With questions surrounding local control of bike-ped funding in America’s next federal transportation bill, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has stepped up and announced the availability of $70 million in grants for small communities. The grants could be used to pursue a variety of projects that make for healthier, safer places.

From the grant announcement:

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced available funding of $70 million to improve the health of small communities across the nation. Grants will be awarded to governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations across a variety of sectors, including transportation, housing, education, and public health, in an effort to save lives and control the nation’s growing health care costs associated with preventable chronic diseases.

The small-community investments are part of the Community Transformation Grant (CTG) program, a comprehensive prevention and wellness initiative launched in 2011 by HHS and administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CTG Small Communities program targets intervention populations of up to 500,000 in neighborhoods, school districts, villages, towns, cities and counties in order to increase opportunities for people to make healthful choices and improve health.  These areas can be specific counties, cities, towns and villages with populations up to 500,000 or neighborhoods, sections, or subgroups of the population (e.g., children or seniors) within a metropolitan area.

For more information, visit the grant program’s website.