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Promoting Indigenous Models of Assessment (PIMA) is helping urban American Indian communities secure, retain, and advance in high-quality employment in Tucson and Pima County, Arizona.

The Tucson Indian Center and its partners are creating a local data ecosystem that builds on traditional knowledge systems and uses data that reflects the priorities of urban American Indian community members in Tucson and Pima County. The PIMA data ecosystem centers Tucson’s urban Indigenous community in decision making and involves long-term collaborations with local partners to improve employment opportunities for urban American Indian communities.

PIMA partners:

  • Partners in Health United States
  • Pima County Health Department
  • Pima County Community & Workforce Development
  • Tucson Indian Center

Photos courtesy of Dylan Baysa, Tucson Indian Center

Jacob Bernal, Executive Director, Tuscon Indian Center

“For far too long we have followed a traditional Western public health model. We need to put a cultural spin on this and look at what really matters to the Indigenous population- how do they define health, wellness, and well-being? If we approach this from a holistic and balanced perspective and talk about the significance for the entire family unit, people are more likely to participate. Ultimately, this will impact public policy in a more meaningful way.”

Jacob Bernal, Executive Director, Tuscon Indian Center
Dylan Baysa, Grants & Services Director, Tucson Indian Center

“I think it is important to have an organization like Tucson Indian Center that is trusted in the community and serves different people. People will feel more comfortable sharing their information and being counted. We can say, “You are a member of a Tribe and we want you to count. It is important that you represent yourself.” A lot of Indigenous people in urban areas are undercounted or not counted at all. We want to change that.”

Dylan Baysa, Grants & Services Director, Tucson Indian Center
Phoebe Cager, Health Services Director, Tucson Indian Center

“The name of our project is Pima. Pima is an Indigenous word that means,”I don’t know.” This is very important for our project because we are collecting data from an Indigenous perspective to gather information that we need to know more about. Our Indigenous community will be leading the data collection, and this will make the data authentic in its representation of our community.”

Phoebe Cager, Health Services Director, Tucson Indian Center
Veronica Boone, Wellness Director, Tucson Indian Center

“Quality employment means a good decent pay and wage to support a family, benefits such as health insurance, retirement, time for sickness, and more. Having a good quality job provides a foundation to build a healthy and successful family.”

Veronica Boone, Wellness Director, Tucson Indian Center