Atlanta Awarded $30 Million HUD Choice Grant to Revitalize Westside; MSM to be Lead
Health Partner to Work with AHA
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM)'s Community Health and Preventive Medicine Department will be the lead health partner assisting the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) in health care outreach as it utilizes the $30 million Choice grant recently awarded to the City of Atlanta by U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Julian Castro.
AHA interim President and CEO Joy Fitzgerald, who is a member of MSM's Board of Trustees, has led the AHA's efforts to secure the HUD Choice grant since 2014 and worked with MSM's Community Health and Preventive Medicine Department to identify and include the various health needs of the targeted communities in the proposed Choice grant implementation plan.
The Choice grant, which will be used to provide affordable housing and eliminate blight from Atlanta's westside communities (which includes Ashview Heights, Vine City and the Atlanta University Center neighborhood), will also implement a health strategy in which MSM health case coordinators will:
- Assist clients referred by case managers in the coordination of care with Morehouse Healthcare, Fulton County Department of Health and wellness/Neighborhood Union, Family Health Centers of Georgia, or other health partner/resources
- Conduct outreach, including home visits to assess household health care needs
- Assist residents in signing up for health care (ACA, CATCH, PeachCare, etc.)
- Train care coordinators
- Provide project leader and grants administration support
- Provide quarterly health education/screenings at targeted Washington High Cluster Schools and charter schools in the University Choice Neighborhood via MSM's Mobile Research van
- Provide IT resources to support data integration of MSM and AHA systems
- Support Choice Neighborhoods educational STEAM initiative with the Georgia Aquarium
