Strengthening Tribal Public Health Systems
(Formally Tribal ASI)

Background

Historically, Tribes ensured their communities’ health by integrating systems of health and well-being. As with most if not all indigenous people, prior to European contact, Native Americans had complex traditions, cultural practices, social organizations, economies, forms of government, education, and spirituality that interrelatedly worked together to ensure the health and survival of the people.

Contemporary Tribal public health systems, shaped by a history of colonialism, epidemics, government policy, and a lack of funding evolved along a different trajectory than their local and state counterparts and hence they are often overlooked or underrepresented in the US public health system. “Tribal nations have an inherent right to promote and protect the health and welfare of their citizens, using the methods most relevant for their communities.”¹ As such, the National Indian Health Board supports Tribal nations as they rebuild and define their current systems.

Since 2008, the (NIHB) has partnered with Tribal nations and national partners in an effort to advance public health practice in Indian Country. With the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIHB has provided funding and technical assistance to Tribes pursuing performance improvement and public health accreditation projects and initiatives.

Strong Systems, Stronger Communities

Strong Systems, Stronger Communities (SSSC), (created in 2018), is a funding opportunity provided by the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) and supported by the CDC. This opportunity builds on a former project - NIHB’s Tribal Accreditation Support Initiative (ASI) and continues NIHB’s commitment to strengthening Tribal public health systems by offering support and technical assistance specifically to Tribes as they complete projects to improve their performance, meet national public health accreditation standards, and/or promote interconnection across the public health system to improve population health.

The intended outcomes of SSSC include;

• Increased performance improvement practice
• Increased innovation in response to system integration challenges, and
• Progress toward national public health standards.

While performance improvement focuses on internal changes to improve services, system improvement focuses on incorporating health equity and interconnection of various systems that can impact the public health of a community. Interconnection is defined as "the linkage of programs, activities, and/or stakeholders to promote overall efficiency and effectiveness and achieve gains in population health."

Funding Opportunity

The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pleased to announce the fourth cycle of funding for Strong Systems, Stronger Communities (SSSC) for Tribes. NIHB anticipates funding up to 8 proposals from Tribes, Tribal consortia, and Tribal organizations. NIHB anticipates funding up to 7 proposals under the following category:

• Performance Improvement/Systems Improvement Award - up to $15,000 each, with up to an additional $2,000 provided to the attend NIHB training.

Please refer to the RFA for more details. The application deadline has been extended to Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

Eligibility:

To be considered eligible for this funding opportunity, the following criteria must be met:

1. Official Tribal entities of federally recognized Tribal governments, Tribal organizations, or inter-Tribal consortiums, as defined in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as amended.
2. Applicants must have a strong interest and/or demonstrated commitment to pursuing public health performance and systems improvement or public health accreditation.

Please read the full funding description and download the application packages here.

NIHB and CDC hosted a pre-application webinar on January 20th, 2023. The recording and slides for this webinar are now available. The pre-application webinar slides can be viewed here. A recording of the webinar is also available here.

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Dean at [email protected]

Tribal Accreditation Support Initiative

From 2014-2018, NIHB supported Tribal efforts to increase their readiness for public health accreditation through the Tribal Accreditation Support Initiative (ASI). Over the course of four years, twenty Tribal awardees performed performance improvement tasks such as Community/Tribal Health Assessments and Improvement Plans, strategic planning, workforce development, and quality improvement projects. As a measure of readiness, NIHB adapted the evidence-based Community Readiness Model to an Accreditation Readiness Model, and used this to track progress and assist awardees in charting their course for systems improvement.

View Tribal ASI Awardees 2014-2108

CLICK HERE

View Past Awardees Project Presentations

CLICK HERE

Resources