On March 11, 2021, the U.S. President signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2). The Act provides additional relief to address the continued impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy; public health; state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) governments; individuals; and businesses. To support the governmental public health response to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is activating the CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response. Centers for Disease Control is awarding funding, totaling $2,000,000,000, to eligible jurisdictions on the approved but unfunded (ABU) list for CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 to establish, expand, and sustain a public health workforce. These funds are in addition to, and separate from funds the Center for Disease Control previously awarded to select jurisdictions for COVID-19 response activities through CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 in the spring of 2020.
Funds will be made available during the two-year budget period and period of performance to conduct activities necessary to expand, train, and sustain a response-ready public health workforce. Recipients will operate under a two-year budget and performance period. Efforts are underway (subject to the availability of funds) to develop solutions that allow for a more sustained workforce.
On October 5, 2021, the Gila County Board of Supervisors approved the advertisement of Request for Proposals 091521 - Sub-Grantee for Project Management (Workforce Development Crisis Emergency Cooperative Agreement) allowing the Gila County Health and Emergency Management Department to seek consultation services from an organization with experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities to address the Center for Disease Controls Workforce Development Crisis Emergency Cooperative Agreement grant deliverables to establish, expand, and sustain the public health workforce in Gila County. The Gila County Health and Emergency Management Department implemented four strategies to complete the grant-related activities: 1) Hired additional public health staff to sustain ongoing COVID-19 response and recovery initiatives; 2) Augmented the public health workforce pipeline to improve the ability to sustain COVID-19 recovery initiatives and prepare for future responses; 3) Developed or enhanced training programs for new and/or existing public health staff supporting COVID-19 preparedness, response, and recovery efforts; and 4) Retained existing public health staff through various initiatives to ensure continued COVID-19 preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.
On January 4, 2022, the Gila County Board of Supervisors approved the Contract Award in Response to Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 091521 - Sub-Grantee for Project Management - Workforce Development Crisis Emergency Cooperative Agreement Grant allowing the Gila County Health and Emergency Management Department to hire a consultant to address the Center for Disease Controls Workforce Development Crisis Emergency Cooperative Agreement grant deliverables.
To support the Workforce Development Initiative, the Gila County Health and Emergency Management Department will implement the following strategies: Using a variety of mechanisms to expand the public health workforce, including, but not limited to: Potentially using the General Services Administration (GSA) COVID-19 Related Support Services (CRSS) contract mechanism available at Acquisition Gateway to obtain contract staff or services; Form partnerships with academic institutions, creating student internship or fellowship opportunities, and building graduation-to-workforce pipelines. Establishing partnerships with schools of public health, technical and administrative schools, and social services and social science programs; and using temporary staffing or employment agencies. |