42 U.S.C. § 300u–13 — Community transformation grants

(a) In general: The Secretary, through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, must award competitive grants to state and local government agencies and community-based groups to carry out, evaluate, and spread evidence-based community prevention programs. The goal is to cut chronic disease rates, prevent secondary conditions, address health disparities, and build stronger evidence for what prevention work actually works. At least 20 percent of the grants must go to rural and frontier areas. (b) Eligibility: To qualify for a grant, an applicant must: (1) be a state agency, a local agency, a national network of community groups, a state or local nonprofit, or an Indian tribe; (2) submit an application to the Director describing the proposed program, in whatever form and with whatever information the Director requires; and (3) show it has, or can build, the relationships needed to engage key partners across the community and beyond health care — such as healthy futures corps and health care providers. (c) Use of funds: (1) A grantee must use the money for the programs described in this subsection. (2) Community transformation plan: (A) A grantee must submit a detailed plan to the Director for approval, covering the policy, environmental, program, and infrastructure changes needed to promote healthy living and reduce disparities. (B) The plan's activities may include: (i) making schools healthier — more healthy food options, more exercise opportunities, healthy-lifestyle and emotional-wellness promotion, and chronic-disease-prevention lessons; (ii) building infrastructure for active living and safe access to nutritious food; (iii) programs across age groups to boost nutrition, exercise, and smoking cessation, improve emotional wellness, boost community safety, or address any other chronic disease priority the grantee picks; (iv) assessing and running worksite wellness programs and incentives; (v) promoting healthy menu options at restaurants and other food venues; (vi) prioritizing strategies that reduce racial and ethnic disparities, including their social, economic, and geographic causes; and (vii) meeting the needs of special populations — all ages, people with disabilities, and people in urban, rural, and frontier areas. (3) Community-based prevention health activities: (A) A grantee must use the money to run a mix of programs, policies, and infrastructure upgrades that promote healthier living. (B) It must carry out the activities in its approved plan. (C) It may provide in-kind resources — staff, equipment, or office space — as part of the work. (4) Evaluation: (A) A grantee must use grant money to measure changes in chronic-disease risk factors among community members in its prevention programs. (B) It must measure, among community residents: (i) weight changes; (ii) nutrition changes; (iii) physical activity changes; (iv) tobacco use changes; (v) emotional well-being and mental health changes; (vi) other factors, using community-specific Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey data; and (vii) any other factors the Secretary sets. (C) A grantee must send the Director a yearly report evaluating its grant activities. (5) Dissemination: A grantee must: (A) meet at least once a year, at regional or national meetings, to share challenges, best practices, and lessons learned; and (B) build models for other grantees to copy successful programs, including mentoring. (d) Training: (1) The Director must build a training program for grantees on effective chronic-disease prevention and control strategies, and on the link between physical, emotional, and social well-being. (2) The Director must give grantees feedback and technical help in building their community transformation plans. (3) The Director must review the evidence and build an evaluation framework for the grant program, working with academic or other experts in outcome evaluation. (e) Prohibition: A grantee may not use grant money to make video games, or to do anything else that could increase obesity or inactivity rates. (f) Authorization of appropriations: Congress authorizes whatever money is necessary to carry out this section for fiscal years 2010 through 2014.