American Indian and Alaska Native ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Recognition Awards Recipients
In partnership with the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 American Indian/Alaska Native ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Recognition Awards. This award recognizes tribal environmental health programs, strategies, and initiatives that have made a substantial impact on the health and wellness of their tribal community.
Tribal agencies or organizations that have successfully developed and/or implemented an innovative EH activity, strategy, project, or program were eligible to apply for the award. Submissions were evaluated based on how well they achieved the following objectives:
- Identified and addressed health equity gaps
- Addressed climate adaptation and/or mitigation
- Developed and implemented environmental justice initiatives
- Enhanced environmental health workforce capacity
- Shared cultural teachings and practices about environmental health and sustainability
- Accelerated environmental public health goals
- Changed the way you do inspections, collect data, or perform other job processes
- Created or utilized new systems
- Incorporated indigenous ways of knowing to support behavior change in the environmental health field
- Developed family or community activities that promoted positive environmental health practices
Thank you to all who applied for the 2022 awards and congratulations to this year's winners.
Gold
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board – Environmental Public Health Program
This program provides comprehensive environmental public health services to tribes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. These services are focused on identifying and assessing environmental conditions and social determinants of health, preventing environmental and occupational hazards, reducing environmentally-caused disease and injury, and achieving health equity.
Environmental Public Health staff conduct interviews with traditional knowledge keepers from each tribe to collect tribal traditional ecological knowledge, which is incorporated into all environmental health and emergency coordination services.
Resources
- Community ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Indicators | PDF
- Community ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Profile Development Methods | PDF
- Community ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Assessment Memorandum of Understanding | PDF
- Community ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Profile Standard Operating Procedure | PDF
- COVID-19 Facility Reopening Tool | PDF
- COVID-19 Response Public Health Incident Command Center | PDF
- COVID-19 Facility Risk Analysis Tool | PDF
- COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Guide | PDF
Silver
Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center – Tribal Healthy Homes Program
The winner of the Silver Award is the Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center's (AASTEC) Tribal Healthy Homes Project (THHP). The THHP is based at AASTEC and co-led by Drs. Sheldwin Yazzie (AASTEC Deputy Director) and Joseph Hoover (Co-Director of the University of New Mexico Center for Native ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Equity Research).
AASTEC partnered with tribal communities in the Indian Health Service Albuquerque Area to design community-specific home assessment tools; collect, analyze, and report housing quality and geospatial data; measure and report residential home indoor radon concentration levels; and conduct training activities. THHP tribal community partners have utilized their data to successfully administer remediation or mitigation activities in homes, such as repairing or installing carbon monoxide detectors, providing batteries for fire alarms, and providing fire extinguishers and step stools.
Resource
- National Radon Action Month | Flyer
Bronze
Diné College – School of STEM Summer Internship Program
The School of STEM at Diné College hosts an annual Summer Internship Program designed to train students in brownfield remediation within the Navajo Nation. Students learn to identify contaminated areas; employ toxicology, environmental sampling, and restoration methods; and attend tribal meetings to obtain community input on how land can be reclaimed.
Direct input from the Navajo Nation helps the Diné team better understand the relationship between the Navajo people and their environment and to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and cultural guidance into remediation activities
Resources
- Tribal Colleges and Universities Program funding opportunities |
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture funding opportunities |
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture Tribal Equity Grants Program |