Cook County Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) issues a Request for Proposals (RFP) through the Public Health Fund as well as for CARES Act Funding for community agencies and daycare providers to reimburse costs associated with providing services during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

To be considered for the Public Health Fund, applicants should align their requests with goals identified through the Cook County Community Health Assessment (CHA).  Areas that align with these goals are:

• Access to specialty medical services
• Behavioral health
• Safe and stable housing
• Services for elders
• Services for families with young children
• Substance abuse 

Cook County PHHS has statutory authority to contract with agencies to provide services that promote public health, safety, general welfare, security, prosperity, or contentment for the benefit of the community that serve a public purpose. Priority will be given to organizations that address equitable access to programs and services. 

This year, in addition to our Public Health Fund, a portion of the County’s CARES Act allocation is included in our grant making process.  If your agency works toward the goals set forth in the CHA, you may include a request for funding to meet necessary programming expenses due to the public health COVID-19 emergency.  Costs must not have been accounted for in an agency’s most recent budget.  Additionally, these costs must have been incurred since March of 2020 or be incurred before December 2020.  While Public Health Fund grant dollars must go toward nonprofit agencies, CARES Act funds can also go toward local childcare providers (who may or may not be nonprofit agencies).  Applicants must not be receiving other outside funding to support these requests for CARES Act dollars.

A subcommittee of the PHHS Advisory Committee will meet to review Public Health Fund applications and provide a recommendation of funding to the Board of Commissioners.  The CARES Act Taskforce will play a similar role in advising the Board on CARES Act applications.

There will be a virtual information session on Monday, August 3rd from 1-2:30 p.m. with information on the application process and a chance for agencies to ask any questions they might have about the process.  All questions received will be posted on the Cook County Public Health website at: https://co.cook.mn.us/index.php/public-health-documents.  The application and a copy of the RFP can also be found on the website. 

Applications are due August 21st, 2020. If you have any questions regarding this application or the funding process, please contact Grace Grinager, Public Health Supervisor at [email protected] or by phone at (218)370-0884.