Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country

Posed photo of a multi-generational American Indian family.

Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) largest investment to improve American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) tribal health, focused on health promotion and chronic disease prevention.

Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) Mission

GHWIC continues to support healthy behaviors for AI/AN and emphasize strategies to reduce risk factors in Native communities to attain long-term goals by:

  •  Supporting a coordinated and holistic approach to healthy living and chronic disease prevention
  • Reinforcing the work already underway in Indian Country to make healthy choices easier for American Indians and Alaska Natives
  • Continuing to support culturally appropriate, effective public health approaches
  • Working with more tribes and extending the program’s reach and impact through tribal organizations, including Urban Indian Organizations

Why GHWIC?

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities have innate strengths and resilience rooted in tribal culture and traditional ways of life. However, AI/AN culture and traditions have been severely disrupted by colonialism, loss of land, and policies, such as assimilation, relocation, and tribal termination, resulting in historical trauma that contributes to higher rates of chronic disease and underlying risk factors, such as obesity and commercial tobacco use.

GHWIC Long-Term Goals

  • Reduce type 2 diabetes
  • Reduce commercial tobacco use
  • Reduce high blood pressure
  • Reduce high blood cholesterol
  • Increase the intake of healthy foods
  • Increase physical activity
  • Increase breastfeeding

Below are all of the funding awards for the GHWIC program broken down by component.

GHWIC Map: Awardees for 2019-2024

Full list of tribes and Urban Indian Health Organizations and their locations within the GHWIC program.

GHWIC Funding

Funding totals for the Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country program.

Preventing Chronic Disease

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is a peer-reviewed public health journal sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and authored by experts worldwide. PCD‘s “Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country” collection is a series of articles related to CDC’s GHWIC program.

About GHWIC’s 27 awards across components:

GHWIC is a 5-year cooperative agreement (fiscal years 2019–2024) $19.3 million per year with 27 direct recipients:

Component One:

As Component 1 recipients, 12 tribes and 4 Urban Indian Organizations work on community-chosen and culturally adapted strategies to reduce commercial tobacco use and exposure, improve nutrition and physical activity, increase health literacy, improve team-based health care, and strengthen links between community programs and clinical services.

Component Two:

As Component 2 recipients, 12 tribal organizations provide funding to over 90 additional tribes and Urban Indian Organizations in their Indian Health Service Area and Urban Area. Many more will receive technical assistance and benefit from Component 2 leadership in chronic disease prevention.

Component Three:

One tribal organization, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, serves as the coordinating center. The coordinating center oversees projects and provides organization, logistics, communication, and evaluation support for GHWIC. It also supports communities of practice so recipients can share successes and challenges to foster peer-to-peer learning.

Matter of Fact: GHWIC

Printable summary sheet [PDF – 470 KB] of the Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country program at a glance.