The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) – Overdose Response will be making approximately 40 awards of up to $300,000 each to address immediate overdose needs in rural communities. This one-year program will support activities that address the rural communities’ most immediate needs related to the drug overdose crisis. HRSA intends for the RCORP to address improved access to, capacity for, and sustainability of rural substance use disorder (SUD) services.

The RCORP will focus on the following, but not limited to:

• Purchasing and distributing naloxone, fentanyl test strips, or other relevant supplies within the target rural service area
• Enhancing capacity to provide mobile crisis intervention services for individuals with SUD in the target rural service area
• Offering certification, formalized training, programs, and/or professional mentorship opportunities to enhance providers’ ability to care for individuals with SUD

Delivery of all services supported by the RCORP-Overdose Response program must exclusively occur in HRSA-designated rural counties and rural census tracts, as defined by the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer: Click here

HRSA will hold a technical assistance webinar for applicants on November 10, 2022 from 1:00 – 2:30 P.M. EST. See page iii of the NOFO for information on how to access the webinar: Click her for more information.  Application Deadline:  January 19, 2023

Review the Grant Opportunity at: HRSA-23-038

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding today invited singers statewide to enter “Oh, Say, Can You Sing?”, a star-spangled sing-off to win a chance to inspire 2023 Pennsylvania Farm Show visitors with their voices. Each morning of the Farm Show will feature a talented Pennsylvanian, or group of Pennsylvanians, singing the national anthem live. A winner will sing each morning, and a top vote-getter will sing at the 2023 Farm Show Opening Ceremony on Saturday, January 7.

“Our 2023 theme, Rooted in Progress, invites Pennsylvanians to experience where they are grounded and where they are going,” said Redding. “There is no better way to inspire Farm Show visitors to explore the roots of our past and the promise of our future than to start each day with the National Anthem.”

The contest is open to Pennsylvania residents of all ages – both individuals and groups. Contestants can enter by emailing a YouTube link to a video of themselves singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” without instrumental accompaniment, to agcontests@pa.gov or by uploading their video or YouTube link to the comments of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Facebook page posts about the contest.

Entries can be submitted between Tuesday, October 25 and noon on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.

Finalists will be posted for fan voting by Facebook reactions (likes, loves, wows, etc.) from Monday, November 7 through Friday, November 11, 2022, at noon. Eleven finalists will be announced on Facebook, then notified by email of the day they are scheduled to sing.

Winners will be provided a free parking pass for the day and must be present at the Farm Show Complex by 7:45 AM on the day they are selected to sing. A winner will sing live at 8:00 AM each day of the 2023 Pennsylvania Farm Show, from January 7-14. The overall winner will sing during opening ceremonies.

Full contest rules and instructions are available here or on the Farm Show Facebook page. Find out more about the Pennsylvania Farm Show at farmshow.pa.gov.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) awarded nearly $47 million to 52 projects in 181 counties through its POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) Initiative. This is the largest single POWER awards package to date since the initiative launched in 2015.

ARC Federal Co-Chair Gayle Manchin made the award announcement with ARC 2022 States’ Co-Chair Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania during a press conference at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland, in advance of ARC’s 2022 Annual Conference.

“Our coal-impacted communities are a vital part of Appalachia’s 13 states and 423 counties—when our coal communities thrive, our entire region is uplifted,” said ARC Federal Co-Chair Gayle Manchin.

Including this award package, ARC has invested nearly $366.6 million in 447 projects impacting 360 coal-impacted counties since POWER was established in 2015.

Learn more!

Have you thought about applying for an NIH Extramural LRP award? Do you know someone who should? Help us share this valuable information with your colleagues!

Awardees can receive up to $100,000 of qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award. The NIH LRPs are unique programs, with tremendous benefit to early career researchers.

The application period to apply for an FY 2023 LRP award closes on November 17, 2022.  Be sure to visit our website to take advantage of our resources, and to learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and benefits of receiving an NIH LRP award!

Click here for more information!

Several times a month, Jim Maybach drives 5 miles from his house in Hay Creek, Minnesota, toward the Mississippi River.

When he reaches Red Wing, a city of nearly 17,000 people, the 79-year-old retired engineer stops to pick up a senior whom he then delivers to an appointment, such as a dentist visit or an exercise class. When the appointment ends, Maybach is there to drive the person home.

It’s a route and routine he repeats a handful of times each month.

Maybach is unpaid, a volunteer among a cadre organized by Faith in Action in Red Wing, a nonprofit that relies on retirees to ferry residents to essential services.

The riders, mostly seniors, are people who don’t have immediate access to transportation, especially in rural areas where public transit options are either limited or nonexistent.

There are several such programs serving rural counties in Minnesota, but, as with other services across the country, their existence has become precarious because the number of volunteer drivers has steadily declined, according to transportation advocates. Volunteers either get to a point where, because of age, they can no longer drive, or the costs associated with their volunteerism are no longer sustainable. For decades, Congress has refused to increase the rate at which the drivers’ expenses can be reimbursed.

Experts say that with public transit in rural areas already insufficient and the long distances that residents in rural communities must travel to access health care, a decimated volunteer driver network would leave seniors with even fewer transportation options and could interrupt their health management. Already, social service organizations that rely on volunteers have begun to restrict their service options and deny ride requests when drivers aren’t available.

Read more.

We’re excited to share that our new Rural Desk is up and running. Meet our team. On Oct. 25, we will launch a monthly newsletter featuring KHN stories from across the country that dive into the health issues and policies impacting people who live in America’s rural reaches.

A new guidebook from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration describes various methods of adapting evidence-based practices for substance use disorder (SUD) to meet the needs of populations who experience barriers in receiving behavioral health services due to a variety of factors including race, ethnicity, geography, income, sexual orientation, and disability.

 The recording for the October 12 webinar explains the REH provider type and other FORHP-funded activities to support hospitals exploring the REH option.

 The Rural Health Value team recently released two new rural innovation profiles. The first covers a critical access hospital in Susquehanna, PA’s Experience in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model: Barnes-Kasson County Hospital. This profile provides insight into the hospital’s experience participating in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, which includes a global budget and transforming care to address community health needs. The other profile on MaineHealth ACO – Integrating and Using Data to Support Care Delivery highlights a predominantly rural network of hospitals and clinics in Maine and how they have integrated clinical and claims data to support improvements in care delivery and target patient needs as part of their Accountable Care Organization. The Rural Health Value team is funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.