1.  Reference: Title X Family Planning Project Funding Opportunity for Health Centers
Unity Health Care, Inc. (Unity) is currently seeking community health organizations to participate in the District of Columbia’s 2009 Title X Family Planning Services Project.  Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated to solely providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. For further information on competing for Title X funding, please visit the Request for Applications.

2.  Resource:  The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide
For more info, read:  Another Way to Count Calories by Howard Schneider, The Washington Post, Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

3.  Resource:  From Volume to Value: Transforming Health Care Payment and Delivery Systems
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Content Alerts, Quality/Equality, November 17, 2008
A major cause of the quality and cost problems in U.S. health care today is attributed to the current payment system built to reward the quantity of treatment, not the quality of care.  The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement urges solutions that could save billions of dollars and make expanding health insurance to the uninsured more affordable in their new report.  From Volume to Value: Transforming Health Care Payment and Delivery Systems to Improve Quality and Reduce Costs addresses a number of important issues and a variety of challenges to overcome in order to move the proposed improvements from concept to reality.  A summit of more than 100 leaders from across the country -- doctors, hospitals, insurers, academics, foundations, government, and regional health care collaboratives – generated the recommendations.  This 53-page report is the first in the NRHI Healthcare Payment Reform Series, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The series examines ways to reform payment systems, improve quality, and reduce costs in the health care system.  For more info, read the executive summary and news release.

4.  Resource:  Maternal and Child Health Post-Graduate Leadership Academy
This University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work and the University of Georgia program assists social workers in advancing their leadership potential in maternal and child health.  The cost for participation in the Leadership Academy is covered in full.  This includes travel and lodging during the immersion retreats in Maryland and Georgia and any other education materials.  NOTE:  The due date of November 1 is flexible.  If anyone in your organization is interested in applying to participate in this program, contact Professor This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Ph.D., at (706) 542-2585.  Also read:  Maternal and Child Health Post-Graduate Leadership Academy brochure.

5.  Resource:  New Books on Mental Health 
Hurry Down Sunshine (Michael Greenberg, Other Press, 234 pp., $22), Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia (Patrick Tracey, Bantam, 273 pp., $24), Scattershot: My Bipolar Family (David Lovelace, Dutton, 292 pp., $24.95), and Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival (Christopher Lukas, Doubleday, 248 pp., $24.95).  For more info, read:  Four new books tell the true stories of mental illness by Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY, November 9, 2008.

6.  Resource: Excess Office Furnishings and Supplies
The Whitman-Walker Clinic has excess office furnishings and supplies from it's current corporate site relocation at 14th and S Streets NW.  The following items are available for donation to other non-profits and interested organizations: office desks, chairs, file cabinets, bookcases, tables, large conference room table, occasional/side furniture, semicircular reception desk, wall hangings and pictures, plumbing items, and office supplies.  Interested persons may contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Director of Property Management, Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm, at 202-327-3580 for more information.  Recipient organizations are responsible for the disassembly and transport of receipted items. All items must be removed no later than December 5th.

7.  Resource: Center for Health & Wellness
Recently opened by SAR Corp of DC, the Center for Health & Wellness is a private, community-based counseling and mental health clinic offering individual and family counseling services.  For more info, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , President & Chief Executive Officer.

8.  Resource:  "Management Learning Experiences of CEOs"
HSC Foundation CEO Tom Chapman (the former CEO at Greater Southeast and GW) wrote a 58-page book for leaders in elite occupations -- those with extensive power, substantial responsibility, and unrelenting demands.  For more info, read:  Hospital CEOs Aren't Learning by Curtis Raye, Medical Bisnow, November 6, 2008.

9.  Resource:  Politically Appointed Jobs with the New Administration
The Obama administration needs to fill 7,000 federal positions.  This new Web site lists new openings as of Nov. 4.  The site will also show a continual roundup of filled and unfilled administration jobs.  The new 2008 list won't be released by the government and published on the job site until later this month.  Applicants can track health care policy positions across all divisions of the federal government.  For more info, read:  Presidential transition Web site scores hits by Tierney Plumb, Washington Business Journal, Wednesday, November 5, 2008.

10.  Resource:  Contest:  "What Does It Mean to Be a Washingtonian?"
The Post will post your entries online, and is accepting prose, photos, videos, songs, and poetry.  They'll publish their favorites and award one grand-prize winner a $100 American Express gift certificate.  The deadline is Dec. 31.  View details and contest rules online.  You can post your entries online or mail to John Kelly, The Washington Post, 1150 - 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20071.  For more info, read:  What Makes a Washingtonian? You Decide. by John Kelly, The Washington Post, Monday, October 20, 2008.

11.  Resource: DC Included in Federal Loan Repayment Program
DC Primary Care Association, News Release, October 10, 2008
DCPCA celebrates the President signing into law legislation that expands a federal student loan repayment program to include medical professionals in the District of Columbia as well.  DCPCA has worked to promote the DC Health Professional Loan Repayment Program since 2005.  The program helps recruit new primary care, dental, and mental health providers to underserved communities by creating financial incentives for providers to practice in designated shortage areas.  "Recruiting new providers to low-income neighborhoods through this loan repayment program helps equalize the difference in salary between shortage and non-shortage areas," said DCPCA's CEO Sharon Baskerville.  "This program also improves retention rates for providers in shortage areas, creating a workforce that lives and works in our underserved communities."

12.  Resource:  DC Office of Partnerships and Grants Development's Funding Alert, November 17, 2008.

13.  Resource:  DC Council's Bi-Weekly Calendar, November 24 - December 5, 2008.  For DC Council updates, call the 24-hour info-line:  (202) 724-8554.