Southern Plains Tribal Health Board Foundation

Southern Plains Tribal Health Board Foundation, a Native American-owned, tribally designated tax-exempt nonprofit organization based in Oklahoma City, operates as a federal grant recipient (80% of recent awards as prime recipient) providing behavioral health crisis services, substance abuse prevention and treatment, chronic disease prevention, and tribal public health capacity-building to American Indian and Alaska Native communities across Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The organization represents 43 federally recognized tribes within the Southern Plains region and operates through its Oklahoma Area Tribal Epidemiology Center (OKTEC), one of twelve tribal epidemiology centers in the nation.

The Department of Health and Human Services dominates the funding landscape. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has awarded the recipient multiple cooperative agreements and project grants spanning 988 crisis response services, substance use disorder treatment and recovery support, youth substance abuse and mental health prevention, and behavioral health crisis services expansion. Recent SAMHSA prime grants include a $1.5 million September 2026 award under the 988 and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Programs (CFDA 93.00R) to strengthen culturally responsive 988 crisis response for American Indian and Alaska Native individuals throughout Oklahoma through September 2029, and a $2.239 million September 2025 award under the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.492) to implement evidence-based youth substance use and mental health strategies in Hughes, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, and Seminole Counties through September 2030. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion funds public health workforce development, chronic disease prevention using a culture-first approach, and tribal public health capacity assessments under multiple cooperative agreements. The Indian Health Service funds epidemiological infrastructure and tribal health program support. Recent activity remained flat at four to six awards annually from 2022 through 2026, with six awards reaching completion within the next twenty-four months.

The recipient maintains a secondary role as a grant sub-recipient, performing evaluation services, HIV prevention navigation, and community engagement work under prime awards from the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Department of Health, the Regents of the University of Colorado, and others. Representative sub-award work includes providing external evaluation services for an NIH-funded Indigenous maternal mortality research center (CIRCLE) and delivering HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis navigation services across Oklahoma through the Native Test Program.

Concrete capability work centers on tribal health infrastructure development, disease surveillance and epidemiology, behavioral health crisis response coordination, substance use disorder prevention and treatment support, youth mental health intervention, tribal public health workforce training and internship development, HIV testing and prevention outreach, and cross-sector partnership facilitation with tribal nations, state and local health agencies, schools, first responders, and community organizations. Work is performed from Oklahoma City with regional scope across the Southern Plains tri-state service area. The recipient acts as fiscal agent for multiple federal funding opportunities and sub-awards to tribal partners at three funding tiers under chronic disease prevention programs, channeling resources to tribally designated organizations and tribal serving nonprofits in rural and underserved areas.