The Program Core focuses on the following four aims: community-based outreach, workforce development, technology access, and evaluation. Region 6 recognizes the importance of utilizing community-driven approaches to engage underrepresented populations across the Region. A core focus of Region 6’s community-based outreach plan will be an enhanced subaward program for outreach to underrepresented populations. This program will provide targeted outreach to Medically Underserved Areas (MUA), collaborations with the Region’s Advisory Groups and Partner Outreach Program, and oversight by the Community Outreach Coordinator. The goal of this program will be to foster meaningful engagement between Network members and build capacity and trust through community-led initiatives. Awards made as part of this program will have a direct impact on NNLM’s goals to promote health literacy and address health equity through information. A health literacy summit will also be coordinated by the RML to further build capacity across the Region. Beyond the health literacy summit, the RML is structured to support a diverse workforce with various training needs. An education and outreach team will develop and deliver trainings and other programming activities for librarians and library and information science students; public health and other health professionals; and public librarians and staff. Each target audience will require coordinators to assess, develop, deliver, and evaluate activities to ensure the needs of NNLM’s diverse audiences are being met. Funding opportunities will be offered to support professional development and establish relationships across NNLM members. Funding support will also be made to organizations that operate in MUAs and struggle with access to broadband internet. As part of its technology improvement plan, Region 6 staff will also seek partnerships with organizations across the Region that can further address digital inequities by incorporating digital health components. The RML will be guided by a logic model, to be developed in collaboration with the NNLM National Evaluation Center, and continuous evaluation throughout the five-year cooperative agreement will enable data-driven decision-making regarding programming activities.

None required per RFA