Community Engagement Core

Project Summary/Abstract The central premise of the Community Engagement (CE) Core is that communities at greatest risk for negative health consequences due to climate change are the same communities who will make the most profound strides to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledges (ITEKs; also

referred to as Native Science) refers to the evolving knowledge acquired by indigenous communities over millennia through their direct contact with the environment and has recently been recognized as having great potential to be leveraged to mitigate the impacts of climate change. To date, much of the existing literature on

the capacity of ITEKs to inform efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change exists primarily outside of the U.S. Additionally, and as reflected in the White House’s Commitment to Elevating Indigenous Knowledge in Federal Policy, efforts are urgently needed to ensure American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN), as well as rural,

representatives are at the same table as researchers, clinicians, and policy makers who are discussing the results and implications of research on climate and health. Through the Mni Sota Center for Climate Change and Health we will build capacity for innovative research related to climate change and health as experienced

by the two communities who we posit will make the most profound strides to mitigate the impacts of climate change: AIAN and rural communities. This will be achieved by centering ITEKs, conducting community engagement with AIAN and rural communities, and by leveraging the multidisciplinary assets and expertise of

the University of Minnesota and our partner institutions. The objective of the CE Core is to co-develop, assist, implement, and evaluate strategies that will catalyze the Center’s capacity to examine the impacts of climate change on health and develop action-oriented solutions to protect AIAN and rural persons. The CE Core has

the following aims: Aim 1: Co-develop a research agenda that leverages ITEKs and Western environmental health approaches that identifies a) key research questions related to climate change and health experienced by American Indian and rural persons that can be prioritized in future research and b) data sovereignty

guidelines and other recommendations for culturally safe research practices; Aim 2: Assist Center efforts in navigating climate- and health-related community engaged research by providing expertise in CE from planning to dissemination and culturally safe research practices including data sovereignty; Aim 3: Implement a

Citizen Science Program that entails digital storytelling (a form of ITEKs) with AIAN youth; Aim 4: Evaluate the Center’s reach and engagement efforts via a multi-pronged approach informed by the RE-AIM Framework, Goodman Assessment of CE, and an Indigenous Evaluation entailing storytelling. The CE Core will be highly

impactful given that it represents a braiding together of Native and Western science and viewpoints, or two- eyed seeing approaches, and will engage communities who we posit will make the most profound strides to mitigate the impacts of climate change and allies representing researchers, clinicians, and policy makers.