disparities research and other health disparities research. These institutions are all Centers of Excellence as defined by Section 736 of the Public Health Service Act. The grants will almost triple the endowment at some institutions and help to enhance and build their capacity for minority health and other health disparities research.
  
  
• Awards totaling $19 million have been made to 26 eligible biomedical and behavioral research institutions under the Centers of Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (Project EXPORT). These awards will support health disparities research, with 20 institutions receiving funds to begin developing health disparities centers and six other institutions receiving planning grants. The program aims to build research capacity at designated institutions enrolling a significant number of students from health disparity populations and to promote participation and training in biomedical and behavioral research among health disparity populations. The program attracts broad participation among institutions and consortia with varying levels of research infrastructure.
  
  
• Awards totaling $5.6 million have been made to six qualified biomedical and behavioral research institutions under the Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions Program. This program helps institutions that enroll a significant number of students from minority health disparities population and want to enhance their capacity and competitiveness to conduct biomedical or behavioral research. The program assists non-doctoral degree institutions to develop their research infrastructures, primarily through collaborations with research-intensive universities.
  
  
• Awards totaling $7.1 million have been made to 153 qualified health professionals under the Loan Repayment Program, which are designed to increase the number of individuals conducting clinical or health disparities research, including researchers from health disparities populations.

The OMH grants announced today are as follows:

• Health Disparities in Minority Health Grants: Awards totaling $1 million were made to fund 20 small-scale, community-based projects in 13 states that will address health disparities in minority communities. The grants will strengthen efforts by community-based, faith-based, and tribal organizations to reduce high-risk behaviors such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, or poor eating habits, as well as improvements in access to health care. Projects aimed at addressing HIV/AIDS will also aim to increase counseling and testing services and improve access to care for "hardly reached" populations such as youth, women at risk, men having sex with men, injection drug users, persons who are mentally ill, and persons who are incarcerated.
  
  
• Minority Community Health Coalition Demonstration Grants, HIV: Awards totaling $2.5 million were made to fund 17 projects in nine states to combat HIV/AIDS in minority communities. Each grant recipient is the lead agency for a minority-serving, community-based coalition of three or more organizations. Each coalition must include at least one organization with extensive experience in HIV/AIDS, one AIDS service organization, and one organization with no experience in HIV/AIDS. The grants are aimed at increasing community understanding of HIV/AIDS and improving access to HIV/AIDS counseling, testing, and treatment services. They are intended to promote integrated community responses, address sociocultural, linguistic, and other barriers to effective HIV prevention and services, and develop HIV/AIDS education and outreach efforts that will increase the number of individuals seeking and accepting treatment.
  
  
• State and Territorial Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Grants: Awards totaling $2.4 million have been made to fund offices of minority health in 14 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to demonstrate the role these agencies can play in coordinating statewide responses to HIV/AIDS. Grant recipients will identify HIV/AIDS prevention and service needs among minority communities; improve linkages between community-based organizations and state entities; assist in coordinating Federal resources going into high-need minority communities; and facilitate access to federal technical assistance available to community-based organizations.
  
  
• Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Grants for HIV/AIDS: Awards totaling $4.6 million were made to support development of effective and durable service delivery among minority-serving organizations involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. The nine community-based organizations and three health departments in eight states and the District of Columbia that received grants will provide administrative and program-related technical assistance and develop mentoring relationships with minority-serving community organizations who are working to reduce high-risk behaviors, improve access to health care, and increase counseling and testing services for HIV/AIDS.

"These grants will strengthen local efforts by assisting a broad range of minority-serving groups working in communities highly affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other issues for which we have documented health disparities," Secretary Thompson said. "These funds will support the hard work and creativity of community organizations, help our community partners gain access to expert technical assistance on management and program issues, and help coordinate community-wide and state-wide responses to health disparities."

The grants were awarded under four OMH programs -- the Health Disparities in Minority Health Grant Program, HIV/AIDS; the State and Territorial Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Grant Program; the Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Grant Program for HIV/AIDS; and the Minority Community Health Coalition Demonstration Grant Program, HIV/AIDS.

A detailed listing of the NIH and OMH awards to institutions follows.

Health Disparities in Minority Health Grant Program -- $998,105

• White Mountain Apache Tribe, Whiteriver, Ariz.; $49,457
• Asian Health Services, Oakland, Calif.; $50,000
• Sickle Cell Community Health Network of Northern California, Richmond; $50,000
• Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services, San Francisco, Calif.; $50,000
• Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc., Union City, Calif. $50,000
• Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Inc., Orlando, Fla.; $50,000
• Brothers United, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.; $50,000
• Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers, Cambridge; $50,000
• Boston Black Women's Health Initiative, Roxbury, Mass.; $50,000
• Great Brook Valley Health Center, Inc., Worcester, Mass.; $50,000
• Family Health Center, Inc., Kalamazoo, Mich.; $50,000
• Cedar Riverside People's center, Minneapolis, Minn.; $50,000
• Greater Minneapolis (Minn.) Council of Churches; $50,000
• Good Samaritan Project, Kansas City, Mo.; $50,000
• Center for Community Alternatives, New York, N.Y.; $50,000
• Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Inc.; New York, N.Y.; $50,000
• Porcupine Clinic, Porcupine, S.D.; $50,000
• Community Initiatives, Inc., Greenville, S.C.; $50,000
• United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, Seattle, Wash.; $48,648
• Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, Milwaukee, Wis.; $50,000

Minority Community Health Coalition Demonstration Grants Program, HIV/AIDS -- $2,534,180

• Los Angeles (Calif.) Shanti Foundation, Inc.; $149,950
• AIDS Project East Bay, Oakland, Calif.; $150,000
• Asian Youth Center; San Gabriel, Calif.; $150,000
• Denver (Colo.) Area Youth; $149,854
• Wholistic Stress Control Institute, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.; $150,000
• Chicago (Ill.) Women's AIDS Project; $150,000
• Le Pensuer Youth and Family Services, Inc., Chicago, Ill.; $150,000
• Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center, Chicago, Ill.; $145,247
• Action for Boston (Mass.) Community Development, Inc.; $150,000
• Boston (Mass.) Medical Center Corporation; $149,996
• Massachusetts Asian AIDS Prevention Project; Boston; $150,000
• Baltimore (Md.) Prevention Coalition; $150,000
• Saint Louis (Mo.) Effort for AIDS, Inc.; $141,291
• Brownsville Community Development Corporation, Brooklyn, N.Y.; $150,000
• Leadership Training Institute; Hempstead, N.Y.; $150,000
• Pittsburgh (Pa.) AIDS Task Force; $147,842
• Hope Action Care; San Antonio, Texas; $150,000

State and Territorial Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Grant Program -- $2,393,100

• Delaware Health Puerto Rico Department of Health, Dover; $150,000
• State of Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee; $150,000
• Georgia Department of Health, Atlanta; $150,000
• Indiana State Department of Health, Indianapolis; $150,000
• Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul; $150,000
• Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Jefferson City; $150,000
• North Carolina Department of Health, Raleigh; $150,000
• Ohio Commission on Minority Health, Columbus; $150,000
• Oregon Department of Human Services, Portland; $150,000
• Puerto Rico Department of Health, San Juan; $143,100
• Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence; $150,000
• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Columbia; $150,000
• Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville; $150,000
• U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health, St. Thomas; $150,000
• Vermont Department of Health, Burlington; $150,000
• Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Madison; $150,000

Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Grant Program for HIV/AIDS -- $4,602,570

• Los Angeles (Calif.) County Department of Health Services; $400,000
• Government of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.; $400,000
• M.O.V.E.R.S., Inc., Miami, Fla.; $400,000
• Orange County Health Department, Orlando, Fla.; $255,567
• Midwest Hispanic Health Coalition; Chicago, Ill.; $360,146
• South Side Help Center; Chicago, Ill.; $400,000
• Indiana Minority Health Coalition, Inc., Indianapolis; $389,037
• Brotherhood Inc., New Orleans, La.; $400,000
• Boston (Mass.) AIDS Consortium; $400,000
• Interfaith Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.; $400,000
• Community Resources Exchange, Inc., New York, N.Y.; $400,000
• Families Under Urban and Social Attack; Houston, Texas; $397,820

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: November 1, 2002