Vital Strategies partners with the New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association and Americans for Indian Opportunity to Fund 16 Native nations, Tribal health programs, Native-led organizations and Native-focused initiatives.
Overdose impacts all communities, but disparities have widened particularly for Black and Indigenous communities, despite the fact that all groups use drugs at similar rates. While the overall rate of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. decreased between 2022 and 2023, the rate among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people remained unchanged and was highest in the nation of any racial or ethnic group. In New Mexico, data has indicated that Native people experience a rate of fatal overdose higher than that of the general state population.
To address health inequities in Native communities, public health organization Vital Strategies partnered with the New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association and Americans for Indian Opportunity to launch “Culturally Based Harm Reduction by and for Native Communities in New Mexico,” a funding initiative that will distribute $1.68 million to Native nations, Tribal health programs, Native-led organizations, and Native-focused initiatives.
Through an application process,16 grantees were selected for their potential to implement community-based solutions to overdose. Projects funded by this initiative center Indigenous harm reduction principles and practices, which draw on the strengths of Indigenous cultures in developing responses to the overdose crisis.
“This funding opportunity will put resources directly into the hands of Native communities across New Mexico, expanding access to lifesaving interventions that are proven to reduce overdose deaths,” said Donette Perkins, Technical Advisor with Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program. “The influx of funds will increase the capacity to maximize overdose prevention strategies that tap into Indigenous harm reduction principles and practices.”
Project activities include increasing naloxone distribution, translating harm reduction and overdose response materials into Indigenous languages, expanding access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), holding ceremonies, hosting talking circles, supporting families vulnerable to or experiencing child removal due to parental drug use, and developing media campaigns to break down stigma around harm reduction and drug use in Native communities.
“Native people have been disproportionately impacted by the overdose crisis, and many Native communities have responded to this crisis by implementing programs and services that draw on the strength of our cultures to provide healing for our communities. However, funding for overdose prevention and harm reduction work in Native communities, particularly for culture-based interventions, is limited and often unavailable,” said Skye Hart, Technical Advisor with Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program. “Through this low-barrier opportunity, we will be able to bolster funding not only for harm reduction work more generally, but also for lifesaving interventions rooted in Indigenous cultures.”
Grant funding will support work from Aug. 1, 2025, to July 31, 2026.
The New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association will provide technical assistance and program management to grantees. Americans for Indian Opportunity will administer the grants.
“Americans for Indian Opportunity believe that leading with our core cultural values, what we call the 4 Rs – Relationships, Responsibility, Reciprocity and Redistribution – is the best way to advance the cultural, political and economic rights of Indigenous peoples.” said Laura Harris (Comanche), Executive Director of Americans for Indian Opportunity. “We are proud to stand with Vital Strategies to redistribute $1.68 million dollars to our trusted community partners who are doing the real work of preventing overdoses in Native urban and tribal communities.”
“Native people have carried the disproportionate burden of the overdose crisis, yet our communities continue to lead with strength, resilience, and the wisdom of our cultures in creating pathways to healing. The New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association is honored to be part of this initiative, to build capacity alongside an amazing cohort of 16 providers, and to ensure Native voices guide culturally relevant solutions rooted in historical knowledge,” said Sindy Bolaños-Sacoman, MPH, Executive Director of the New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association.
“This unique opportunity allowed the design of projects that reflect the needs of varied tribal communities —whether through reciprocity baskets, talking circles, traditional healing practices, tribal data collection methods, or culturally appropriate family training. We are excited to uplift the power of Indigenous traditions in breaking stigma, expanding access to care, and saving lives in our communities.”
Grants of up to $100,000 each are being awarded to the following Tribal governments, Tribal health programs, Native-led organizations, and organizations serving Native communities across geographies, including both urban and rural communities, both on and off reservations and other Tribal lands:
- First Nations Community HealthSource (FNCH) – Community Harm Reduction Project: This project seeks to empower 100 Native people who use drugs in Albuquerque, Gallup, Farmington, and surrounding areas via collaborative community efforts, cultural connections, peer support, and accessible harm reduction services.
- Heart to Heart Experiential Services – Empowering and Strengthening Our Communities with Indigenous Harm Reduction: Informed by community engagement with the Tribal communities Heart to Heart will work with, this project will provide harm reduction and overdose response trainings, as well as host culture-based events to provide harm reduction education, support people and families with lived and living experience of drug use, and prevent future drug use.
- Indian Health Service – Navajo Area Office – Navajo Area Street Wellness Outreach and Harm Reduction Program: This project will increase access to culturally sensitive harm reduction services for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service population by providing training to health care providers and communities on topics including harm reduction and Diné concepts of wellness; distributing harm reduction supplies; improving access to health care services for people who use drugs; and increasing access to other basic needs for people who use drugs.
- McKinley County Early Childhood Coalition – Healing Together: Culturally Rooted Harm Reduction for Native Families in McKinley County and Nearby Areas where Native People Live in New Mexico: This project aims to support people who use drugs and their families via culture-based healing and harm reduction events; harm reduction training for Coalition members and local leaders; development of culturally appropriate outreach materials and radio messaging; and supporting kinship caregivers.
- National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) – Restoring Balance: Culturally Rooted Harm Reduction for Native Workforce Participants: This project aims to embed harm reduction strategies into NIYC’s existing Work Experience and Classroom Training programs across its Albuquerque, Gallup, and Farmington field offices to better support program participants with lived and living experience of substance use.
- Nihi Ké Baa – For Our Relatives: This project will host roundtable discussions with people who use drugs and their families in Gallup and Farmington in both Diné and English to learn about existing services and service needs; provide harm reduction training in Diné and English; and create harm reduction materials in Diné and English based on community needs.
- Picuris Medical Center – How Providing Integrated Health Services is Essential to Implementing Effective, Culturally Based Harm Reduction Strategies in Native Communities: This project seeks to support Native people who use drugs through culturally-based, community-led harm reduction strategies including culturally grounded peer outreach and engagement; distribution of harm reduction supplies; and increased access to integrated health services including primary care, behavioral health, traditional healing, and medications for opioid use disorder.
- Picuris Pueblo – Public Safety Case Management: This project will enhance Picuris Pueblo’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion/Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) program to better meet the needs of program participants. Funding will support flex funds to cover program participants’ basic needs; purchase of a program vehicle to be able to offer low barrier transportation to health care and harm reduction services for program participants; and harm reduction education for community members to be able to better support relatives who use drugs.
- Pueblo of Pojoaque (Family & Children Services) – Enhancing Indigenous-informed harm reduction strategies to reduce the consequences of substance use and restore family units: This project aims to promote healing and strengthen family units impacted by substance use by enhancing support for kinship caregivers who are raising children due to the overdose epidemic. It will also support families vulnerable to child removal through culturally grounded programs, behavioral health care, and wraparound services that honor traditional family strengths.
- Pueblo of San Felipe Health & Wellness – Sacred Pathways: Culturally Rooted Harm Reduction for Healing and Connection: This project aims to enhance the Pueblo of San Felipe’s (SF) Sacred Pathways program by improving naloxone access; training peer mentors and first responders in SF-appropriate approaches to harm reduction and overdose response; integrating Indigenous knowledge and SF healing techniques into behavioral health and substance use services; and reducing barriers to care and access among high-risk community members via enhanced outreach efforts.
- Pueblo of Zia – Bright Minds, Strong Hearts 2: This project aims to support community members who use drugs and prevent future drug use through community harm reduction education events; community events incorporating traditional healing practices and other cultural activities; naloxone trainings for Tribal leadership; and expanded harm reduction supply distribution.
- Serna Solutions LLC – Family Empowerment in Tribal Communities: This project aims to develop and implement community-specific training models for Indigenous families supporting people who use drugs to be able to better support their loved ones through increased knowledge of harm reduction and treatment options including medications for opioid use disorder. Serna Solutions plans to work with 5-8 Tribal communities, including Pueblo of Santo Domingo, San Felipe Pueblo, Zia Pueblo, Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation, Jemez Pueblo, and San Ildefonso Pueblo.
- The Mountain Center – Corn Pollen Project: Informed by community engagement, this project aims to support Native people who use drugs in northern New Mexico via the creation of culturally appropriate harm reduction kits; expanding access to low-barrier referrals for medications for opioid use disorder, STI testing, and various healing practices; and building relationships with and providing harm reduction trainings for service / healthcare providers that work with regional Native communities.
- The Santa Fe Indigenous Center (SFIC) – Culturally Based Harm Reduction Project for Indigenous Residents of Santa Fe County: Through this project, the SFIC aims to enhance its capacity to support community members who use drugs through providing harm reduction education for staff; distributing naloxone; weaving harm reduction education into existing Indigenous Women and Men’s Gatherings; and hosting a Cultural Gathering focused on harm reduction.
- United Natives – United Natives Tele-Mental Health: Through this initiative, United Natives will provide free, culturally grounded, harm reduction-informed tele-mental health therapy for at least 80 Native people who use drugs in New Mexico. This initiative will also integrate Traditional Healing Practitioners to provide spiritual and cultural support alongside therapy.
- University of New Mexico, Center for Participatory Research – Tribal Data Champions Fellowship: This 12-month fellowship will train Tribal practitioners and/or community members to be advocates of Indigenous data sovereignty and to change the narrative of how data is utilized for Tribal communities, building fellows’ skills and confidence in data and research regarding overdose, drug use, harm reduction, and treatment.
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our overdose prevention program works to strengthen and scale evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to create equitable and sustainable reductions in overdose deaths in several U.S. states and local jurisdictions.
About Americans for Indian Opportunity
AIO advances the rights of Indigenous peoples through Indigenous values-based leadership development, transformative community organizing, hosting collaborative action networks, and sharing Indigenous worldviews and positive contemporary Indigenous narratives.
AIO is an international community-driven, Indigenous values-based nonprofit organization headquartered in Albuquerque, NM. AIO is directly accountable to the communities we partner with, our board of directors who represent their Indigenous constituencies, and the leaders we support. To learn more, visit aio.org.
About The New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association (NMTBHPA)
The New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association (NMTBHPA) was formed in response to a Needs Assessment conducted during a CMS Recovery Planning Grant. Seeing the critical need for tribal behavioral health support, Executive Director Sindy Bolaños-Sacoman stepped up to lead the effort, aiming to improve access to quality care, strengthen tribal capacity, support Medicaid billing, and amplify tribal voices in policy discussions.