Get Funds for Rural Health Innovation in Delta States

The purpose of the Delta States Rural Development Network Grant Program (Delta) is to fund organizations located in the eight Delta States (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee) which address unmet local health care needs and prevalent health disparities through the development of new and innovative projects. The Delta grant program fosters collaborative efforts among rural providers, as many of these disparities could not be solved by single entities working alone. In the current grant cycle, grantees are expected to propose multi-county projects that address the following key areas: Delivery of preventative or clinical health services surrounding chronic disease Increase access to prescription drugs for the medically indigent Practice management technical assistance services Grantees may also focus grant activities around the following priorities: oral health improvement, school-based health services, mental health, and/or teenage pregnancy prevention efforts. The Delta Grant Program was first competed in FY 2001 when the Senate Appropriations Committee allocated $6.8 million towards addressing health care needs in the Mississippi Delta.

The current grantees have identified specific targeted focus areas for their project activities. This change has served as a better fit for performance measurement activities within ORHP. More applicants were also funded in the current cycle to bring about greater impact and service delivery capacity in the Delta region than in previous grant cycles.