The New Prevention Fund

Maine and the New Prevention Fund:
An Investment in the Future Health of America

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included the creation of a Prevention Fund – to provide communities around the country with more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, provide prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation.

Maine is receiving 5622642 from the Prevention Fund this year to reduce disease rates in the state and help ensure today’s children are not the first generation in U.S. history to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parent.

Preventing disease and injury is the most effective, common-sense way to improve health in the United States. Too often, however, we focus on treating disease and injury after they occur instead of preventing them – providing sick care instead of health care.

The ACA and the Prevention Fund give us the opportunity to turn that around – and provides the opportunity for all Americans to be as healthy as they can be.

Prevention Fund Grants	Amount	Description
Communities Putting Prevention to Work	$4.3 Million*	Portland, Maine recently began implementing a menu labeling policy for non-chain restaurants. To date, there are 13 restaurants at various stages of implementation. A registered dietician is working with the restaurants to conduct menu nutritional analysis, signage and print materials, and provide training and technical assistance to restaurant staff/owners. The City of Portland’s Mayor, Nick Mavodones, recently featured Healthy Portland’s CPPW program in his weekly show on local access television. He spoke with CPPW team members on the Smart Meals for ME initiative and efforts going on in the Portland Public Schools. The Smart Meals for ME initiative involves local, non-chain restaurants to include calorie counts on menu items and work with a registered dietitian to include healthier, reduced calories meals. At the same time, a statewide media campaign is being launched that includes Smart Meals for ME promotion and education on recommended daily caloric intakes. Resources and materials, such as posters, brochures, and a radio ad, have been developed that allow consumers to advocate for menu labeling in their favorite restaurants. Portland City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting Complete Streets and as a result of this resolution, the City Council created a “Complete Streets Working Group”, which is tasked to develop a policy within the next year to make sure streets accommodate cars, buses, bikes, and pedestrians. To help in implementing this policy, the City has set aside funds for capital improvement projects that include expanding sidewalks and including bike lanes in street design. The City of Portland was selected as one of 32 communities in 26 states to receive technical assistance funding from the EPA to develop a complete streets policy. Through the EPA’s Sustainable Communities Building Blocks program, the City of Portland will receive assistance in developing a policy that ensures city streets are accessible to all ages and abilities as well as all modes of transportation from motorists and pedestrians to bicyclists and users of public transportation. The Building Blocks program is a part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a joint effort between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to coordinate federal actions on housing, transportation, and environmental protection. Another major accomplishment under Maine’s CPPW funding is the “Growing Access, Growing Communities” initiative, which is intended to increase access to local, fresh, and healthy foods among Portland’s minority and low income populations. Healthy Portland has partnered with Cultivating Community to expand access to farm fresh fruits and vegetables through four new community farm stands in targeted neighborhoods. In addition, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are accepted at all of these new locations. The markets were opened in the summer of 2010, and a media campaign to promote the markets and use of SNAP will occur prior to the summer of 2011. Portland Public Schools is making progress to improve the nutritional environment for students. First, infrastructure improvements will allow food service staff to prepare, store, and serve more seasonal, locally grown fruits and vegetables. New refrigerators will provide increased storage capacity for fresh, local produce. Salad bars will be placed in 10 additional schools, bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to all elementary, middle, and high school students in the district. To address the availability of foods offered or sold to students during the school day, the district is revising its Wellness Policy and Sales of Competitive Foods Policy, and is introducing a Healthy Vending Policy to include nutrition standards for foods that are not currently regulated. Now, Portland Public Schools, due in large part to CPPW funding, will have nutrition guidelines for all foods and beverages available to children during the school day. The afterschool recreation program at the Portland Recreation and Facilities Management Department implemented a new policy to require a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity each day. To assist with implementing this policy, the Department hired a part-time Activity Specialist. The afterschool recreation program provides recreational activities to approximately 450 elementary school-aged children in all eight of the mainland Portland Public Elementary Schools. Farm-to-school efforts in the Lakes Region of Maine have been expanded to include local fish. At Lake Region High School, students recently participated in a taste-test of a variety of prepared samples of freshly caught Gulf of Maine hake. Similar to farm-to-school, this effort exposes the community of the nutritional and economic benefits of locally produced foods and sustainability of the fishing industry in Maine. Currently, this effort is just occurring in the high school, which has a population of about 600 students. People’s Regional Opportunity Program (PROP) received CPPW funds to have the Lakes Region Farmers Market to accept SNAP and WIC. PROP will have SNAP benefits count double at the market—each dollar spent at the market will count for two dollars of produce. The Healthy Lakes CPPW program provided technical assistance to the market so that they could create and coordinate the EBT/WIC program. The market will fund a position to streamline the process of handling SNAP and WIC vouchers and will partner with a local organization that is providing funds to cover the incentive program. In city of Windham, there are over 2,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits, including 760 children.
Public Health Infrastructure	Maine State Department of Health and Human Services $1,758,786 (FY10) $843,182 (FY11)	Awarded to state, tribal, local and territorial health departments to improve their ability to provide public health services. The 5-year cooperative agreement program will provide health departments with needed resources to make fundamental changes in their organizations and practices, so that they can improve the delivery of public health services including: Building and implementing capacity within health departments for evaluating the effectiveness of their organizations, practices, partnerships, programs and use of resources through performance management; Expansion and training of public health staff and community leaders to conduct policy activities in key areas and to facilitate improvements in system efficiency; Maximizing the public health system to improve networking, coordination, and cross-jurisdictional cooperation for the delivery of public health services to address resource sharing and improve health indicators; Disseminating, implementing and evaluating public health’s best and most promising practices; and Building a national network of performance improvement managers that share best practices for improving the public health system.
Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases	273,410 (FY10); $692,911 (FY11)	The funding, which is provided through Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) and the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) cooperative agreements, is intended to increase epidemiology, laboratory and health information systems capacity at health departments. The award is to support: hiring and training of epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, and health information specialists who can work on multiple infectious diseases; increasing the number of modern, well-equipped public health laboratories using electronic laboratory information systems to manage and exchange information effectively between labs and public health departments; and developing capacity for public health departments to participate in meaningful use of electronic health records, e.g. through implementation of electronic laboratory-based reporting according to national standards.
ARRA evaluation (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System)	N/A	Grants awarded intended to help states “create additional tobacco quitters,” as well as increase data collection efforts for tracking flu-like illnesses to support ongoing pandemic influenza preparedness activities.
HIV Laboratory	60000	CDC awarded grants to expand HIV prevention efforts under the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The funding, allocated to CDC by the President as part of NHAS, will help to further focus HIV prevention on high risk populations and communities, as well as fill critical gaps in data, knowledge and understanding of the epidemic. The majority of the grants will support demonstration projects to identify and implement a “combination approach” to enhance effective HIV prevention programming in 12 hard-hit areas across the country. These efforts will determine what mix of HIV prevention approaches can have the greatest impact in the local area, supplementing existing programs in these communities and helping jurisdictions to better focus efforts on key at-risk populations and fulfill unmet needs. Grants went to state and local health departments to increase HIV testing opportunities for populations disproportionately affected by HIV and help link HIV-infected persons with appropriate services, as well as to improve the reporting of HIV data.
HIV Testing	N/A	CDC awarded grants to expand HIV prevention efforts under the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The funding, allocated to CDC by the President as part of NHAS, will help to further focus HIV prevention on high risk populations and communities, as well as fill critical gaps in data, knowledge and understanding of the epidemic. The majority of the grants will support demonstration projects to identify and implement a “combination approach” to enhance effective HIV prevention programming in 12 hard-hit areas across the country. These efforts will determine what mix of HIV prevention approaches can have the greatest impact in the local area, supplementing existing programs in these communities and helping jurisdictions to better focus efforts on key at-risk populations and fulfill unmet needs. Grants went to state and local health departments to increase HIV testing opportunities for populations disproportionately affected by HIV and help link HIV-infected persons with appropriate services, as well as to improve the reporting of HIV data.
HIV Planning	$0	CDC awarded grants to expand HIV prevention efforts under the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The funding, allocated to CDC by the President as part of NHAS, will help to further focus HIV prevention on high risk populations and communities, as well as fill critical gaps in data, knowledge and understanding of the epidemic. The majority of the grants will support demonstration projects to identify and implement a “combination approach” to enhance effective HIV prevention programming in 12 hard-hit areas across the country. These efforts will determine what mix of HIV prevention approaches can have the greatest impact in the local area, supplementing existing programs in these communities and helping jurisdictions to better focus efforts on key at-risk populations and fulfill unmet needs. Grants went to state and local health departments to increase HIV testing opportunities for populations disproportionately affected by HIV and help link HIV-infected persons with appropriate services, as well as to improve the reporting of HIV data.
Emerging Infections Program	$0	The funding, which is provided through Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) and the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) cooperative agreements, is intended to increase epidemiology, laboratory and health information systems capacity at health departments. The award is to support: hiring and training of epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, and health information specialists who can work on multiple infectious diseases; increasing the number of modern, well-equipped public health laboratories using electronic laboratory information systems to manage and exchange information effectively between labs and public health departments; and developing capacity for public health departments to participate in meaningful use of electronic health records, e.g. through implementation of electronic laboratory-based reporting according to national standards.
Capacity Building Grants	N/A	Money awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will go to various national, non-profit professional public health organizations to support efforts by state, tribal, local and territorial health departments to ensure successful adoption of effective practices that strengthen core public health infrastructure investments. These national public health organizations will provide technical assistance, training, and information for health departments to improve their public health infrastructure and the delivery of public health services.
Tobacco Prevention	53,098 (FY10); CDC Tobacco Quitlines $80,443 (FY11)	State Supplemental Funding for Healthy Communities will be used to help states implement plans to reduce tobacco use through legislative, regulatory, and educational arenas, as well as enhance and expand the national network of tobacco cessation quitlines to significantly increase the number of tobacco users who quit. Money will also support states and terrritories enhance and expand the national network of tobacco cessation quitlines to increase the number of tobacco users who quit. Quitlines are hte toll-free numbers people can call to obtain smoking cessation treatments and services.
Health Care Surveillance	$0	Grants to fund data collection and analysis to monitor the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the health of Americans and boost the collection and analysis of environmental hazards data to protect the health of communities.
Workforce	N/A	The programs are designed to build the primary care workforce and provide community-based prevention. States will receive funding to support comprehensive workforce planning and implementation strategies that best address local current and projected workforce shortages.
Training Centers—HRSA	$0	The Public Health Training Centers Program helps improve the public health system by enhancing skills of the current and future public health workforce. Funded organizations (1) plan, develop, operate and evaluate projects that support goals established by the Secretary in preventive medicine, health promotion and disease prevention; or (2) improve access to and quality of health services in medically underserved communities. Other PHTC activities include assessing the learning needs of the public health workforce; providing accessible training; and working with organizations to meet strategic planning, education, and resource needs.
Primary care and Behavioral Health Services	Community Health and Counseling Service $496,820	The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at HHS awarded grants to support and promote better primary care and behavioral health services for individuals with mental illnesses or substance use disorders. The grants seek to improve health by improving the coordination of healthcare services delivered in publicly funded community mental health and other community-based behavioral health settings.

*One-Time Funding from FY2010

Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. www.healthyamericans.org

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. Helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need–the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.

Maine and the New Prevention Fund: An Investment in the Future Health of America

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Maine and the New Prevention Fund:
An Investment in the Future Health of America