Despite decades of research, Urban Native American communities have not benefited as much as their counterparts in other communities from evidence based interventions (EBIs) designed to address cardiovascular disease, obesity, and hypertension.

Indigenous health promotion aligns EBIs with the broader context of cultural and community assets such as indigenous knowledge (IK) and orientations towards sovereignty and self-determination, as well as a recognition of structural contexts, including historical trauma, land access, material resources, and disproportionate risks of violence and pollution.

BRAID assesses facilitators and barriers to implementing an innovative after school health promotion program that builds on cultural knowledge and community relationships to connect youth to health through cultural lifeways, land stewardship practices, traditional foods and games (ie, wooden stick lacrosse), and other activities that improve their holistic wellbeing.

Project BRAID is hosted in both the Twin Cities and Duluth, Minnesota.