TAHLEQUAH, OK – The Cherokee Nation has launched a new Public Health and Wellness Partners grant program, which beginning March 3rd, will provides grants for eligible capital and operational projects impacting the Cherokee Nation reservation. The program makes grants available to assist schools, local governments and non-profits with projects that can improve their local community’s public health, such as pilot wellness programs or capital projects to create or enhance access to physical activities.
“Organizations, schools and local governments across the region are uniquely positioned to help us improve wellness in our Cherokee communities,” said Chief Hoskin. “The Public Health and Wellness Partners grant program can help turn ideas for new wellness programs and infrastructure investment into reality in a way that benefits all of us.”
In 2021, Chief Hoskin, Deputy Chief Warner and the Council of the Cherokee Nation enacted the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act (PHWFA). The law, among other things, earmarks a small portion of the tribe’s third-party health revenue mostly for Cherokee Nation behavioral health and physical wellness programs. PHWFA has been used for some of the tribe’s major health initiatives such as new wellness centers, as well as smaller projects such as walking trails. The tribe recently tapped the fund to subsidize gym memberships for Cherokee Nation citizens at participating non-profit gyms.
“This new pilot grant program could mean enhancements to local parks, improvements to water and sanitation systems, new food security programs, just to name a few ideas,” said Deputy Chief Bryan Warner. “Our new Public Health and Wellness Partners will bring us their ideas and we will do our best to fund as many of the most promising projects, where the need is the greatest, as possible.”
Cherokee Nation Deputy Secretary of State Canaan Duncan, who will help oversee the program, said applicants that demonstrate the greatest need, the greatest community support and the greatest degree of general public access will be the most successful.
“Obviously with a limited pool of funds entrusted to us by the Council and virtually unlimited opportunities to partner on great projects, we must prioritize, and we must be willing to learn as we go,” said Deputy Secretary Duncan. “Public Health and Wellness Grant application reviewers will be looking for projects or pilot programs which serve a wide population where the wellness gaps are the greatest and we will be thinking of ‘wellness’ in the broadest possible terms.”
