About

In 2016, Pala Band of Mission Indians was awarded a grant from the U.S. EPA under a solicitation called “Building the Capacity of Tribes to Address the Health Impacts of Climate Change.”  The grant funds the development and distribution of online trainings, a resource clearinghouse, and other capacity-building tools that will help tribal health and environmental professionals across the nation prepare their communities for the public health impacts of climate change. Pala has since been awarded funding to expand upon this project by the US BIA Tribal Resilience Program and the National Indian Health Board.

Pala has selected Prosper Sustainably, a consulting firm with extensive tribal and climate governance experience, to help perform the scope of work approved under the grants. The scope includes development of curriculum, a resource clearinghouse, and tools and templates that can assist tribes and their partner agencies in assessing vulnerability and implementing adaptation strategies. These items are guided by advice from leading experts participating on an Advisory Group. The scope also includes the delivery of these items through this website, online and in-person trainings, and national outreach efforts. The program has provided training to nearly 1,000 tribal serving professionals to date. Trainees are invited to participate in continuous engagement through our ongoing learning community.

The Tribal Climate Health Project has received three consecutive BIA Tribal Resilience funding awards to expand upon our efforts to make it easier for tribes to access health and other data to support their climate resilience efforts. These funds allow TCHP to scale up our intertribal resilience data development work by collaborating with 16 California tribes to access adaptation data needs, refine available epidemiological datasets and protocols, and build national tribal capacity through presentations and facilitated interagency discussions on tribal data solutions with key national stakeholders. Learn more.

For additional information about this project, please contact Shasta Gaughen (Pala Environmental Director) or Angie Hacker (Prosper Sustainably).