National Partners

At a glance

CDC funded three national partners through the Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) to help strengthen public health infrastructure across the country. The national partners support PHIG-funded health departments through a unique set of activities to meet diverse public health needs, build long-term capacity, and provide targeted technical and training assistance.

Hands with puzzle pieces

About the national partners

Purpose

PHIG consists of two major components:

  • Component A: provides funding to 107 public health departments to strengthen their public health infrastructure; and
  • Component B: provides funding to three national partners—Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHOA), National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), and Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)—to support health departments funded under Component A and evaluate overall success of the grant.

With guidance from and in collaboration with CDC, the PHIG national partners implement four key strategies:

  1. Provide training and technical assistance to PHIG-funded health departments on hiring, training, and retaining workforce; building, improving, and implementing foundational capabilities for public health services; and improving and implementing data systems, expertise, and use.
  2. Evaluate the overall grant; build the evidence-base around workforce development, foundational capabilities, and data modernization; and identify best practices and lessons learned.
  3. Facilitate coordination and communication across PHIG-funded health departments and CDC for peer-to-peer learning and to communicate results (e.g., maintaining a website and partner newsletter for resources and updates).
  4. Enhance data modernization initiatives by supporting Data Modernization Implementation Centers (ICs), including a Tribal Implementation Center focused on providing support to Tribes and Tribal-serving organizations.

Spotlight‎

The three national partners collectively bring decades of unique public health knowledge, experience, and relationships with health departments to the table and are well-positioned to reach health departments not funded directly through PHIG with lessons learned, tools, and other resources that can have wider benefit.

The three national partners

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
ASTHO is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the work of state and territorial public health officials and furthering the development and excellence of public health policy nationwide. ASTHO's membership is comprised of 58 chief health officials from 49 states, Washington, D.C., five U.S. territories, and three Freely Associated States.
National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI)
NNPHI represents an active network of 47-member public health institutes, affiliate members, emerging institutes, and 10 university-based Public Health Training Centers in 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Public health institutes are nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing public health practice and making systematic improvements in population health. NNPHI is partnering with nine regional technical assistance hubs to support a tailored technical assistance response for PHIG-funded health departments.
Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)
PHAB accredits public health departments to strengthen public health infrastructure and transform governmental public health. PHAB supports health departments to improve quality, accountability, and performance and contributes to innovation and transformation of public health practice.

Resource‎

PHIG-funded health departments and non-funded health departments can get resources, find training opportunities, and read success stories.

PHIG Partners Website

Funding for the national partners

As of September 2024, CDC's Public Health Infrastructure Center provided a total of $340 million to the three national partners to support state, local, and territorial health departments through PHIG. CDC and the three national partners funded through PHIG collaborate with 107 health department recipients in their efforts to modernize data systems, recruit and retain a skilled public health workforce, and address longstanding public health infrastructure needs.

Component B funding by Fiscal Year (FY) and national partner

National Partner
FY 20231
FY 20242
Total by Partner
ASTHO
$52,500,000
$61,923,077
$114,423,077
NNPHI
$60,500,000
$64,384,615
$124,884,615
PHAB
$42,000,000
$58,692,308
$100,692,308
FY2023–FY2024 Totals
$155,000,000
$185,000,000
$340,000,000

1. Includes funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which is available to recipients until 11/30/2027, funding from CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure and Capacity annual appropriation, and funding, by Fiscal Year (FY), to Component B national partners.
2. Funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These funds are available to recipients until 11/30/2027.

How national partners support health departments

The following activities and accomplishments are from December 1, 2022–November 30, 2024.

Training and technical assistance opportunities

The national partners provide training and technical assistance. Technical assistance providers are committed to seamless, timely, high-quality support for all PHIG-funded health departments.

  • 693 of 900 training and technical assistance requests have been completed by the national partners on the following topics.
    • Workforce Development (e.g., training executive leadership)
    • Performance Management and Evaluation (e.g., providing feedback on recipient evaluation plans)
    • Organizational Capacity (e.g., holding meetings with recipients to discuss ideas and feedback)
    • Planning and Implementation (e.g., connecting recipients with local experts to receive hands-on training)
  • Technical assistance opportunities are supplemented with proactive technical assistance programming, including peer networks, training, and new tools and resources. In Year 1, the national partners:
    • Held 6 peer learnings and collaborative experiences (e.g., ASTHO's Principal Investigator's Peer Network).
    • Hosted 13 webinars on workforce, foundational capabilities, and data modernization topics (e.g., PHAB's Overview of Foundational Public Health Services webinar).
    • Developed 18 tools or products to support recipients (e.g., ASTHO's Grants Management and Optimization Toolkit).
    • Hosted 5 trainings or e-learnings to build knowledge and skills.
    • Hosted 14 in-person convenings, including Reverse Site Visits and regional hub meetings to provide hands-on technical assistance, facilitate information, leverage and develop new partnerships, and support PHIG-funded health departments.

PHIG national evaluation plan

In collaboration with CDC, the National Evaluation Team (NET) implements a comprehensive evaluation of PHIG.

  • Developed and maintains the PHIG National Evaluation Plan to monitor and evaluate grant activities.
  • Designed and manages the Evaluation Advisory Group to ensure participation during every stage of the evaluation by PHIG-funded health departments, CDC, and other users of evaluation findings.
  • Produce annual summaries about the progress and impact of PHIG.

Communication products

The national partners and CDC disseminate useful resources, tools, and information to PHIG-funded health departments through a newsletter and website. Non-funded health departments also have access to these resources, extending the benefit and reach of PHIG in supporting the nation’s public health infrastructure.

Reverse site visits

The national partners collaborated with CDC to coordinate two Reverse Site Visits to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing among recipients, national partners, technical assistance providers, and CDC on key public health infrastructure development strategies and technical assistance opportunities.

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Content Source:
Public Health Infrastructure Center
  1. ASTHO is not funded to evaluate the overall success of the grant.