USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness

Supporting our nation’s capacity to prepare, respond and recover from disasters.

Impact

Our mission is to promote the development of knowledge, skills and capacity supporting emergency preparedness planning, response, mitigation and recovery in communities throughout the country, with emphasis on the rural and underserved.

By The Numbers

19

Countries

50

States

254

Counties

We work to prepare the public health workforce, community health workers, tribal health workforce, school nurses, county judges and other non-traditional responders to plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The center has been awarded millions in funding, which includes two CDC public health preparedness centers, as well as contracts with the Texas Department of State Health Services, local and regional health departments and the South Dakota Department of Health.

This work has also led to collaborations with both Maine and New Hampshire Departments of Health and Human Services, the University of Texas School of Public Health, the University of North Texas School of Public Health, tribal partnerships in both Texas and South Dakota, as well as an award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for work with broader public health access issues within the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

"The Center has provided numerous trainings, facilitated community meetings across the state, conducted focus groups, obtained, analyzed and disseminated quantitative and qualitative data, provided expertise and collaborated on Native American tribe outreach, created and conducted preparedness and response exercises, and so much more."

Lisette K. Osborne

RN/BC, MSN, CHEP | Manager, Preparedness Branch
Center for Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Regional and Local Health Operations | Texas Dept of State Health Services

"The strong collaboration the USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness has provided is indeed a valuable partnership that has assisted us in the mission of making the Sisseton-Wahpton Oyate more resilient."

Jim Pearson

Emergency Management
Sisseton-Wahpeton Law Enforcement

Tribal Preparedness

The center has worked with the South Dakota Department of Health to promote and foster tribal public health preparedness within the Sioux nation through facilitation, technical assistance, training and exercises. This expertise has also led to similar work with the three federally-recognized tribes in Texas.

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Risk Assessment

Jurisdictional Risk Assessments assess public health residual risk, capability gaps and resource gaps at the local level. Our team assisted in the development and implementation of the Texas Tool for Public Health Risk Assessment (TxPHRAT) as well as developed tools for mitigation planning using these data.

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Community Health Worker/Promotores

Community Health Workers/Promotores are a resource along the U.S. southern border who act as liaisons between residents and public health and medical agencies. Providing preparedness training to this audience equips the Community Health Worker with the knowledge, skills and ability to protect at-risk populations along the Texas-Mexico border against infectious diseases and other disasters that effect the health of these vulnerable populations.

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Cause of Death Certificates

Death certificates are the primary source of official mortality data in the U.S., but inconsistent reporting makes it hard to accurately document and report causes of death, particularly those related to disaster. To capture this important information, our team has created a series of free online trainings targeted to the various disciplines responsible for completing a death certificate correctly.

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Training

Online trainings and tailored in-person trainings are available on a wide range of topics designed to improve preparedness competency and capacity both nationally and around the world.

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