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Hosted by SRPMIC Assistant Community Manager, Lena Jackson-Eckert, this podcast takes a closer look at the programs, services, and people that help shape our Community. From everyday resources to unique stories and conversations, we’re here to share what matters. So let’s go ahead and zoom in.
Hey, welcome to Lena's Lens. I'm Lena Jackson Eckert, one of the assistant community managers with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. From helpful resources to unique conversations, we're on a journey to explore our community. So let's go ahead and zoom in. All right.
Lena:Welcome back to Lena's Lens. Today, we have Felix Muniz here with us, who is going to talk a little bit more and give us an update about our five in five Initiative. Welcome, Felix.
Dr. Muniz:Hi, thanks for having me.
Lena:Thanks for coming. I know you were here a couple months ago. We talked a little bit about the five in five Initiative and gave our listeners an idea of what this was or what this is. Tell us a little bit about what you've been up to so far.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So since then, we've been doing a lot of quote, unquote, data collection, which just means we've been talking with community members and community workers. And we put out a survey that a lot of community members responded to, and, we just barely kind of are starting to wrap up analysis of that, which is just like interpreting what the trying to interpret what the people are saying and making sure that what we're the thing that we're or what we're concluding is exactly what they mean it to be. So it's kind of where we're at right now.
Lena:So when I'm thinking about the project or the initiative, I know there's like six phases to the initiative. The first phase was really about building relationships and getting all of our agreements in place, you know, the stuff that you have to do to get started. And then the second phase, I believe, was probably the survey, right? And then doing some other activities. Why don't you talk a little bit about that?
Lena:Because I believe we just wrapped up the second phase.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So, yeah, like you said, you're right. Phase two was titled community engagement and readiness.
Lena:Okay.
Dr. Muniz:And as part of the plan, we did three complimentary kind of engagement engagement activities with community. One was talking circles, or they've been termed yarning circles or focus group discussions. It's all the same thing. And then another one was called group concept mapping. The last thing was a community readiness model.
Dr. Muniz:So for the talking circles, we spoke with a total of 45 community members, and we had a talking circle for youth. We had one for seniors. We had one with the two spirit community. Mhmm. And then we had some we had one with some of the department directors in the community, and then we had, like, three with general community members.
Dr. Muniz:Mhmm. Let me just say as part of all this outreach, we we really wanted to do our best to try to reach as many people as we could. So we tabled at community events, we put out flyers, we did social media posts within the community. We had, like, all the the TV advertisements throughout the community. And then we also relied on some of the people involved with the project from the community to kind of spread the word through, like, word-of-mouth.
Dr. Muniz:And with those efforts, we were able to reach almost 250 community members that directly participated in this project. And that's that's people, you know, like, some of our community workers who are not Ottoman Piposh but are still, you know, in the community. But the vast majority of that, almost 250 were people living in and from Salt River. So we we even tried to table in Lehi, and we I feel like, we got some pretty good PPOSH representation as well.
Lena:That's great.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So that was exciting. Mhmm. We have some, PPOSH community members on the community advisory council, and it's it's been good participation, I feel like.
Lena:Nice.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So with jumping back into the talking circles, we basically got a group together, told them we wanted to talk to them, and asked them about, you know, what it means, what what being healthy means Mhmm. In our community, what strengths do we have in our community that kind of support us being well, what makes it hard sometimes for for us to stay healthy. And then we also wanted to get a sense for, you know, in the future, if everything goes how you want it to go, what does that look like? What is what is us being healthier and happier and stronger look like?
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:So kind of thinking more towards the future and trying to change how we think about the future and our perceptions of of really, you know, projecting out what what we want in our lives. So that was really insightful. And I just wanna say that I'm very proud of the participants who who were in those discussions because there was a lot of stories shared. There were I a lot of emotions, you know, tears, laughter, and everything in between. It got really serious, you know, it got really tense sometimes, and sometimes it was really lighthearted, and it was just a really good space.
Lena:Yeah. Sounds like a really good opportunity for people to just put their feelings and thoughts about wellness out there.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. And I was also very honored to be able to listen to those stories and that people felt safe enough Mhmm. To express themselves the way they the way that they did with our team. I know it's not easy, and I know it's it can bring up a lot of, like can stir up a lot of feelings. And, yeah, I'm just really proud of the people that were in there.
Dr. Muniz:So we got a lot of really good information that is kind of guiding this framework. So with with all of those discussions that we had, we took the transcript. So we took the audio and turned it into kind of like a a word document. Just we analyze that, and we did what was called inductive coding. So there's there's two kind of main ways to code these kinds of things.
Dr. Muniz:There's one's deductive where you kind of have a framework, and you you listen to what people are saying, and you kind of fit what they're saying into all these different boxes. And then there's inductive, which is like, I don't have a framework. I'm gonna listen to what the people are saying and create boxes based on that.
Lena:Nice.
Dr. Muniz:So that's what we did.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Because we wanted to create a framework that came from the people. So Mhmm. It just kind of makes sense to do it that way. So with that, we were able to kind of come up with about five to six dimensions of wellness and well-being and health. So, the dimensions basically means is how are we defining it?
Dr. Muniz:What are the things that makes us feel healthy? And then there were approximately four determinants of health. So, these are things that support or make it harder for us to feel healthy.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:And then we were able to identify six immediate priorities for change. So that's a lot of information that came from these interviews. And, again, this is just coming from community members and coming from them and their stories and all of their lived experiences growing up in the community. So we're trying to do our best to take care of that and make sure that what we come up with is really reflective of how they wanted it to their stories to be to be interpreted. So with that, we we just hosted a workshop with with a small subset of the people who participated in these to kinda just run these things by them, be like, hey.
Dr. Muniz:These are this is what we came up with. Does this make sense? Is is this about what you were seeing and feeling and hearing when when you were in these sessions as well? So kinda just, like, checking and validating, and we got a lot of really good feedback. Like, a lot.
Dr. Muniz:We we scheduled, I think, three hours for that meeting, and we didn't get through everything we wanted to get to. Yeah. And even when we hit, you know, the the endpoint, people were still talking and wanted to keep going. So Yep. I think we might have to come back and run that back because there was a lot of I think there's a lot more information that that and and and input that people had.
Dr. Muniz:And and even in that, I think it was a three hour window we got so much good information. So we're still in the process of refining these things and tweaking them a little bit, changing the wording
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:And making sure that how they're defined is how the people want them to be defined. Yeah. So that's the the talking circles or, like, the focus groups or the the yarning circles.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:So that was those were that was sort of, like, really in-depth, really personal
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Kind of information we were getting.
Lena:That's exciting.
Dr. Muniz:And so the the next thing that happened or it happened at the same time, but was, group concept mapping.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:So that was the one where there was flyers that were put out on social media and across the community where it had a QR code, and you can sign up to take a survey. And the survey just asked a simple question, which was, think of as many ways as as you can finish the following sentence. And it says, health and wellness in Salt River, P. Maricopa Indian community looks like blank. And so people could just put as many things that they as they wanted into that blank.
Dr. Muniz:And
Lena:Yeah.
Dr. Muniz:Overall, we had a 189 community members fill out the survey, and we had an average of seven responses per person. So total, we had 1,344 different ways that people think about health and wellness in the community. Wow. Yeah. And so with that, someone from our team, doctor Dane Hodala, he kind of let this this part of it, but he he cleaned the data.
Dr. Muniz:He he he took out any responses that weren't really relevant to the question. Mhmm. And he kind of took a sample of I think it ended up being he took ended up taking out 200. So the 1,100 that were left, he took a sample of those and randomly extracted those, and, he was gonna have community members do an activity where they sort those and they prioritize those. So and he he did a really good job of making sure that the ones that he pulled were representative of the ones of all the responses.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:So he he didn't he didn't and I don't think our team really felt like any any of the things that were said were left out because there's gonna be a lot of repeat. You know? Like, nobody knows what everyone else is saying, so there's a lot of overlap, which is good. But so then he he did a a workshop with some community members, and they they grouped. So they took the 125 statements, and they said, which of these statements kind of seem like they go together?
Dr. Muniz:And they they grouped them all together, and then they they prioritize the statements. Like, well, which of these statements is a priority in the community? And which of these statements helps us understand health and wellness in the community. So that will
Lena:Like statements in, like, buckets.
Dr. Muniz:Right.
Lena:Okay.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. But but the buckets are created by whoever's filling it out. So there's no nothing predetermined. It's just so then you take across everyone who filled them out, and you can see how these statements are being grouped together across all of our people. So it's pretty cool.
Dr. Muniz:And we're just he that just barely finished up, so we don't have really anything from that just yet. We're we're some of the very, very early stages of analyzing that data, but it did seem like things are getting grouped together pretty consistently. So that's that's a good thing. That's exciting.
Lena:And it's
Dr. Muniz:of the people who are filling this out, they're all kind of thinking about yeah. Yeah. Thinking about what health and wellness means in a similar way.
Lena:Yeah. That's interesting.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So that's still happening right now. And then the last piece we conducted, it's called community readiness model, and that has a very specific number of things, dimensions that are defined as part of this model as what it means for a community to be ready to to make changes when it comes to health and wellness. And this is more for community workers. So we we know we knew coming in that the tribe has a lot of resources and a lot of efforts that go towards, you know, health and wellness.
Dr. Muniz:You know, we have RPHC. We just did JTR.
Lena:Right.
Dr. Muniz:There's a lot of things going on. And we also, at the same time, are hearing community say it's not reaching them. And there's just kind of a gap between the people and the resources. And we've also heard that from, you know, the tribal side of it. They're saying like, yeah, we're doing all this stuff, but, like, we're not getting people engaged.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So So the the point of this was really to try to understand from the community worker side, the people who are delivering these services, what has been their experience? Like, what are what have they learned? What are they seeing that's working? What are they seeing?
Dr. Muniz:What what hasn't worked? You know? Like, how do they feel about community members' participation and stuff like that? You know, knowledge of efforts. Like, have you been able to reach people?
Dr. Muniz:Do people understand, you know, the health issues, you know, that we face as a community? Stuff like that.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:And we got a lot of really good information again from the community workers, and we were able to identify a couple of areas of need that that we can address as a community. And that's, you know, from both the people side and also from the tribal side. So I think that kind of helped us kind of understand better some of the things we were hearing in the yarning circles and also the group concept mapping. So it's just kind of putting context, a little bit of context to that.
Lena:So is the idea, once all of this information is analyzed, that now we're going to go back to tribal council and give them an update and let them know kind of this is what we're finding. Is that in the works, or has that been done?
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So we just presented some of these preliminary results to counsel recently. And surprising, not surprising, you know, because some of this stuff I feel like they understand and we understand. But to see it presented in a certain way where it's, you can kinda see how it relates to other things where it's not just like
Lena:Health and wellness.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. Yeah. Was good, and they were very excited about what's gonna come from
Lena:it. Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Because the whole end goal is to have a wellness framework that the tribe can use to kinda guide their efforts in the future and to also have a strategic plan so that they can do have really concrete steps for addressing some of these things that are in the the framework. Right? So that's kind of, like, the ultimate goal. Yeah. But on the way there, we are kind of starting to see some things emerge, some patterns, and some really kinda critical needs that we're that we can address.
Dr. Muniz:You know, we we we were meeting with some of them. They're like, this is stuff that we can do now. And they're, like, really trying to scramble and, like,
Lena:like, make it happen now,
Dr. Muniz:which is good. You know, that's the the kind of energy that we need.
Lena:And but
Dr. Muniz:we also are trying not to, like, rush it because we would rather, like, take our time. Not that we're gonna, like, take forever, but, like, we're gonna be really thorough Mhmm. And make sure that the thing that we give back to the people and to government is very rigorous and very, like, strong so that it can last for a long time. And there's also going to be room for it to be updated as things change in the community.
Lena:Absolutely. I'm excited about it because you said a little bit earlier, or you mentioned earlier about this being something from the community for the community. Membership. I think this is a real opportunity for them to have a say in what this is going to look like, and what they need and what's important to them to feel and to be healthy and to create a healthy community. So I'm really excited about what the game looks like.
Lena:So what are some of the next steps for this project?
Dr. Muniz:So next steps, I kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, but we want to develop a strategic plan. Before that, there's a dashboard that we wanna start working on, and that's phase four. And that would require us us being the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins University, our team, to have access to data from the tribe Mhmm. That the tribe is collecting. And we just signed what's called a data use agreement, which kind of, from the tribe side, protects the data and the information and and what we can do with it and how we can use it.
Dr. Muniz:And it was a it was a really long process going back and forth because, like, Hopkins has, like, their own things that they care about, but the tribe is like they have their own things. So they had to really work hard together to try to come to an agreement.
Lena:Right.
Dr. Muniz:And both sides were able to be happy. So the tribe feels really good about Mhmm. The data being protected and not it's not gonna be misused and that they still own it. Mhmm. And just wanted to say, like, that was something that was very, very, very, very important on the the tribal side.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Because I know there's sensitivity behind our data. What are gonna do with our data? Stuff like that. And it it hasn't always been used in a good way. Exactly.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. But there was there's a signed long document in place that kind of dictates the term to some of those things. So with that information, what the tribe wanted us to do was create a public facing dashboard. Mhmm. So community members can go to the tribal website and they can see some graphs and, like, interact with some of this data on their own.
Dr. Muniz:So if they're interested in things, they can look at it and they can see some of the trends. And part of that, we wanted to have people tell their stories around some of this stuff, you know, so, like, if one of the dimensions is on there and we have ways that we're measuring it and there are stories that people have specifically to that dimension, kinda having some of that stuff on there so that, you know, community members can kind of see that and, like have another complementary way to try to understand what exactly those things are.
Lena:So will there be a way for community members to also see progress on that dashboard? So if we make some changes, are they going to be able to track those changes or see that those changes are being implemented and have to hold I us
Dr. Muniz:want to say yes, but I haven't seen the data that the tribe has yet. So I don't know exactly what the tribe has data on. From what I understand, the tribe wanted it to be a living thing. So whatever it is that that's going into it, they wanna continue to track that data and they wanna continue to update it either, like, once a year or twice a year so that, yes, what you're saying that people can kinda see how things are changing over time. But, again, I haven't seen the data exactly yet, so I don't wanna make promises that that I can't keep, but that is a desire that the tribe has is they they want that to be a thing.
Dr. Muniz:So it just depends on what the data looks like. And even if we don't have that data or the tribe doesn't have that data right now, that doesn't mean that they can't start gathering that data so that it can look that way. But that is something that they want.
Lena:And if nothing else, it gives community members the access to that information where they can see it in real time, like you said, and be able to kind of play with it and look at maybe trends or see what the past looks like.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. And I mean, that is something that I that is I don't think is surprising that came came up through all this was the the desire for information on the community members part.
Lena:Yeah. For sure.
Dr. Muniz:People people want information. They wanna be informed. They wanna know what's going on. They wanna understand what, you know, what the tribal government is doing and where resources are going and what efforts are going on.
Lena:All this stuff. Absolutely.
Dr. Muniz:That was a big thing that that was identified in, you know, in doing this work was that need and the desire for information, which is cool because, you know, is power.
Lena:Right. Exactly.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. It really is. So, the more informed we can be and we our community members can be, I think that just empowers them more to really take control over over our own health and well-being in in the community.
Lena:Yeah, absolutely. Tell us a little bit about the strategic plan and what you hope that's going to provide.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah, so after the next phase, after the dashboard, is is strategic plan development. So we really want to help under we really wanna understand what the priorities are, what community wants to see Mhmm. How ready community is to make those changes, and then, you know, using the data that we have thus far, including the dashboard to really support, you know, these calls to action. So then there's also implementing this. So, whatever the framework that we have in the dashboard, implementing that means coming up with ways that the tribe can address some of these wellness dimensions.
Dr. Muniz:And I think within some of the discussions we've having with community, there's also a lot of talk about individual responsibility in that. So not only, like, understanding, okay, what should the tribe be doing, but also what should we as community members Right. Be doing so that we can kind of keep coming closer on some of these things. So, hopefully, there will be some concrete steps that people can be taking at all levels of community and then also, like, how to how to sustain these changes and how to sustain this this energy that we have for doing this this kind of wellness movement that's happening right now. So that's gonna be another chance for for input from community.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. So that's that's happening after the the dashboard stuff.
Lena:And Okay.
Dr. Muniz:So people can just be on the lookout for opportunities to participate in that as well. We want to, again, we really want to make sure we reach as many people as we can and we get as much input as we So, there's a lot of effort that we're going to put into that that we have.
Lena:So the strategic plan can be thought of as it's not only for departments to have actionable steps, but also even community members. So it could be something like We need more sidewalks in the community or more lighting so that people feel safe to go for a walk. Two, I'm going to make sure that I'm getting my yearly checkups.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah, because some some of the things that came up was, like, we're kinda, like, people tell us what to do and, like, how to make changes and stuff like that, but there's not always follow-up on helping us or supporting us making those changes. So people talked a lot about, like, if we're gonna and that's kind of why we asked the questions the way that we did, which is like, okay, like, what's stopping us? You know, what are some of the barriers that make it harder for us to implement some of these changes? And so there's a lot of good information that came with that. Like you said, some people if we're going to tell people like, Oh yeah, get out of your house and walk more and move more.
Dr. Muniz:And it's like, Okay, if the people want to do that, then they need to be empowered to do that. They need space to do that.
Lena:Feel safe to do that. Right.
Dr. Muniz:They got to feel safe to do that. So then that is something that on the tribal side, they can kind of look into and try to be, okay, let's make some walking pads or like make some areas safer so that community members can walk more because that's what we're telling them to
Lena:do. Right.
Dr. Muniz:So there is kind of both sides of it that is going to come from the implementation plan.
Lena:Sounds like a really well thought out process. I'm sure you've done it in other communities. I mean, it feels like this is something that not something we created. Existed. But I actually had the privilege of presenting the five in five Initiative at a few district meetings.
Lena:And one of the comments that I heard was, Why are we waiting? Why can't we do this right now? And it's kind of similar to what you said, how some departments heard some of the feedback and are like, Well, we could change this right now. Let's do it. But I really tried to help them understand that we need to have a well thought out process in order to be successful because I think that's probably one of the mistakes that we've made in the past is we just throw something out there and let's create something for this particular project, and it ends up being something in a silo that doesn't really work.
Lena:So hopefully I answered that correctly, but maybe you want to give a little bit more input on that.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah, think you're exactly right. I think a lot of the things that have happened as a response to community members' concerns have been kind of more like Band Aids. Mhmm. So, like, someone says they want something, so we do our best to try to do that one thing and say, okay. We did it.
Dr. Muniz:And then they're like, well, you didn't quite do it. So, like, I think this project is more about understanding at a deeper level how to address community members' wants and desires and, like, and what can help them support support them be health being healthy. So I I think you're right. Like, that thoroughness and the really, like, getting into the details and understanding the roots of some of these problems and addressing the roots and not just, you know, when they Yeah. Like, not not just putting Band Aids on things.
Dr. Muniz:So I think you explained it, you know, right. And, hopefully, that message got across. But I think that was something that was important for us is, like, we don't wanna just come in and address things at a very surface level. Like, we need we need to go go down
Lena:Go deep.
Dr. Muniz:To the to the roots. So I think working with community members, they've given us a lot of insight because they're very articulate in how they describe some of these problems. Like, they don't just say, oh, I want I want sidewalks. They're like, no. They tell us exactly why the sidewalk is important.
Lena:Mhmm. And their experience.
Dr. Muniz:And their experience and why having what that having that sidewalk would mean. That's just that's just like making something up. But, for instance, you know,
Lena:for
Dr. Muniz:us, that was very, very good. And I think for for what we've shown so far, it's been very eye opening. You know, it's not just not simple. You know, it's very complex.
Lena:You know,
Dr. Muniz:we got to this point through through a whole series of of events, some good, some bad. And the point is we're here now, and we're trying to figure out how to move in the direction that we want to. And so, yeah, the tribe the tribe, you know, kind of tasked us with really understanding that at a deeper level, and we've been doing our best and the people have been really showing up. So, I can't say it enough. I'm so proud of the people that have participated in this so far.
Dr. Muniz:It's been really good.
Lena:Yeah, that's awesome. It really also makes me believe how this is not just one department's responsibility. It's really the whole entire community, and also all of the government departments. It's not just HHS, it's also public works, it's also social services. It's everybody that provides services to our membership.
Lena:Talk a little bit about maybe some lessons learned up to this point. Is there anything you you maybe think we could have done differently?
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. Pretty early on when we started actually, like doing the talking circles and stuff like that and presenting to to counsel and all in some other places, it became very obvious that we could have spent more time reaching out to community members. And, again, I feel good about what the the amount of community members that we've been able to reach and the kind of variety of community members that we've been able to reach because that was another thing that was important was getting people involved that don't normally participate in this kind of stuff. Yeah. And there was a lot of new faces and a lot of people from different backgrounds that showed up.
Dr. Muniz:Mhmm. Of course, we're not gonna get everybody, but we tried. Mhmm. And I think the lesson is that we we could have still done more in terms of outreach and making sure people understood what we were doing and understood the project and understood who we were. We mean meaning Johns Hopkins University Center for Indigenous Health because although I am a community community member, the the rest of the team is not.
Dr. Muniz:So really kind of spending time to make sure that, you know, their faces and and who they were were were known in the community and that they were trusted.
Lena:Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Those relationships ended up getting built through this process. But I think if we had done that a little bit more ahead of time, I think some of these it could have been could have even been that much better. Yeah. So that's one thing. And that's something that also came up in the in the talks was people are like, I don't know what's going on.
Dr. Muniz:You know, like, we we hear about this thing. We're like, oh, that sounds fun, but then it already passed.
Lena:Right.
Dr. Muniz:Or like it's tomorrow, you know, stuff like that. So, as we're talking to people about wanting information, we're like, oh, we probably could have done more to give them information upfront. So, that a big lesson that I think we're trying to implement as we go, like doing more outreach and kind of taking our time a little bit more and not just kind of rushing through it.
Lena:Yeah, and it probably goes back to, on our side, to the comment that I heard at a district meeting, like, Why do we have to wait? Why can't we do something now? And maybe that was our approach, too. We understand that there's an urgency to this initiative, but how important it is to take that time, like you said, to build relationships and the trust that we will need I from community know you mentioned that you're a community member. What has your personal experience been working this project?
Lena:I would think this is kind of like a if I was in your shoes, this would be like a dream come true to me to work this kind of project in your own community. Maybe tell us about your feelings with that.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah, I think last time we talked, I touched on how this was kind of what I the reason why I got into what I did with school and stuff was to be on a project like this. And that was in the very beginning. And now that I've kinda gone through it a little bit more, it just reinforces that a little bit more that, like, yes, I am right where I'm supposed to be. And I personally have gotten a lot of goodness from doing this work, like being with community and talking with people and hearing their stories and feeling like they trust me enough Mhmm. To tell me those stories.
Dr. Muniz:You know, all the laughter, all the Mhmm. All all the pain, everything, all of it has just been so moving for me and chain honestly, like, kinda life changing. Like, I've I've changed a lot in hearing some of this stuff. You know, my perceptions of the tribe and, you know, the community and even some of these departments has changed a lot. Mhmm.
Dr. Muniz:Just and that just comes from more understanding. So I I just feel very fortunate to have been able to see a lot of this stuff and hear a lot of these stories and really get a better understanding of our community at all levels. Yeah. Because it does it does just kind of help put kind of a lens on the things that we do see. So, you're able to see it a little bit clearer and understand why things are the way that they are.
Dr. Muniz:And it's not like good or bad. It's not like putting fault on anybody, but it's just understanding. And I think that even me coming into this, that was something that I was lacking because you get a little jaded and you get a little you get all buggered because you're like, oh, they
Lena:don't do this. Right. Yeah.
Dr. Muniz:And and you feel that and that's real because, like, that's your real life, you know, that's your real experience happening, you know, like, you you're you're wanting something more. So, like, yeah, you do get that way. And I was that way too. But just being able to kinda peek behind the curtain in all these different ways Mhmm. And understand at all levels kinda just makes me feel even more deeply about our people and our place and just keeps solidifying, you know, that I'm here and I'm doing the right thing and that everything that I'm doing is like for the people, you know, like, hopefully this this really does make some real changes in people's lives that can be felt in a very real way.
Dr. Muniz:They'll be able to say, I participated in that project. My story helped create, you know, this end result, which ultimately will hopefully change, you know, people's experiences in the community for the better. Mhmm. So it's been really transformative for me, and we're, you know, only through phase two. So maybe by the time we get to phase six, who knows where I'll be.
Lena:But Yeah. You might be working here.
Dr. Muniz:Maybe. I don't know. I can't. I'm not gonna say nothing about where I'm gonna be. But
Lena:No. I'm just kidding.
Dr. Muniz:But, yeah, it's it's exciting. And and, again, like, I'm just so proud of our people and also proud of our team. Yeah. Shout out doctor Chris Kemp, Abigail Edwards, and doctor Dane Haudala. They have been super helpful.
Dr. Muniz:And, like, I was kinda scared for them coming into our community because that's one of the things I hear is like, oh, you guys are so mean. It's all very young because we talk talk crap all the time. People don't get it. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, they get a little sensitive and they're
Lena:like, oh,
Dr. Muniz:you're so mean. And, like, really?
Lena:Native humor.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. I'm like, oh, I thought it was funny. But so I was a little nervous for them to come in because I like, oh, man. I hope I hope we're not all, like, resed out, like, offending them. And, you know, but even even during those times, they've been really good about, like, just understanding and, you know, just participating and, you know, really, like, getting to know community.
Lena:And Right.
Dr. Muniz:I feel like they've embraced us, and our people have embraced them. It feels like that's that's my sense that I've been getting. So it's been cool, and I think they've gotten a lot of good from it too. Every time we talk about this project and the work that that we're that we're doing, they they it comes up a lot that this is one of their favorite projects that they're working on.
Lena:That's great.
Dr. Muniz:Again, shout out to our people, our community for, you know, embracing them and giving them a good experience too, because they've had a good time Yeah, talking that's with awesome.
Lena:Mean, my experience is they've always been very respectful and supportive, and I feel like that has helped to build that trust and comfort and safety for our community members. So I appreciate that also. Remind us again. I know we've been talking about this is the second podcast talking about this initiative, but I think that really shows how important this is. But what's the ultimate objective?
Dr. Muniz:So the ultimate objective is to increase the quality of life for our community members and to empower the people and the government to develop and deliver quality services for our members and to promote wellness and improve our members' health and well-being. So, that's kind of the high level goal is just to improve quality of life and to promote and improve health and well-being in our community. How we do that is the framework, the strategic implementation plan, and then also just turning the dashboard and turning everything over to the tribe and really letting the tribe understand how all this stuff works so that they can continue to to feed it and and make sure that it stays alive and engage with community members so that they can either update it or have better understandings of how to do some of this stuff. That that was another comment that came up. I was like, oh, you guys are just talking to people.
Dr. Muniz:You know, in a certain kind of way, and you're getting a lot of information. And a lot of community workers are like, Dang, we need to talk to our people more. And it's like, yeah, you're not wrong. I don't think that's ever a bad move is just talking
Lena:to the people. You can learn a lot. Well, Yeah. I feel really good about where we're at in this initiative and this project. I don't think anything like this has ever been done before here in Salt River.
Lena:I don't know about other places. But I feel like we have well, of course, there's always going to be some lessons learned, and we could have done things differently. And I'm sure we're going to add to that list at But the end of I think we're in a good place, and I feel really good about where we're at. So I just wanted to thank you, Felix, and your team for the work that you guys have done so far. I know the work continues, but I feel like it was meant to be for you to be on this project.
Lena:And we feel really lucky that we have you as a community member on this project. So I want to thank you personally for the work that you've done. With that, I think that concludes our interview today. But thank you for being with us. And I know you'll come back, and we'll provide another update maybe in the next couple months or so.
Lena:And I'm sure we'll be able to even report on some of the findings that discovered during all of the information gathering that we've done.
Dr. Muniz:Yeah. Hopefully. And then, yeah, thank you again for having me. Thanks to your team and everyone involved on the tribal side for, you know, working with us and trusting us to do this work.
Lena:And, you
Dr. Muniz:know, thank you again to the community members that have participated so far. I can't say it enough. Your participation has been so powerful and so valuable. Mhmm. And I'm very proud of you for doing that work and for continuing to stay engaged.
Dr. Muniz:And, again, I love you Salt River. I love being from here. I love telling people about Salt River. I love taking people to the res. And at the end of this project, this will just be another thing that I think our people can look at and be proud of.
Lena:There's no better way to end it. Thank you. Thank you for listening.