The Rural Maryland Council has announced the 2024 Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Fund (RMPIF)- Rural Health Care Grant Program.
Donor Name: Rural Maryland Council
State: Maryland
Counties: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/19/2023
Grant Duration: 11 months
Details:
The objective of the Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Fund is to help raise the overall standard of living in rural areas to a level that meets or exceeds statewide benchmark averages by 2030, while preserving the best aspects of a pastoral cultural and rural way of life. Resources provided to the Fund are designed to facilitate significant targeted investments in important economic and community development programs and promote regional and intergovernmental cooperation. These investments will also enable local and regional public and nonprofit organizations to leverage additional non-state financial and human resources to facilitate the realization of sustainable rural development objectives. The Fund will serve the interests of the entire State by:
- Encouraging the increase of entrepreneurial activity and commerce and a balanced economy in the State;
- Relieving conditions of unemployment and underemployment in rural areas;
- assisting in the retention of valuable farm and forest land for productive use by present and future generations;
- Promoting intergovernmental cooperation and public sector/private sector partnerships in and between rural and other areas;
- Enhancing the deployment of housing, transportation, water, wastewater, and broadband communications infrastructure and services in rural areas;
- Supporting rural commercial center redevelopment and community revitalization efforts; and,
- Generally promoting the health, happiness, safety, employment opportunity, and general welfare of the residents of each of the rural counties and municipal corporations of the State.
Eligible health care projects will range from health care planning, to health program implementation and evaluation, and will include projects pertaining to the following:
- Improving access to health and medical/dental/behavioral health care
- Tele-medicine and telehealth networking
- Programs that focus on planning and/or coordination of health care
- Programs that address rural population health needs
- Programs that ensure health care insurance and treatment enrollment
- Programs that implement and measure accomplishment of components of the state’s rural health plan
- Recruitment and retention of health care and public health professionals
- Programs to aid recruitment of health care providers
- Rural residency programs in primary care and medical/surgical specialties and dentistry
- Housing projects to support rural rotations of medical students/ health professions students
- Pipeline and pathway programs for future and existing health care workers 3
- Behavioral and mental health Programs to address:
- Substance use disorder, including alcohol, opioids and prescription drugs
- Depression and counseling, suicide prevention
- Domestic abuse and violence
- Programs that implement and measure components of the Maryland Rural Health Plan
- Access to care: reduce barriers/remove gaps – primary care, specialists, behavioral health, oral health, and urgent/emergency facilities
- Care coordination: explore mechanisms to link health care consumers to services and improve coordination and collaboration between health care providers
- Health literacy and health insurance literacy: explore ways to increase individual health literacy and health insurance literacy of consumers
- Outreach and education: work with community-based services and health care infrastructure to provide outreach and education to citizens on relevant and emergent health issues
- Chronic disease prevention and management
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- Health education on diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancers prevalent in rural Maryland, hypertension/high blood pressure
- Disease management programs
- Research and treatment of health impacts on minority populations, and in particular, prenatal care
- Oral and dental health
For Fiscal Year 2024, the RMC has budgeted $1,500,000 for health care projects in the General Funds for the health care portion of the RMPIF program
Eligible Projects
- To be eligible, proposals must be regional (two or more counties) or statewide or intergovernmental (meaning two units of government) and be completed between August 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
- Rural Counties: State-determined rural counties are Allegany, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico and Worcester. Regional projects may include non-rural counties; the majority of project programming must be provided in rural areas.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must be a local government, institute of higher education, regional council, or be a 501(c)(3) IRS tax designation or similar and serve a regional or statewide rural constituency. Eligible applicants include federally qualified health centers, area health education centers, local health clinics and other rural-serving health organizations. The applicant does not have to be located in a rural area or in the area it serves.
For more information, visit Rural Maryland Council.
