External evaluation of Closing the Gap, Florida Department of Health’s grant program to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE) administers the Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Closing the Gap (CTG) grant program (section 381.7351-56 and 20.43 (9) Florida Statutes). For two decades, the CTG grant program has awarded funds to grantees to stimulate the development of community-based and neighborhood-based projects to improve health outcomes of racial and ethnic populations. Projects funded through the CTG grant program must address racial and ethnic disparities associated with one or more of the following eleven statutorily designated priority areas:
- Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
- Adult and Child Immunizations
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Diabetes
- HIV/AIDS
- Lupus
- Maternal and Infant Mortality
- Oral Healthcare
- Sickle Cell Disease
- Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
CTG grant awardees are expected to use evidence-based interventions (EBIs); advance minority health outcomes; reduce health inequities; forge sustainable cross-sector collaborative partnerships; enhance prevention and health promotion efforts focused towards CTG priority areas; and deliver activities and services in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner to marginalized communities, including persons with disabilities. FIU-CBRI served as the evaluation partner for this program.
Principal Investigators: Melissa Howard, Ph.D., MPH & Hui Huang, Ph.D., MSW, MS, MA
Co-Investigators: Eric Wagner, Ph.D., Michelle Hospital, Ph.D. , Staci Leon Morris, Psy.D., Michael Anastario, Ph.D., Gladys Ibañez, Ph.D., Zoran Bursac, Ph.D., & Nana “Aisha” Garba, M.D., Ph.D., MPH
Project Coordinator: Katherine Perez, MSW, MPH | kaperez@fiu.edu | (305) 348-4721