Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation at the CAP conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Thanks especially to our grantee presenters for sharing their models and expertise. We also appreciate all of you that filled out evaluation forms; we will be using the information to make the fall conference even better.

The CAP staff is happy to welcome Teresa Brown as the newest member of the CAP team! Teresa will be handling all issues related to local and national evaluations. She can be reached at 301-594-4431 or at tbrown@hrsa.gov.

Many of you mentioned the need for a guide to all CAP collaborative projects. Shortly you will be contacted by our contractor (Synthesis Professional Services), who will be asking questions about your project and putting together a compendium. We hope this will be a useful document for you to identify other projects and network with them.

As we mentioned during the conference, we are also considering a series of regional/topical meetings to take place later in the year. If you have an interest in having a regional/topical meeting please contact Audrey or your field office project officer.

Grants management has requested that we remind you all that all requested responses to reporting requirements, conditions, and requests for post award amendments must be mailed to the Central Office, Office of Grants Management. Grantees should allow at least 30 days for a response. Please remember to include your grant number with all correspondence. Please make sure to submit a copy to your field office project officer to help speed the response time. For your reference, the Office of Grants management may be reached at: 4350 East West Highway; 11th floor, Bethesda, Maryland 20814.

Thanks to all who volunteered to be part of the review process for the new round of CAP applicants. The review period will take place between June 12- June 14 at the Wyndam Hotel in Washington, DC. All who sent in their skills questionnaire will be contacted shortly about potential next steps. If you have not yet contacted us but are interested, please contact Audrey as soon as possible.

Technical Assistance Calls

As you know, we have been having TA calls, every other Tuesday from 2:00 to 3:30 EDT, for all interested grantees. A tentative updated list is below. Thanks to all who contributed suggestions, please keep them coming!

In order to register for the calls, please contact Angelique Raptakis (301-468-6006 ext. 501; ARaptakis@mac1988.com) with your name and contact information. Please contact us at least a week prior to the call to register. Shortly after registration, you will receive a call in number and access code. If you do not receive call in information by the Monday before the call, please contact Angelique to get the information.

Please Note: Call summaries and lists of participants are posted on the CAP website, www.capcommunity.org. While the website is still under development, it currently has links to grantees, information on peer-to-peer support by area, call summaries, legal issue briefs, and a bulletin board to post questions. You can also use the website for TA questions and as a link to our CAP TA consultant (Management Assistance Corporation) for assistance and consultant recommendations.

Shortly, all 2000 grantees will be receiving six-month evaluation forms to complete and send back. You will receive more information on the forms and deadlines from the evaluation team and your field office project officer. These forms are due June 15th. Please note this new date. You all will be receiving an updated spreadsheet with reporting requirements shortly.

LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA

The CAP grantee in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, celebrated April 10th as Volunteer Physician Appreciation Day for We Care and NHS. The goal was to increase volunteer physician and medical volunteer in-house staffing by 20 percent. They met and exceeded this goal, expecting to exceed 200%!! CAP joins in the congratulations!

REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER AT MEMPHIS, THE MED

Tennessee's Regional Medical Center at Memphis, known as "The Med," was just noted in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy report as developing the nation's "first complete case management system for the uninsured." The CAP grant will work to create an information system that will link the facility with clinics and primary care physicians to keep patients healthier and reduce health care costs.

Useful MIS Tools: For more information on Electronic Medical Records and Disease Management Systems, you may want to visit the CHC Information Systems website at www.bphc.hrsa.gov/CHC/SIMIS/HCISFR/default.asp. The site has information software vendor capabilities in these areas. While focuses on FQHCs, grantees may still find the information on vendors and checklists useful.

Community Health Tool:The Community Health Worker Evaluation Tool Kit aims to increase the quality of Community Health Worker (CHW) program evaluations, by providing managers, CHWs, and evaluators with guidance as well as specific evaluation tools. The Tool Kit consists of main sections, including the following: the Logic Models section intended to bring planning, evaluation and action together, a Cost-Benefit Analysis Primer to document cost savings associated with CHW interventions, and tips and guidelines to greatly facilitate the grant-writing process, amongst others. Attached you will find more information on the Tool Kit along with an order form if you are interested in purchasing it. As a special offer to CAP grantees only, you may purchase the CD-ROM at a 20% discount if you purchase by June 15th. See the attachments or contact Eva Moya for more information at toolkit@elp.rr.com or 915-351-9099.

Issue Brief on PCA/SHA: The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) has just released a brief on exploring the motivations, methods, and outcomes of collaborations between state primary care associations (PCAs) and state health departments. The Brief (Finding Common Ground: Case Studies in Successful State Health Department-State Primary Care Association Collaborations) specifically examines the dynamics around mobilizing partnerships to assess and assure access to care. Copies will be posted to the ASTHO website shortly (http://www.astho.org/) or you can contact Audrey for an electronic version.

Grant Opportunity: The Local Initiative Funding Partners (LIFP) program is a matching grants program designed to establish partnerships between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and local grantmakers in support of innovative, community based projects that improve health and health care for the underserved and at-risk populations. LIFP provides 36-48 month grants of $100,000 and $500,000. The grants must be matched dollar for dollar by local sources. Under LIFP, local grantmakers propose a partnership with RWJF to fund a new initiative. Grants may be made to community non-profit organizations or institutions with the capacity to implement the new initiative. For more information, visit http://www.lifp.org or contact Pauline Seitz at 609-275-4128.

Grant Opportunity: The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is offering grants to health related institutions that wish to provide Internet access to professionals and clients of their organization. Internet access provides health professionals and consumers with a means of accessing the medical literature provided by NLM and other databases, transferring files and images, and interacting by e-mail with others throughout the world Public and private, non-profit institutions in health administration, education, research, promotion or clinical care are eligible to apply. Funds available for the Request for Applications (RFA) are approximately $600,000 with approximately 15 grants to be awarded. Letters of intent are due May 25, 2001 and applications are due June 22, 2001. Awards will be made in Sept. 2001. Grant applications may be found by calling 301-435-0714 or email GrantsInfo@nih.gov. More information is also available at http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov. For programmatic questions, you may also contact Dr. Valerie Florance at floranv@mail.nlm.nih.gov.

Grant Opportunity: The American Academy of Pediatrics has announced three distinct grant opportunities through the CATCH (Community Access to Child Health) program. The CATCH Planning funds program provides grants, in amounts from $2,500 to $10,000, for pediatricians and pediatric residents to develop innovative, community-based proposals to increase children's access to health care. For more information, contact CATCH Planning Funds at 1-800-433-9016 ext. 7632 or visit http://www.aap.org/visit/catchhome.htm. Funds are also available for Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Health Care Needs Planning Grants. More information is available on the website, or by calling 1-800-433-9016, ext. 4989 or by emailing medical_home@aap.org.

Grant Opportunity: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) Substance Abuse Policy Research Program Solicitation. To support research, including valuable collaboration with university partner or substance abuse providers. $400,000 up to 3 years. $25,000 Support for minority investigators beginning research careers. The contact person at RWJ is Tracy Enright Patterson (336) 716-5170 or tpatters@wfubmc.edu.

Grant Opportunity: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF's) Covering Kids and Families has announced a $55 million initiative to increase the number of eligible children and adults who benefit from federal and state health care coverage programs, such as Medicaid, SCHIP, and new programs for working adults of modest incomes. This four-year initiative will build on the experience of the RWJF current Covering Kids initiative, ending 2002, which facilitates state and local efforts to find, enroll, and re-enroll eligible children and families into existing coverage programs. To carry out its work over the next four years, Covering Kids and Families will complement new and ongoing federal, state, private and voluntary sector activities designed to increase health care coverage. Covering Kids and Families will be accepting only one application per state. The lead organization must be chosen by a broad group of public and private organizations and individuals, and must be a group or organization that can assume a statewide leadership role. To obtain the full text of the Call for Proposals, visit http://www.coveringkids.org/cfp/index.html.

Upcoming Conference: You are invited to attend the all-day seminar, "Service-Learning in Pharmacy Education: Community Partnerships that Strengthen Learning and Community Health," to be held Friday, July 6 during the AACP Annual Meeting and Seminars in Toronto, Canada. The seminar will be held from 8 am until 5 pm and will include lunch. Program speakers will discuss practical approaches as well as what a service-learning component can bring to pharmaceutical education. (To register or learn more, go to the AACP Web site: www.aacp.org)

Upcoming Conference: The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) is co-sponsoring a national meeting of networks with the Health Research Education and Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association. The meeting will be open to all types of networks, such as, but not limited to: RWJ funded networks, Kellogg Foundation networks, ISDI networks, vertical networks, hospital networks, etc. The meeting will be held in New Orleans, LA. The dates are Nov. 29, 30, and maybe Dec 1, 2001. More information will be forthcoming!

Upcoming Conference: On June 21-23, the Communities in Action conference will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. The theme is Better Health for More People for Less Money. This is an important and exciting meeting to support communities in pursuing 100% Access and 0 Health Disparities. Partners of the Campaign for 100%/0 and communities interested in accelerating their pace of progress, learning, and networking with those that have demonstrated measurable outcomes will be in attendance and participating. For Registration Information Contact: Sandy Markwood: (202) 942-4235. CAP grantees are encouraged to attend this important networking opportunity. You may re-program CAP grant funds to attend. If the cost of travel is a barrier to your desired participation, please be in touch with us.

Useful Websites: 1) Everything you wanted to know about HIPAA and more…. http://www.nesco.org/links/hippa.cfm. 2) The State Coverage Matrix provides information on strategies employed by all 50 States and DC. It lists coverage expansions made through three categories: Medicaid program, the State CHIP, and state-only programs. Includes detailed information on particular expansion strategies. www.statecoverage.net/matrix-intro.htm.

Comments? Suggestions? Content? Please contact Audrey Smolkin.