Healthy native community fellowship: An indigenous leadership program to enhance community wellness

Abstract

The Healthy Native Communities Fellowship (HNCF) is a grassroots evidence-based mentorship and leadership program that develops the skills and community-building capacities of leaders and community teams to improve health status through several intermediate social and cultural mechanisms: (a) strengthening social participation (also known as social capital or cohesion); (b) strengthening cultural connectedness and revitalization of cultural identity; and (c) advocating for health-enhancing policies, practices, and programs that strengthen systems of prevention and care, as well as address the structural social determinants of health. This leadership program uses a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and participatory evaluation to investigate how the work of local American Indian and Alaska Native leaders (fellows) and their community coalitions contributes to individual, family, and community level health outcomes.