St. Paul Island, AK
Creating a community-centered framework to address inequities in food-security in Alaskan coastal communities facing a changing climate
Organization: University of Alaska
Primary Investigator: Amanda Bishop
Research Track: Resource and Service Equity
University of Alaska and the Tribal Government of St. Paul Island are transforming citizen-scientist research partnerships by empowering Indigenous Alaskan communities and building capacity to tackle inequities surrounding traditional food security. The pilot will address community-identified concerns of contaminants in marine food resources, by anchoring existing research technology and training within a Tribal institution, as opposed to an external academic, agency or contract laboratory. By embracing the braided-river model in which different ways of knowing can flow independently or join to maximize each other’s strengths, we will facilitate rapid responses to changes in vital natural resources, with long-term goals of enhancing equity, inclusion, risk management, and resilience.
NSF Abstract
Accessing healthy food resources is a significant challenge for rural coastal Alaskan communities, which are predominantly comprised of Indigenous Alaskans who rely on subsistence foods that are nutritionally and culturally important. Addressing these concerns is urgent, as food safety and security are increasingly threatened by environmental toxicants due to climate change and pollution, and requires approaches that enable communities to make proactive decisions and respond to rapid changes in essential resources. Many food-safety monitoring programs in geographically isolated communities currently rely on contributory citizen science models, where citizen-collected samples are sent off-site to academic or agency research labs for analyses. This model has been shown to enhance participant knowledge and engagement, but it is prone to delays in communicating results, and may magnify inequities, technological gaps, and distrust. The project's vision seeks to flip this paradigm and create an effective community-centered research partnership where all steps from identifying the problem, to data collection, analysis, and processing, will be led by and take place within the community through support from research and technology partnerships. The proposed pathway will be applicable for a range of geographically isolated, rural communities working to incorporate local and traditional knowledge and scientific data on food safety into natural resource management decisions.
THis research-centered pilot project is a partnership between academic researchers and tribal governments in Alaska. The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) identified concerns surrounding food security and safety as an area ripe for innovation and one which would benefit from partnering with western scientists. To address our research question ?Does a community-centered citizen science framework address inequities in food security, improve quality of life, and enhance resilience for Alaskan coastal communities?? this project will (1) develop on-site research capacity for ecosystem health monitoring through sustainable enhancements to existing research infrastructure and technology, (2) expand community engagement in data collection, analysis, and interpretation by leveraging ?two-eyed seeing? approaches to scientific training and educational programming, and (3) develop a digital dashboard for data archival, accessibility, and sharing capacity to facilitate information utilization and resilience, within and between communities. This holistic program builds upon existing partnerships, frameworks, and trust, which will enable us, during the Stage 1 planning grant, to focus on expanding and refining our team, honing the training module design, solidifying deliverables based on community needs, and ensuring successful completion within the pilot project timeframe. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program?Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs?and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.