Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) FAN Project

The Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) was founded in 1975 and is one of the first American Indian Centers in the country. Initially formed by community members, it continues today with a majority American Indian leadership and staffing. MAIC serves a largely urban, tribally diverse American Indian population of more than 35,000.

The MAIC’s Native Fitness and Nutrition (FAN) Project, a 3-year Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) grant from 2015 to 2018, was aimed at reducing the high rates of obesity and obesity-linked diseases in American Indians. MAIC serves a low-income, urban American Indian population in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The organization is located in the 11- county Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and provides many services guided by strong Native values, such as preserving and supporting cultural traditions through art, youth programs, and intergenerational programs. Research from the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center and the Indian Health Service show high rates of obesity among youth with over a quarter of WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children)-enrolled children being obese by the age of 2; and 28 percent of youth ages 2 to 5 being obese. The research findings showed that obesity has a large effect on mortality rates among Native Americans of all ages with heart disease mortality rates of 221 individuals per 100,000, and diabetes rates of over 20 percent for ages 15—44, 52 percent for females, and 48 percent for males ages 45— 64. Through a community survey sponsored by the Notah Begay III Foundation, it was determined that community members were low-income and faced four barriers to prevention.

These barriers include (1) a lack of knowledge regarding healthy nutrition and how to prevent diabetes, heart disease, cancer; (2) lack of access to affordable healthy food, and lack of knowledge of how to prepare those foods; (3) a lack of access to affordable options for physical activity, compounded by safety concerns in the neighborhood; and saddest of all, (4) an expectation among many in the Native community that having diabetes and other chronic diseases is inevitable.

The overall goal of the project was to reduce rates of obesity and obesity-linked diseases that disproportionately affect American Indians in the MAIC community. This was to be attained over a 3-year period through the accomplishment of three objectives. The first objective focused on physical activity and was highly successful with 8,393 duplicated attendees at 1,082 events held throughout the 3-year period. The second objective focused on healthy nutrition and was also quite successful, with over 37 nutrition and cooking classes held. The third objective focused on health screening and disease management, which was successful but needed to be modified after poor attendance at several prevention workshops and screening events.