An emergency of a different kind: Using public health preparedness strategies to organize fast paced, high demand grant execution

Local health departments (LHD) rely heavily on grants to fund core public health initiatives and, in some cases, build organizational infrastructure. Many pitfalls exist with this funding approach, including but not limited to, ever-changing and unrealistic deliverables, unreliable and inconsistent funding sources, and fast turn around times. The impact is a loss in productivity as too much time is spent on trying to organize the work. In addition, grant implementation tends to focus on operational issues instead of strategic ones, reducing the capacity to impact improvement in public health outcomes.

As LHDs continue to remain dependent on grant funding, implementation strategies are needed to help organize the work in an effective and efficient manner that allows for both a focus on strategy and operations. The Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) in collaboration with the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago was awarded nearly $16 million from a 2-year federal initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW). Challenged with addressing many execution issues in a short amount of time, CCDPH employed emergency preparedness principles of incident command, as well as organizational management concepts, to help systematize project structure, clarify roles and responsibilities of staff and community partners, monitor performance, and address strategic issues.

Participants who attend this session will learn the steps taken to overcome implementation barriers of high paced grants. Potential strategies, models and tools will be shared along with lessons learned from the CPPW experience.