Whitley County Health Department receives $35,000 grant

COVID-19 is creating additional expenses for almost all types of businesses, and the Whitley County Health Department is no exception. Now, this public health agency is receiving a little help to cover the extra costs.

The Whitley County Health Department has been awarded approximately $35,000 in grant funding by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

The grant titled, ‘Building Workforce Capacity of Rural and Frontier Local Health Departments to Respond to COVID-19,’ is “focused on increasing the workforce capacity of local health departments (LHDs) that serve rural and frontier jurisdictions to effectively respond to, recover from, and build community resiliency related to the COVID pandemic and future public health emergencies,” according to a presentation hosted by NACCHO prior to the applications being submitted.

The grant, which is intended to specifically support the workforce capacity issues surrounding COVID testing, contact tracing, and vaccine administration within local health departments, will provide training and technical assistance in addition to the monetary award.

“NACCHO will provide us with training and technical assistance over the next six months to help promote knowledge and skill development to assist us in contact tracing and vaccine administration, promote public communication, and insights on how to utilize public health authorities to expedite administrative processes and procedures,” said Marcy Rein, the Public Health Director at the Whitley County Health Department.

The Whitley County Health Department is one of approximately 35 facilities to receive the award. Winners were selected based on recent or current COVID-19 workforce activities and challenges, technical assistance needs, proposed project activities, and proposed budgets.

“The grant will help fund staff to conduct contact tracing and vaccination activities.  It won’t fund all our needs, but we are grateful for the help,” said Rein.

The grant is intended to help promote growth in specific training and technical areas, such as technical training and public communications.

“It will help us improve our wireless connectivity for vaccine activities that occur off-site, and help us purchase supplies needed to vaccinate safely like high visibility vests and directional signs,” said Rein. “All of these things will help us continue our efforts to keep everyone in our county safe and healthy.”

NACCHO serves roughly 3,000 local health departments across the nation.