The University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health (UNC SPH) proposes to establish a Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center (PERLC) to meet the training needs of the workforce involved with public health preparedness and response in a defined four State area of service: North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The target audience for this proposal is defined as mid-tier public health professionals at local, regional and State public health agencies in the four State service area. The UNC PERLC will collaborate with key partners in each State to (a) develop training and educational opportunities around the Public Health preparedness and response core competencies (PHP&R core competencies) currently under development by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and (b) develop partner-requested education and training. For developing training and educational programs around the PHP&R core competencies, the UNC PERLC will (1) develop a robust, comprehensive, modular continuing education program around all of the new PHP&R core competency domains and (2) develop just-in-time short competency-based trainings via a training Web site. Additional partner-identified preparedness training needs will be addressed through specific activities providing training and performance support tools that expand upon PHP&R core Competencies training needs. All training activities will undergo thorough evaluation in order to guide improvements and measure training effectiveness.
