Medicare Should Take Leading Role in Reducing Health Disparities, Expert Panel Says
The federal Medicare program should take a much more active role in reducing disparities in health care for racial and ethnic minorities, according to a new report released by an independent panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). The panel finds that these disparities pose a pressing national problem. [RWJF News Release, 12-15-06] http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?id=10453&c=EMC-CA142

Better Health through Stronger Communities: Public Policy Reform to Expand Life Paths of Young Men of Color
During the past twenty-five years, a series of public policies have had a negative impact upon young men from communities of color. These policies include the abandonment of rehabilitation and treatment for drug users in favor of interdiction and criminal sanctions in the 1980s, state policies to divert youthful offenders to adult criminal systems, and the imposition of zero-tolerance policies to exclude youth with problems from public schools in the 1990s…With a novel focus on the social determinants of health for young men of color, the Dellums…Commission’s final report offers a…policy agenda that [addresses]…health, education, family support and child welfare, workforce and economic development, juvenile and criminal justice, and the media. [the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies]! http://www.jointcenter.org/healthpolicy/Dellums.php

Fact Sheet: Implementation of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza: Six-Month Status Report
Today, Frances Fragos Townsend, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, summarized progress the U.S. government has made implementing the actions in the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan. In order to track implementation of the Strategy, each of its more than 300 actions includes a measure of performance and a timeline for completion. This report summarizes the state of progress on each action (”completed” or “in progress”), and provides a description of efforts that have been undertaken by the responsible Departments and Agencies. [U.S. Office of the Press Secretary, 12-18-06] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/print/20061218.html

NIH: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Health
Application deadline: variable
The ultimate goal of this program announcement is to encourage the development of health research that integrates knowledge from the biomedical and social sciences. This announcement invites applications to (a) elucidate basic social and cultural constructs and processes used in health research, (b) clarify social and cultural factors in the etiology and consequences of health and illness, (c) link basic research to practice for improving prevention, treatment, health services, and dissemination, and (d) explore ethical issues in social and cultural research related to health. Details: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/submissionschedule.htm

Community Access to Child Health Implementation Funds Program
Application deadline: January 31, 2007
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a 2007 Call for Proposals for the Community Access to Child Health Implementation Funds program, providing grants to support pediatricians in the planning or pilot stages of community-based child health initiatives. Grants should lead to the implementation projects that increase access to medical homes and other needed services. A pediatrician must lead the project and be significantly involved in proposal development and project activities. Priority will be given to projects serving communities with the greatest demonstrated healthcare access needs and health disparities. Details: http://www.aap.org/catch/implementgrants.htm

Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity - Round 2
Application deadline: February 13, 2007
Healthy Eating Research is a national program that supports research on environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among low-income and racial/ethnic populations at highest risk for obesity. This second round of funding focuses on children’s food environments and policies in selected community settings: preschool, child-care, school and after-school environments, as well as nearby food outlets. [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation] Details: http://www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/cfp.jsp?ID=19770&c=EMC-FA138
[posted on ACHI Community Health News, 12-21-06]

National Hispanic Medical Association
San Antonio, Texas � Mar. 22-25, 2007
�Celebrando Diversidad: Bicultural Health Care is a National Priority� � CME and CNE accredited. See http://www.nhmamd.org for registration and sponsorship opportunities.

Achieving Health Equity: Ensuring Access to Care
April 17-18, 2007
Kauffman Foundation Conference Center � 4801 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO
Invited Keynotes:
� Samuel Betances, PhD � Gloria WilderBrathwaite, MD, MPH � Carmen Tafolla, BA, MA, PhD
Register early - space is limited!
http://muconf.missouri.edu/health_equity

Family Health and Literacy: A Guide to Easy-to-Tread Health Education Materials and Web Sites For Families
“This guide is designed to help integrate health and literacy education in family literacy programs.We have included resources that we hope will be helpful to both family literacy teachers, and health educators and practitioners who work with parents with limited literacy skills. For teachers, there is a chapter on how to get started teaching health, which provides some context for how to include health topics in your curriculum. ” http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/family/index.htm Also see Adult Literacy Education Wiki, which has a growing Health Literacy topic area http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Health_Literacy
[links posted on HealthLiteracy 504]

The Friends of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health now publish NIH MedlinePlus, a quarterly magazine for consumers. The Winter 2007 issue will appear at the end of January. As an individual, you can receive a free subscription by completing the subscription form on the http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine.html page. You can also download the past issues in PDF format from this page. All RML network member libraries also receive a copy of the magazine. Now you can also order multiple copies of the magazine. This link: http://www.vitalitycommunications.com/medline/medline_bulk.php takes you to a page where you may order 25 or more copies at a cost of $1.00 apiece. (The $1.00 is cost recovery only.)

“..But efforts are being made by ALA and colleges to encourage minorities to pursue a library degree. ALA�s Spectrum project provides scholarships, fundraising, recruitment, mentoring, leadership and professional development for future minority librarians. It provides a one-year $5,000 scholarship and over $1,500 in professional development opportunities to students planning to attend an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies.”
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS/612170368/1007/NEWS02

The US Department of Health and Human Resources Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) offers publications for downloading or ordering. To see the latest publications including Mi Futuro Ser� Brillante: Actividad F�sica y Alimentaci�n Saludable: Para mujeres adultas My Bright Future: Physical Activity and Healthy Eating for Adult Women and Tip Sheet Set go to http://www.ask.hrsa.gov/NewPublications.cfm To see a list of publications with “Minority Health” as a keyword, see http://www.ask.hrsa.gov/SearchResults.cfm?KeywordID=628

The “In the Spotlight” feature for the National Library of Medicine’s free online resource for health information, MedlinePlus, focuses on foodborne illneseses. See links to the latest news on food contamination and poisoning as well as to information on Norovirus infection and E. Coli at http://medlineplus.gov/

The Teammates for Kids Foundation accepts proposals for grants from nonprofit organizations that specialize in working with needy children in the areas of health, education and inner-city services.For more information, visit http://www.teammates4kids.com. Deadline: February 1, 2007
[posted on [NS_Education] Digest Number 375]

See a listing of upcoming Public Health related meetings and conferences on the Public Health Partners website http://phpartners.org/conf_mtgs.html

Drug Abuse as a Cause, Correlate, or Consequence of Criminal Justice Related Health Disparities among African Americans. Department of Health and Human Services announces funds to conduct epidemiologic, prevention, treatment, and services research on criminal justice related health disparities among African Americans as it relates to drug abuse and addiction. Specifically, the program seeks to understand risk factors and pathways between drug abuse and criminal justice involvement, and to determine the extent to which criminal justice involvement and HIV/AIDS risk are interlinked or compounded by drug abuse and addiction. Eligible applicants include city or township governments, county governments, independent school districts, special district governments, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, state governments, nonprofit organizations, private institutions of higher education, and for-profit organizations. There are multiple deadline dates for applications. For further information, contact Edith Davis at (301) 433-6710 or edavis1@nida.nih.gov; or go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-114.html

Health Disparities in HIV/AIDS: Focus on African Americans. Department of Health and Human Services announces funds to encourage drug abuse and mental health research to better understand the disparities in HIV/AIDS in minority populations, particularly among African Americans, who, as a group, have experienced exceptionally high rates of new HIV infections and worse survival rates than other ethnic/racial groups in this country. Eligible applicants include city or township governments, county governments, independent school districts, special district governments, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, state governments, nonprofit organizations, and private institutions of higher education. There are multiple deadline dates for applications. For further information, contact Deborah Wertz at dwertz@nida.nih.gov; or go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-116.html

Racial, Ethnic and Tribal Philanthropy Knowledge Center. New Ventures in Philanthropy, an initiative of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, launches its online Racial, Ethnic, and Tribal Philanthropy Knowledge Center. This Knowledge Center is designed to share information, stories, profiles and how-to resources to support racial ethnic and tribal philanthropy. Included on the Knowledge Center is a new report - A Scan of the Landscape: Racial, Ethnic and Tribal Philanthropy - an overview of the current state of racial, ethnic and tribal philanthropy. For more information and to access this report, go to: http://www.givingforum.org/retphilanthropy/

Funding Alert is a free service of the Office of Partnerships and Grants Development. To start your own online subscription to Funding Alert, simply register with DC.Gov and subscribe at DCDocs http://dc.gov/registration/dcdocs.asp. For archives, visit http://opgd.dc.gov, Information, Grant Funding Alerts.