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2024 REACH Lark Award

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Overview

The Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program has demonstrated success in addressing health equity and reducing health disparities by working with diverese communities and implementing culturally tailored interventions. Learn more about the REACH Program.

The REACH Lark Award recognizes extraordinary individuals, organizations, or community coalitions associated with the REACH program. Lark Award recipients will have meaningfully assisted with activities that advance health equity, reduce health disparities, and increase community engagement to address preventable health risks. Examples of such risks are tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and inadequate access to clinical services. Award recipients have worked with groups affected by chronic diseases more than other groups, specifically African American/Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander persons.

Nominations for this award can help further the goals of the REACH program by documenting and disseminating the innovative and unique interventions that aim to reduce health disparities

Prizes

A maximum of two applicants (one individual and one organization/community coalition) associated with the REACH program will be a recipient of the 2024 REACH Lark Award. Recipients of the REACH Lark Award will receive a plaque. The recipient may be invited to meetings by CDC, nonfederal individuals, or organizations from outside the agency. Attendance at such events is not required as a condition of accepting the prize. No cash prize will be awarded. 

Rules

Eligibility

The REACH Lark Award is open to the public. To be eligible for this award, nominees must meet the following eligibility requirements:

1. Complete the application (for self-nominees) or have had an application submitted on their behalf (for those nominated by others) for the competition under the rules promulgated by HHS/CDC;

2. Comply with all the requirements under this section and satisfy one of the following requirements:

1. Be a currently or previously funded CDC REACH recipient that has not previously received the REACH Lark Award in any year; or

2. Be a technical assistance provider to past or current REACH recipients. Learn about DNPAO REACH recipients.; or

3. Be a partner organization, part of a partner network, or coalition members that collaborated on REACH-related work with a current or previously funded REACH recipient;

3. Be either:

1. A U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, eighteen years of age or older, if the nominee is an individual or group of individuals; or

2. Incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, if the nominee is an entity; where the United States means a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any other territory or possession of the United States;

4. Not be a federal entity or federal employee acting within the scope of their employment;

5. Not be a current employee of or contractor of CDC.

6. Federal grantees shall not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications for this challenge;

7. Federal Contractors shall not use Federal funds from a contract to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications or to fund efforts in support of a COMPETES Act challenge submission;

8. An individual or organization shall not be deemed ineligible because the individual or organization used federal facilities or consulted with federal employees during a competition if the facilities and employees are made available to all individuals and entities participating in the competition on an equitable basis.

Rules

1. The “applicant” refers to each individual, organization, or community coalition that submits an application or nomination —and by participating—represents, warrants, and agrees that the entry contains accurate information. The “nominee” refers to each individual or organization/community coalition who is nominated, whether self-nominated or nominated by a separate applicant. If an applicant is nominating another individual, organization, community coalition (e.g., not self-nominating), the applicant must provide acknowledgement in writing that the nominee consents to being nominated.

2. Applicants and nominees must agree to be recognized if selected as a winner and agree to participate in an interview with CDC staff to provide information that may be used by CDC staff to write a success story that describes the intervention(s) that advanced health equity. Winners and their intervention(s) may be recognized, and the success story may be made public, including but not limited to, posted on the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity website, the CDC website, social media, or other communication platforms, some combination of these communication channels, or all of these channels.

3. By participating in this challenge, applicants agree to assume any and all risks related to participating in the challenge. Applicants also agree to waive claims against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, when participating in the challenge, including claims for injury; death; damage; or loss of property, money, or profits; and including those risks caused by negligence or other causes.

Terms and Conditions

CDC reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the Challenge, or any part of it, for any reason, at CDC's sole discretion.

Participation in this Challenge constitutes an applicants' full and unconditional agreement to abide by the Challenge’s Official Rules.

Judging

Judging Panel

CDC will select judges based on their knowledge of the REACH program, the science and practice of advancing health equity, and the elimination of health disparities at the national, state, or local levels. Judges may include REACH program senior advisors, other CDC employees, or nonfederal individuals from outside the agency. Participating as a previous REACH Lark Award judge does not disqualify an individual or organization from being an award recipient for the 2024 challenge. Judges may recuse themselves in the event of a conflict of interest related to the nominee.

Judging Process

CDC will facilitate a panel of three to five experts to review the applications and select up to two award recipients (one individual and one organization or community coalition) from all eligible entries based on the following:

1. Community Context and Challenge(s)- The following questions address the challenges of the community in which the nominee works/worked. (10 points)

   1. Describe the demographic characteristics of the area/community in which the nominee worked. (5 points)

Scoring will be based on the extent to which the nominee worked to address chronic disease risk factors among one or more of the following groups: Black or African American people, American Indian/ Alaska Native people, Hispanic or Latino people, Asian people, and/or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander people.

2. Describe the preventable risk factors associated with chronic diseases (hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and/or obesity) that the nominee addressed. (5 points)

Scoring will be based on the extent to which the risk factor(s) addressed align with the REACH program’s goals of advancing health equity. Information about past REACH programs can be found here: Past REACH Programs | DNPAO | CDC. Examples of risk factors that align with the goals of the REACH program include poor nutrition, physical inactivity, inadequate access to clinical services, and tobacco use.

3. Describe any relevant additional community characteristics/challenges that will help the judges understand the context of the community in which the nominee worked. (Not scored).

2. Strategies - The strategies used by the nominee to address the challenge(s) discussed above. (40 points)

   1. Describe the strategies that the nominee used to address challenges and how the nominee’s work aligns with the CDC REACH program’s goals of advancing health equity? (25 points)

Scoring will be based on the extent to which the nominee’s work contributed to developing, implementing, and/or evaluating strategies that were:

• Evidence-based or practice-based (5 points)

• Culturally tailored, and designed to reduce health inequities (10 points)

• Supportive of policy, systems, and/or environmental change (10 points)

2. Describe how the nominee’s work actively and effectively engaged members of the community and partners across different sectors, such as, but not limited to transportation, healthcare, agriculture, emergency food systems, and faith-based organizations. (15 points)

Scoring will be based on the extent to which the nominee engaged members of the community and partners across different sectors in identifying and implementing strategies.

3. Impact—The impact of the nominee’s work on addressing preventable risk factors in a population(s)/group(s) disproportionately affected by chronic diseases.

1. Describe the impact of the nominee’s work on addressing preventable risk factors in populations/groups disproportionately affected by chronic diseases. (20 points)

   1. To the extent possible, provide quantitative data that support impact statements (e.g., number of people served by a strategy, number of people reporting a behavior change, health outcome data if available, etc.).

   2. Provide qualitative data from community members, partners, co-workers, etc., (e.g. success stories, testimonials, etc.) that provide insight into the impact of nominee’s work.

Scoring will be based on the extent to which the nominee’s work resulted in progress toward addressing preventable risk factors in the population(s)/group(s) identified in Section 1. While quantitative data is not required, nominations that include quantitative and qualitative data are more likely to paint a more complete picture of the nominee’s contributions and their impact on the community.

Judges will use the point system (identified in the judging criteria above) to select the winner(s).

Applicants can also submit supplemental materials that demonstrate the nominee’s work and/or impact. Supplemental materials are not to exceed 10 total pages. Examples of supplementary materials include: PDF of online content, and other forms of written materials e.g., news articles, evaluation reports, or success stories.

After the selection process is completed, top applicants (inclusive of the winner(s)) may be asked to participate in a telephone discussion about the interventions used by the individual or team to successfully advance health equity and reduce health disparities. Themes from these discussions may be shared publicly to provide information to promote innovative interventions that lead to progress toward reducing health disparities. Applicants and the winner (including all members of the team, if a team is selected as the winner) must comply with all terms and conditions of these official rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements herein. CDC will notify the winner by e-mail, telephone, or mail after the date of the judging.

How To Enter

To compete for this award, individuals and entities must submit an application form. The application requires responses to questions related to eligibility, followed by three questions related to the nominee’s work; the answer to each of the three questions should be no longer than 300 words.

If you have questions, send an email to the challenge manager using the information under Point of Contact. Use the words "REACH Lark Award" in the subject line.

Point of Contact

Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Policy Office: dnpaopolicy@cdc.gov