Small Communities Program

In 2012, Community Transformation Grants was expanded to support areas with fewer than 500,000 people in neighborhoods, school districts, villages, towns, cities, and counties to increase opportunities to prevent chronic diseases and promote health. In an effort to reach more people, approximately $70 million was awarded to 40 communities to implement broad, sustainable strategies that will reduce health disparities and expand clinical and community preventive services that will directly impact about 9.2 million Americans. For more information on this program, view the original funding opportunity.

Consistent with the overall CTG program, these awards helped support the five “Strategic Directions” from the National Prevention Strategy: 1) tobacco-free living, 2) active living and healthy eating, 3) high-impact quality clinical and community preventive services, 4) social and emotional wellness, and 5) healthy and safe physical environments.

Awardees conducted activities that contribute to the overall goals of the CTG program and helped achieve positive change in one or more of the following five outcome measures; changes in:

1. Weight
2. Proper nutrition
3. Physical activity
4. Tobacco use
5. Social and emotional well-being

Examples of community initiatives include:

• Increasing access to physical activity through quality physical education instruction in schools
• Increasing access to healthy foods by supporting local farmers and neighborhood grocery stores
• Protecting people from secondhand smoke exposure in indoor and outdoor spaces
• Facilitating the early identification of mental health needs and access to quality services

Awardees