Food Wisdom Repository: Information Resources for Native Nutritional Health

This project undertakes outreach activities to further development of, and facilitate access to, a public knowledge repository of information on Indigenous nutritional health. The Research for Indigenous Community Health RICH Center at the University of Minnesota is building a curated database of reliable information resources relevant to Native nutritional health, accessed via a public website. Drawing from multiple sources of food wisdomincluding experiential, community-based, and cross-disciplinary academic knowledgethis searchable repository provides a directory of experts, a bibliography of scholarly publications and grey literature, and information on relevant projects, programs, and resources. Supported by a gift from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Communitys Seeds of Native Health initiative, and guided by first-round needs assessment, the RICH Center has built a proof-of-concept test site. The proposed project will further development of the repository into a fully-functioning, publicly-accessible prototype, and maximize its accessibility, through collection and analysis of additional user data. In the first half of the award period, advised by the External Consultants and the University of Minnesotas Usability Lab, the Project Director and Outreach Associate will conduct needs assessment and user testing with selected target users: health workers health practitioners, health and nutrition 12s, program managers, project coordinators, and other public and community health workers who are working most directly within Native communities to foster health and well-being through food and nutrition. Analysis of user data will guide content development, database structure, and interface design for the prototype. The proposed project also includes assessment of the need for training resources to help target users access and utilize the repositorys resources. Advised by the External Consultants, the Project Director and Outreach Associate will collaborate with the Outreach Librarian for the University of Minnesotas Health Sciences Library to assess the training needs of two audiences: health workers, and information professionals who serve Native communities. In the second half of the award period, they will analyze data collected on training needs, identify priority needs, and plan for development of high-priority training resources.