We are pleased to announce the 2019–2020 Community Grants Program award recipients. Grantee communities will spend the grant cycle developing and implementing indigenous approaches to overweight and obesity education, prevention and management, and associated risk factors.
Oklahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC)
In 1969, a group of volunteer physicians came together to fill a health care void by providing services five hours weekly to the underserved American Indian population in central Oklahoma. At that time, the closest American Indian health care clinic was 40 miles away, and the two nearest American Indian hospitals were almost a two-hour drive. Over the next several years, this group worked to respond to these challenges and developed a vision for an organization that would offer the highest quality care to central Oklahoma American Indians. This vision unfolded in our mission statement: “providing excellent health care to American Indians.” Since 1974, the OKCIC has embraced that mission. In the spirit of our founders, for the past several decades we’ve continued to expand and strengthen our organization to meet the health care needs of American Indians. By making American Indians healthier, the clinic strengthens Oklahoma City, the state of Oklahoma, and the nation.
Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC)
The Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1974 to serve the rapidly growing urban American Indian population in Minneapolis/St. Paul (The Twin Cities). As one of the oldest urban Indian centers in the country, MAIC continues to work to meet the social, economic, and health needs of the low-income urban Indian community. Their mission is to provide excellent services within a framework of cultural values to meet the needs of the American Indian community.
Native American Health Center (NAHC)
Founded in 1972 as a response to the unmet health and social needs of the American Indian and Alaska Native population living in the San Francisco Bay Area, the mission of NAHC is to provide comprehensive services to improve the health and well-bring of American Indians and Alaska Natives and residents of the surrounding communities with respect for cultural and linguistic differences. NAHC is a community-based organization rooted in urban American Indian and Alaska Native culture. NAHC has a Board of Directors that consists of American Indians and Alaska Natives who represent a variety of tribal and professional affiliations and is currently managed and staffed by diverse individuals, many of American Indian and Alaska Native ancestry, that represent the broad range of experience and diversity that exists among urban American Indian and Alaska Native populations today. As a result, NAHC has a long history of being a primary point of contact with American Indians and Alaska Natives within the community.
Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition (NUIHC)
The mission of the Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition is to elevate the health status of Native Americans to the highest level possible. Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition, Inc. (NUIHC) was incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit in Lancaster County, NE, on May 28, 1986. NUIHC was founded by a forward-thinking group of Native Americans who identified the need for culturally appropriate health care and substance abuse treatment services to serve the urban Indian population in Lincoln and Omaha Nebraska and Sioux City, Iowa.