Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals

Redesigning interactive online learning modules to build Indigenous Climate Health Solutions ($37,898)

Recipient: Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals/Northern Arizona University Foundation

Project Partners: Swinomish Indian Tribal Community

Indigenous peoples experience some of the most devastating impacts from climate change. Many Indigneous people view environmental impacts as symbiotically connected to community health impacts and as such they must be evaluated together. Yet there are no established community health evaluation methods that reflect the interconnected Indigenous view of health; assessments rely primarily on technical physical and physiological data from climate models, with limited local knowledge and little to no values-driven community data. Values-driven data provide important information about how people define what a health community means, their priorities, and preferred actions to maintain or improve health. This project will redesign the existing climate health modules developed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to better engage, communicate with, and support resilience in diverse Indigenous communities from different regions who have unique worldviews and perspectives and who are often on the frontlines of climate change impacts and action planning.