• 2010-2011 CT Office of Rural Health Grant Program Announcement
• ORHP Funding Opportunity: Network Planning Program
• Additional Funding Opportunities

The Connecticut Office of Rural Health (CT-ORH), through the administration of its Rural Health Office Grant program, announces the availability of grant funds for rural Connecticut health care initiatives. All funds for this grant program come to the CT-ORH through the Department of Health and Human Services through the federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Grant awards are contingent upon federal award funding to the CT-ORH.

Please see the following douments for more information:

• CT Rural Health Small Grant Guidance
• Funding Request Application Face Page
• Grant Program Budget Form
• Grant Review Worksheet

The grant guidance for the 2010 Network Planning grants is now available at www.grants.gov.

Announcement Number HRSA-10-020

HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy has been administering these grants for several years now but there are important changes for this competition. The scope of the $85,000 one-year grants has broadened and we're looking for applications for general community health planning purposes. So, applicants could focus on a wide range of possible projects such as:

• Strategic health planning at the community level
• Assessing the economic impact ofhealth care in a rural community
• Promoting collaboration between providers such as Critical Access Hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers
• Conducting a community needs assessment
• Conducting local health workforce planning
• Hire a consultant to conduct HIT readiness

The change in the program is recognition that what many rural communities need is general planning money to identify issues and bring together key partners to develop plans to address those challenges. The Office plans on funding 20-25 new awards in 2010. The deadline for applications is September 14, 2009. Awards will be announced in February 2010 for a March 1, 2010 project start date.

Interested applicants should read the revised guidance to understand the new focus of the grants and see if it meets their needs If you are interested in applying, you will need to register in grants.gov. There will be a TA Conference call for prospective grantees on August 18, 2009. Please contact Mary Collier, mcollier@hrsa.gov to register for the call. We would also recommend that communities consult with their State Office of Rural Health when applying as these entities can be an important partner and resource in this process.

For a list of the State Offices of Rural Health, see
http://www.nosorh.org/regions/directory.php.

If you have any programmatic questions, please contact Eileen Holloran, eholloran@hrsa.gov or 301-443-7529.

• Rural Assistance Center (RAC) Funding Database: Searchable database for Funding Opportunities.
  
  
• EMS Grant Central Station: Contains a number of EMS grant opportunities in a variety of states, as well as some resource material.