Minority Outreach & Technical Assistance (MOTA)

 History: The Minority Outreach and Technical Assistance (MOTA) program began (2001) under the auspices of the Cigarette Restitution Fund Program (CRFP).  CRFP was established by Maryland State Legislation and began operations on July 1, 2000 as a major initiative within the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH).  MOTA was established to implement the Cigarette Restitution Fund Act’s provision requiring outreach and technical assistance to minority communities to ensure their participation in the tobacco and cancer community health coalitions.   Minority communities include African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans.

In 2004, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation to establish the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (MHHD) in DHMH’s Office of the Secretary.  The 2004 legislation required MHHD to provide outreach to racial and ethnic minority communities to ensure their maximum participation in publicly funded health programs. 

In 2010, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced the expansion of MHHD beyond Tobacco and Cancer to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities throughout the State of Maryland.  The expanded focus now includes major health disparities that affect racial and ethnic minority communities such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infant mortality, obesity, and asthma.

Status: Beginning with 2004, the MOTA grants were awarded to individual jurisdictions based on the proportion of minorities in the respective populations.  For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, DHMH/MHHD awarded MOTA grants to community-based organizations in the 15 jurisdictions having the highest proportion of minorities.  These MOTA grant recipients include faith-based organizations, hospital-based minority programs, academic institutions and non-profit grassroots groups.