Rural Northern Border Region Outreach Program

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Rural Northern Border Region Outreach Program (RNBR-OP). The purpose of this program is to promote the delivery of health care services to rural underserved populations in the rural Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) Region of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Through a consortia of local health care and social service providers, communities can develop innovative approaches to challenges related to specific health needs that expand clinical and service capacity. The overarching goals for the RNBR Outreach Program are to: • Expand the delivery of health care services to include new and enhanced services exclusively in the Northern Border rural communities; • Deliver health care services through a strong consortium, in which every consortium member organization is actively involved and engaged in the planning and delivery of services; • Utilize community engagement and evidence-based or innovative, evidence informed model(s) in the delivery of health care services; and • Improve population health and demonstrate health outcomes; and • Increase financial sustainability. This Program allows the applicant the flexibility to determine your unique community needs and focus area(s), based on historical health care context, expertise, and relevant data sources in the community. As such, applicants are expected to propose projects that: • Clearly identify a health care focus area(s) that your grant activities will address. • Describe how rural communities participated in the identification of the grant project focus area indicated. • Emphasize how the project will benefit the rural community or communities. • How your proposed grant activities and identified focus area(s) will improve health equity. Examples of health care focus areas include (but are not limited to): mental/behavioral health, healthcare workforce development; community health workers, addressing health disparities, rural hospital financial and operational improvement; impacts of rural hospital closure; care coordination; patient engagement, data analytics/health information technology; and telehealth.

You can apply if your organization is in the United States and is: • Public or private, non-profit or for-profit • Community-based • Tribal (governments, organizations) 2. You can apply if your organization meets the following geographic requirements: • You are an organization physically located within Maine, New Hampshire, New York, or Vermont (NBRC member states) Appendix B. • You are an organization with demonstrated experience serving, or the capacity to serve, rural underserved populations located in the NBRC Region (see Appendix B). 3. You can apply if your organization meets the following consortium requirements: • You are an organization representing a consortium composed of three or more health care provider organizations, including the applicant organization, with at least 66 percent (two-thirds) of consortium members located in a HRSA-designated rural area, as defined by the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer. Applicants will be deemed non-responsive and will not be considered for this funding opportunity if the applicant: • is located outside of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, or Vermont; • submits an application to serve populations outside of HRSA designated rural counties or rural census tracts in the NBRC Region (see Appendix B); and • submits more than one application. To confirm rural service areas, please refer to https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/rural-health. This webpage allows you to search by county or street address and determine rural eligibility.

Maribel Nunez

(301)443-0466