Exploring Health Risk Mitigation within Tribal Communities Using GIS

[RicklynHukriede]

 Within tribal communities, unique health challenges often necessitate tailored solutions. An effective tool for addressing these issues is Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this discussion, let's delve into the potential of GIS for mitigating health risks within tribal communities.

Topic A: Communicable Diseases Delve into how GIS can track and manage communicable diseases, such as COVID-19 and tuberculosis, within tribal communities. Share instances where spatial data has been pivotal in identifying high-risk areas, monitoring outbreaks, and enabling targeted healthcare interventions.

Topic B: Air Quality Risk Examine the pivotal role of GIS in monitoring and enhancing air quality on Native lands. Share real-world examples illustrating how GIS has been used to pinpoint pollution sources, evaluate their health impact, and inform policy decisions to reduce air quality risks.

Topic C: Human Trafficking on Native Lands Discuss the application of GIS technology to combat human trafficking within tribal communities. Provide instances where GIS has been employed to identify human trafficking hotspots, support victim rescue operations, and guide law enforcement efforts.

Share your insights, opinions, and ideas on how GIS technology can revolutionize the approach to environmental health concerns in tribal communities. Your perspectives can contribute to the ongoing dialogue about fostering sustainable change and improving the lives of those who matter most.
Join us and be a part of this enriching conversation! 🌎🌱

[XerxesBulusBaks]

Guiding law enforcement efforts: GIS technology has been used to guide law enforcement efforts. For example, GIS technology has been used to develop statewide or tribal jurisdiction-wide strategies to address the challenges of identifying and assisting child and youth victims of sex and labor trafficking and/or to investigating and prosecuting these cases.

In summary, GIS technology has been used to identify human trafficking hotspots, support victim rescue operations, and guide law enforcement efforts in tribal communities.

[KarlaEisen]

We have also explored using GIS to assist Tribal Child Welfare, identify families, track ICWA cases, etc.  On of the challenges is linking the technical expertise of the GIS experts with the social work staff and developing safe and acceptable data sharing with sensitive data.  See some of our thoughts here:

GeographicDataforDecisionMaking.pdf (tribalinformationexchange.org)

MappingZtoZProtectZChildrenZandZPreserveZCommunities042117FINAL-3.pdf (tribalinformationexchange.org...

Using GIS to Strengthen Practice and Inform Policy in Tribal Child Welfare Agencies - YouTube

[AnneTaylor]

Hi Karla,

Great to hear from you!  And thank you for those links and chiming in on this topic!  Thank you for the good work you, Jhon and others are doing at the Capacity Building Center for Tribes.  The use of GIS technology to help ensure the safety and well being of tribal children and their communities is the best use of GIS that I can think of.  What are some of the ways you and your team help bridge the gap between the GIS technologist and the Social workers? This type of gap is present in many other industries and it would be great for people to share their strategies on how to encourage non-technical teammates to use the technology.

Anne

[BryanMarozas]

Response to Anne Taylor's question for Karla:

I would suggest that developing User Needs Assessments would be an effective exercise for bridging the gap between technologists and subject matter experts.