Technical assistance calls for grantees during 2002 will continue to be held every other Tuesday from 2 to 3 PM EST. The schedule for September and early October appears below. To register, search for summaries or materials from prior calls, or download materials for upcoming calls, please go to the CAP Website: www.capcommunity.hrsa.gov. Please remember that the site is password protected. Grantees should contact their primary contact to receive the password. Once you register for the call, please be sure to download the materials that will be used during the call. You should immediately receive a confirmation note by email that includes the call-in number for the call. If you have difficulty registering or do not receive the call-in number, please contact scampbell@mac1988.com or call 301-468-6006 x437.

With the exception of calls related to legal issues, many TA calls are summarized and posted on the CAP website (www.capcommunity.hrsa.gov). Legal issue briefs are posted on the site under legal issues and require a password, which may be obtained by emailing Sherilyn Adams (sadams@hrsa.gov). You may also request an audiotape copy of any previous calls (up to one month after the call) by contacting Shandy Campbell at the email above. 

The Rockford Health Council CAP Program has recently engaged in a number of best practices that may be of use and replicable for other CAP communities. Rockford Health Council has been aggressively marketing their SCHIP program in a three-county area in north central Illinois by partnering with Wal-Mart to provide outreach to families this summer. In August their Community Health Workers will be on site at Rockford area Wal-Mart stores to provide information to parents and enroll eligible children. As an incentive, Wal-Mart is providing a set of school supplies to the first 250 families that inquire about KidCare at both area stores. On the small business front, the CAP project is also close to completing the development of a new small business health insurance model that will be offered to currently uninsured small business employees in the Rockford area at low rates supported, in part, by a premium subsidy. The Rockford Health Council hopes to offer this plan by December 2002. CAP grantees interested in learning more about these activities should contact Ray Empereur, Rockford Health Council Project Director, by email at rayemp@aol.com.

Congratulations to Gateway to Care, the Harris County CAP collaborative that recently made the front page of the Houston Chronicle for their role in creating awareness and providing solutions to the primary care access challenges facing Harris County residents. The article highlighted Gateway's efforts in promoting MUA designations for many Houston neighborhoods and future plans for creation of a network of local physicians and hospitals that would provide primary and specialty care to 24,000 uninsured county residents. The article also noted Gateway's work toward computerized eligibility and appointment information systems.

Deadline: September 16, 2002

Advancing Diabetes Self-Management, a new program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), is designed to demonstrate that comprehensive models for diabetes self- management can be delivered in primary care settings and can significantly improve patient outcomes. Up to six sites will be awarded up to $300,000 each for fifteen months. Under the program, grantee sites will work for nine months in a learning network that designs the interventions and develops the appropriate tools, training, and systems needed to conduct a pilot.  

Proposals will be accepted from healthcare clinics and other primary care settings. Eligible applicants include sites that have had previous experience in chronic disease collaboratives, evidenced by participation in breakthrough series and/or participation in practice-based research networks. For application guidelines and complete instructions see RFP Link: http://www.rwjf.org/applyForGrant/openAbstract.jsp?cfpCode=IDC 

Deadline: November 1, 2002

3Com's Urban Challenge program grants $100,000 in 3Com technology to U.S. cities to incorporate new uses for information technology into the fabric of their communities. 3Com grants can be used by schools, departments, and organizations to tailor a networking solution that meets their community's needs.

To participate, your city should meet at least one of these criteria:

• A principal policy agenda aimed at enhancing educational or community development

• Strong involvement and endorsement from the mayor's office

• Tangible benefits to students and residents in a specified timeframe

• Multiple project constituencies including schools, local community colleges, libraries, government agencies, healthcare institutions, etc.

For more information visit: http://www.3com.com/solutions/en_US/scenario.jsp?solutiontype=1000004&groupid=11060&solutionid=5960

Deadline: September 6, 2002

The Avon Breast Care Fund provides financial support in the form of grants to programs that conduct community outreach, provide breast cancer education, and link medically underserved women to clinical screening services. Funding is awarded to organizations providing access to clinical breast exams, mammograms, and education to low-income, minority, underserved, underinsured, and uninsured women.  

The Fund will award grants to community-based programs and/or healthcare agencies that provide medically underserved women age 40 and older with direct access to breast cancer education, annual clinical screening services, and prompt follow-up care. Approximately $6.6 million in grant funds will be awarded to 130 new grantees covering the funding period from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2003. For more information visit http://www.avonbreastcare.org/  

October 2-4, 2002 Chicago, IL

Measuring the impact of cultural competence initiatives on outcomes will play a pivotal role in the advancement of a national cultural competence agenda. Building on the success and the recommendations derived from the first and second conferences, the objective of The Third National Conference is to advance effective health care for culturally diverse populations by providing a national forum for addressing systems development, data, and measurement issues as they relate to the provision of high quality care for these populations. For more information call (718) 270-7727 or visit http://www.diversityrx.org/ccconf/02/index.html.  

September 12, 2002 1:00-3:30 pm (EDT)

Presented by The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and CDC's Public Health Practice Program Office and Public Health Training Network, this live, interactive, satellite broadcast is designed to provide useful tools that can help professionals improve their ability to effectively address environmental and public health concerns. A question and answer session will enable participants nationwide to pose questions to panelists via toll-free telephone, fax, or TTY lines. The target audience includes:

• Health educators

• Public and environmental health professionals

• State, county, and local health agency officials and staff

• Nurses and nurse practitioners

• Health care providers

• School health personnel and teachers

• Managed care group personnel

• Personnel from academia

For more information visit: http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/phtn/envedu/.

October 17-19, 2002 Chicago, Illinois

The National Community Care Network (CCN) Demonstration Program has planned a conference celebrating the past, present, and future of community health improvement. Featured topics will include:

• Building and sustaining effective health partnerships

• Improving health outcomes for underserved populations

• Closing gaps in health disparities

• Strengthening connections to your community

Participating organizations include: American Hospital Association, Community Care Network Demonstration Program, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Coalition for Healthier Cities and Communities Health Forum, Health Research and Educational Trust, and the VHA Health Foundation. For more information, visit www.communitycare.org or call Sabine Schwark at 312-422-2615.

A report recently released by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) details promising efforts being made in North Carolina to coordinate and strengthen the early childhood development services the state provides to low-income children and their families. A report, The North Carolina ABCD Project: A New Approach for Providing Development Services in Primary Care Practice, describes North Carolina's comprehensive, community-based child development services system, which integrates developmental screening and surveillance into well-child visits and follows up with case management for parents with concerns about their child's development.

ABCD-Assuring Better Child Health and Development-is a Commonwealth Fund program administered by NASHP. For additional information about the ABCD program and the full report visit: http://www.nashp.org/.

A $3.6 million dollar program announced in July 2002 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will develop new approaches for increasing the diversity of America's health professions workforce. Joining Kellogg in the effort will be Duke University, Community Catalyst, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. "Today, minorities comprise about 25 percent of the U.S. population, yet only 6 percent of practicing physicians are Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans...and we're seeing a link between the shortage of minority health professionals and the higher levels of death and disease that afflict minority populations," said William C. Richardson, Kellogg Foundation president and CEO. Read the entire story at http://www.futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pdf_files/PM080202.pdf.

A new report, Healthy Cities, Healthy Suburbs: Progress in Meeting Healthy People Goals for the Nation's 100 Largest Cities and Their Suburbs, describes, for the first time, city and suburban achievements in reaching Healthy People 2000/2010 objectives for low birth weight, infant mortality, AIDS, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, and homicide. The report uses the most recent 2000 Census data and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI. The full report and access to city-specific data for the 100 largest cities is available online at: http://www.downstate.edu/urbansoc_healthdata.

A new report in the September issue of Consumer Reports magazine finds that the 16 million Americans who need to buy individual or family health insurance policies face a perilous market with many traps that might shut them out of coverage. Those affected include the self-employed, employees of small firms that don't offer medical insurance, people between jobs, young adults moving off of their parents' policies, widowed or divorced people who have lost their spouse's group coverage, and people who retire early and thus lose their group health coverage before they're old enough for Medicare. The report is based on research supported by The Commonwealth Fund. "The Perils of Buying Your Own Policy" is part two of a two-part series examining the state of the health insurance market in the U.S. The report is available online at: www.consumerreports.org.

Gaps in access to medical care among working-age white Americans, African Americans and Latinos failed to improve between 1997 and 2001,"despite a booming economy and increased national attention to narrowing and eliminating minority health disparities," according to a new study by the Center for Tracking Health System Change. The brief, based on data collected through the Center's Community Tracking Study Household Survey, looks at issues such as differences in regular source of care, whether people had access to specialists, and use of emergency rooms for outpatient care. View the full report at http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/443/. 

211 Health and Human Services Referral Line Resource Update

211 is an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable telephone number that makes a critical connection between individuals and families in need and the appropriate community based organizations and government agencies. 211 is a non-profit health and human services information and referral line (I&R) currently available in only a few jurisdictions.  

Information and referral (I&R) services are the link between people in need of health and human services assistance and the appropriate providers of such services, including an entire range of government and community services. I&R specialists assess callers' needs and determine the service provider best equipped to handle their problems or crises. Additionally, I&R specialists are trained to determine whether a caller may be eligible for other services in the community.

For More Information Contact: United Way of America, Linda Paulson, Director, 211 Partnerships, 703-836-7112, Ext. 498 (local), 800-892-2757, ext. 498, linda.paulson@uwa.unitedway.org Alliance of Information and Referral Systems: 206-632-2477, www.airs.org ;  211 Collaborative: http://www.211.org.

Centralized Website for National Data on Child and Youth Well-Being

Child Trends has recently launched a new, "one-stop-shop" website for the latest national trends and research on over 70 key indicators of child and youth well being. The site features continuously updated trend data with the latest national estimates for all indicators, with links to state and local estimates where available. New indicators are added each month. Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by providing research and data to inform decision-making that affects children. Visit the site at www.childtrendsdatabank.org.