This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program (HTPCP). The purpose of this program is to support innovative, community-based initiatives to improve the health status of infants, children, adolescents, and families in rural and other underserved communities by increasing their access to preventive care and services. This program supports the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) goals to improve access to quality health services, achieve health equity, and enhance population health. Recipients will implement community-based programs and evidence-based models of care that build on existing community resources and evaluate to demonstrate program impact. The HTPCP builds on past program success facilitating the development of partnerships between pediatric providers and community partners that bring important health care services to rural and other underserved populations in a coordinated way. HTPCP will support projects related to a range of topical areas including, but not limited to, medical home or care coordination, mental and behavioral health services, child development and school readiness services, and promotion of healthy weight and physical activity. Definitions of some of these topical areas are included in Appendix B. HTPCP funding supports projects that provide clinical or public health services, and does not support research projects. Successful HTPCP applications are expected to represent either a new initiative (i.e., project that was not previously in existence) within the community, or an innovative new component that builds upon an existing community-based program or initiative. HTPCP recipients are strongly encouraged to accomplish the following activities during the 5-year period of performance: • Identify and develop innovative community-based programs/interventions based on a review of state and community maternal and child health (MCH) priorities and needs assessment data. o Programs/interventions are strongly encouraged to have family, youth, and community involvement and to be culturally and linguistically competent. • Implement clinical and public health interventions in community-based settings primarily in the following topical areas (Definitions of some of these topical areas are included in Appendix B): o Behavioral health (including the integration of substance use services for children and youth at-risk for or have substance use disorders (SUD), or assessing for substance use and SUD during pre-natal and well-child visits), o Care coordination and case management, o Developmental/behavioral pediatrics, o Early child development/school readiness, o Medical home (including enhanced family and youth engagement), o Mental health, o Nutrition and physical activities to promote healthy weight. o Oral health, and o School-based health • Form collaborative partnerships between pediatric providers, community organizations, families, community members, State Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) agencies and other MCH-related programs, and businesses to create self-sustaining programs. • Develop and periodically reassess the program logic model and evaluation plan in order to: o Monitor ongoing processes and progress toward achieving goals and objectives, o Utilize evaluation data to document impacts on child health and health care access in communities, o Leverage evaluation data to support the on-going need for the program in the community, and o Assess whether the dissemination of program innovations has facilitated changes in practice, service delivery, program development, and/or policy-making in ways that affect the target population. • Develop tools, trainings, and resources for pediatric professionals, community members, families, state Title V agencies, and other MCH-related programs. • Disseminate program results and findings to the target population, partners, and other stakeholders who might be interested in using program results.
