Service to Science
Service to Science is a SAMHSA initiative to increase the pool of locally-developed, evidence-based interventions. Using the Service to Science model, NACE offers one-on-one technical assistance for Native American prevention programs wishing to improve their evaluation capacity. Programs are matched with expert evaluators familiar with the unique needs and challenges of evaluating Native American prevention efforts.
The Native American Service to Science Academy places special emphasis on finding evaluation solutions for culture-based programs that may not fit the typical evidence-based framework. It provides support for culture-based programs to document their evidence of effectiveness using culturally appropriate tools and measures.
Each year, SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) will provide a Service to Science Academy for five prevention programs, policies, or practices serving Native American populations. The first Academy was held during the summer of 2008 with 8 participating programs.
For more information on participating in the Service to Science initiative, please contact us.
Service to Science Academy 2012 Programs
Maajtaag Mnobmaadzid Project – Sault Ste. Marie, MI
The purpose of the Maajtaag Mnobmaadzid Project is to address disparities in perinatal health by reducing maternal and infant morbidity and mortality; to provide services, education and support for Native families; and to promote the development of perinatal systems which are family-centered and community-driven. Maajtaag Mnobmaadzidis one of six Healthy Start projects (out of 97 funded nationally) that specifically targets Native populations. The tribal service area of the Maajtaag Mnobmaadzid Project is 8 urban, rural sites and reservation sites within the Michigan Inter-Tribal Council in Detroit and Grand Rapids, MI areas.
Minobimaadiziiwin Coalition – Lac du Flambeau, WI
The Minobimaadiziiwin Coalition (Ojibwe for ‘good way of life’) works collaboratively to prevent and reduce substance abuse, especially among youth, by promoting healthy lifestyles. Activities are interspersed with Ojibwe culture which is a strong component of healthy lifestyles. The service area of the Minobimaadiziiwin Coalition is the focuses on the K-12 students and their families in the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa (Ojibwe) Reservation in Lac du Flambeau, WI.
STAY Project – Sault Ste. Marie, MI
The STAY Project (Sault Tribe Alive Youth)is a suicide prevention and awareness program funded by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) and administered by the Education Division of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. In 2008, the STAY Project received SAMHSA’s GLS (Garret Lee Smith) grant and used the funding to work on suicide prevention for Native youth ranging from ages 10 to 24 years old in the Sault Tribe’s seven-county service area. The STAY Project service area includes 7 counties in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that have Sault Tribe housing locations in mostly rural areas.
Wakanyeja Kin Wakan Pi – St. Paul, MN
Wakanyeja Kin Wakan Pi (Our Children Are Sacred) was created to address the complex problems resulting from substance abuse and to prevent and reduce subsequent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and or drug affected births. The program provides case management, partnership and referral, prevention services, early childhood education, substance abuse support and recovery services, chemical health support groups for parents and children. The primary service area for this program is a multi-county urban areas near St. Paul, MN.
Native American Advocacy Program – Winner, SD
The Native American Advocacy Program (Wicozani Patintanpi‐ Promoting Healthy Lifestyles ) offers a 22 week, cultural, hands-on curriculum for middle school and high school age youth and 4 cultural camps. The purpose of the curriculum and camps is to give native youth an opportunity to re – establish their cultural identity through receiving cultural teachings that may not be taught in the home or school environments. The overall goal is to strengthen youth via cultural roles and responsibilities so that they can avoid negative elements in their lives such as alcohol, drug, violence and suicide. The service area is a multi-Tribal multi-county area on the Lakota reservations.
Service to Science Academy 2011 Programs
Healthy and Whole
Healthy and Whole is a program offered by the Suquamish Tribe Wellness Center. The program is a thirty-three week education, process and skills group that meets for two hours a week. The Healthy and Whole curriculum, although heavily based on Marsha Linehan’s Dialectic Behavioral Therapy curriculum, teaches additional information offering hope and confidence that changes can be made in one’s life with good results. The program additionally educates participants about developmental stages and tasks; how trauma can interrupt the process; and how it is possible to retrain neural pathways to override old and often self-defeating patterns of behavior and thought. Self-esteem, relationship and power differentials, identification of values and creating meaning in one’s life then are understandable and achievable. Identifying and honoring those who have positively influenced one’s life, mentoring, and giving back to others are key features within the 33 week curriculum. Participants become excited about life’s possibilities. Healthy and Whole integrates the principles of attachment theory; the behavioral development of a life worth living; with mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness skills. Central to all is a developing reliance on the power of relationship to facilitate “reattachment” to create new pathways for healing and healthier functioning.
Ichishkiin Culture and Language as Protective Factors
Through the use of Ichishkiin (Yakama) language and culture curriculum taught in an intergenerational framework, and multimedia mediums to record and access elders’ teachings, Yakama Nation at-risk youth will learn to internalize the voices of their elders. What is important about this approach is that when children are faced with the pressure to choose to drink or not, they are able to access an elder’s voice that gives them another choice: one that is rooted in the culture. A distinguishing factor of our project is that the curriculum affirms a strong sense of positive identity and the intergenerational approach helps youth learn an Ichishkiin worldview, which will guide them in making healthy choices, including saying no to drugs and alcohol. Three teachers (Rose Miller, Zelda Winnier, and Roger Jacob) will collaborate with elders to provide lessons on traditional foods, nutrition, and longhouse protocol. NILI (Janne Underriner, director) will administer the program and will facilitate curriculum development (Janne Underriner and Joana Jansen). NILI (Michelle Jacob) will conduct evaluation activities. In this program, 140 Yakama Nation at-risk youth will increase their knowledge of Ichishkiin language and culture, self-esteem, and cultural pride. The project will take place June 2011-June 2012 on the Yakama Reservation and at the University of Oregon.
Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center Prevention Program
The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin owns and operates the Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center to address alcohol and drug abuse/addiction prevention, assessment, and treatment needs of community members. The prevention program at Maehnowesekiyah has provided evidence based alcohol and drug prevention education programming in all reservation/county classrooms from Head Start to eighth grade for six consecutive years. They also have structured once weekly after school activities for elementary and middle school students as well as summer group activities. This is further supplemented with community based cultural programming which is provided for the youth and their families and includes twenty events over the course of a year. Community based activities meet in the schools, on Maehnowesekiyah grounds, or community locations.
Discovering Our Story Project
During 2011-2012, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. is collaborating with seven partners serving Native Americans to document the effectiveness of the Discovering Our Story Project to overcome historical trauma within our community. We are producing culturally-tailored multi-media health and wellness curriculum to overcome and prevent mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence and T2D issues that have been shown by previous research to impact generations of Portland, Oregon Native families. Our curriculum has developed a learning model that is compatible with Native American learning styles. We are using video productions of exemplary elders along with a set of five teachings based on the Native American hero's journey story model. This community based participatory project is being produced with the support of 120 Native community members, including their therapists, counselors and educators. They are providing feedback to us on its effectiveness during a series of focus groups and pilots. We request technical assistance to strengthen our evaluation design and strengths-based project outcomes so our project can serve as a national best practices model. Initial work can be viewed at www.discoveringourstory.org.
Wolakota Oun Skunpo (Behaving In a Lakota Way) Hocoka (Medicine Wheel) ATOD Survey Program – A Culturally Appropriate Survey Tool
The Kul Wicasa Oyate (Lower Brule Sioux) Tribe’s Wolakota Oun Skunpo (Behaving In a Lakota Way) Hocoka (Medicine Wheel) ATOD Survey Program will develop a culturally appropriate Alcohol, Tobacco, and other Drugs (ATOD) survey instrument that is based on the beliefs associated with the tradition Lakota Hocoka (medicine wheel). The tool will incorporate the ideology associated with the circular concepts of spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional well being and those of value, decision, action, and reaction represented by the Hocoka. Because the instrument will be based on traditional Lakota beliefs and culture, it will encourage greater tribal participation in community-level programs because it incorporates beliefs that are important to them, and will encourage participants to provide more truthful, accurate, and realistic answers concerning their actual ATOD use patterns. By increasing the sample size and the accuracy of the data, it will allow program managers to more effectively develop, implement, and sustain tribal substance abuse programs.
Service to Science Academy 2010 Programs
Back to the Boards
“Back to the Boards”: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indian Reservation Tribe of Oregon was experiencing a high number of SID’s and FASD in the mid 1990’s. Research focusing on returning infants back to their backs while they sleep to reduce SID’s was the jumpstart for Warm Springs to focus on helping young Native American women return to traditional ways by returning the baby “back to their backs” by utilizing a form of a cradleboard indigenous to the tribal community to reduce the incidents of SIDS and the non-use of alcohol and drugs including tobacco. Risk factors addressed: Family Domain – Family history of problem behavior; favorable parental attitudes and involvement in the behavior. Protective Factors addressed: bonding and healthy beliefs and clear standards. Elders are used as teachers and help the young women learn more about their cultural and family lineage. As new moms are identified, they are referred to the “Back to Boards” class. Classes are offered quarterly in the community at the Family Resource Center or at the Health and Wellness Center.
Therapeutic Adventure for Native American Youth
The National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP), a not-for-profit agency located in Gallup, New Mexico and the New Sunrise Regional Treatment Center (NSRTC), an Indian Health Service facility providing inpatient substance abuse treatment, have partnered to provide training for the NSRTC staff and aftercare treatment staff from local communities to implement an adapted curriculum of Project Venture, an evidenced-based/nationally recognized youth development model specifically for native youth. The Therapeutic Adventure for Native American Youth (TANAY) program is an outdoor, experiential and culturally-appropriate model that promotes youth development through utilizing Elder Council members, older peer role models and professional staff to work with high risk youth. NIYLP and NSRTC consider this collaboration a unique opportunity to pilot an alternative approach to working with native youth with behavioral and mental health diagnoses in a residential setting. This program model was initially implemented in two New Mexico native school communities in 2004-2008 with lower risk adolescents. Pilot testing of the intervention demonstrated positive outcomes regarding substance abuse prevention and improvements in mental health indicators. Further implementation refinement and program evaluation are needed to better understand the utility of such an approach with higher risk youth.
Wellbriety for Prisons Inc. Warrior Down Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps and Fathers of Tradition
Wellbriety for Prisons, Inc., is a Native American owned 501c3. The purpose of this project is to provide a Native American approach in Great Falls, Montana and Sacramento, California to reentry, relapse and recidivism prevention to assist men and women reentering the community/society from probation and parole systems. The services and training programs are designed and delivered by peers in the Native American recovery/reentry community. The target population includes Native American men and women (over the age of 18) released to probation and parole. Nonnative men and women who want to pursue a Native American approach to recovery are also welcome to participate. This approach uses Native American traditions and values.
Wise Women Gathering Place – Discovery Dating Program
Wise Women Gathering Place (WWGP) began as a grassroots women’s circle that met every Monday for 8 years on the Oneida Reservation to share and learn from each other the art of traditional midwifery. While 5 community women apprenticed and began their own midwifery home birth practice, many more women continued their supportive role as midwives “being with women” at their sisters, aunties, nieces and each other’s births whether at home or the hospital. Traditionally the midwives were known as the “wise women”, consulted around issues from pregnancy, childbirth, illness/health, relationships and so much more. WWGP has shifted more to be community midwives supporting healthy relationship development.
Discovery Dating grew out of this community women circle, written by Alice Skenandore of Lac Court D’Oreille Tribe. For the past 8 years, WWGP has had promising results with Discovery Dating reducing Adolescent Pregnancies, increasing adult youth mentor relationships, reducing domestic violence and increasing healthy relationships. The protective factors that Discovery Dating enhances, we believe has an impact in preventing onset of Alcohol use and reducing Alcohol abuse. Discovery Dating is used with 6th grade, and 8th grade at Oneida Nation School System, in the classroom once a week for 18 sessions.
Two Worlds Cultural Immersion Camp
The purpose of this camp is to focus specifically on the American Indian culture, its community norms and expectations, socio-economic systems, and traditional life ways. Led by Walks With The Pipe, the great grandson of Pretty Shield (Medicine Woman of the Crows) and Goes Ahead (Chief Scout for General Armstrong Custer). This is a native encampment setting that reinforces the American Indian connection with nature and the natural world and involves a cadre of Native experts as teachers and mentors. Elements include: Learning American Indian Language; Erect your own Lodge/Teepee; Traditional Herbs and Medicines; Traditional Foods; Buffalo Hunt and Meal; storytelling; Medicine.
Service to Science Academy 2009 Programs
Meth Free Crow Coalition
In October 2005, the Meth Free Crow Task Force began their attempt to bring awareness to the Crow Reservation through the communities, schools, government entities, and various businesses on the Crow Reservation. The Group presented on Meth awareness/education and accountability with the assistance of the BIA Law Enforcement, FBI, DEA, and Crow Nation Wellness Program. The goal was to not only educate but identify gaps that the communities, schools, and organizations felt were barriers to cleaning up the reservation of meth use and distribution. The Task Force has brought together new initiatives to the Crow Reservation based on these needs: the Safe Trails Task Force, Youth Leadership, Community, School System, Health Care System, Elders, and Meth Free Crow Coalition.
Palatisha Miyanashma, Indian Education Program
The Palatisha Miyanashma, Indian Education Project, provides culturally related academic support for Kindergarten to Senior high school Native students attending Toppenish School District. The school district is located on the Yakama Reservation in south, central Washington. This project proposes to build on the Methamphetamine Learn and Serve project to increase the skills and knowledge of Native students on the health and socio-economic effects of substance abuse issues in the community. The target population is the 115 Native students enrolled in high school.
Healing Forest
The White Bison Healing Forest Community Development process focuses on bringing healing to Native American communities through culturally relevant approaches. The program has worked throughout the nation with a variety of tribes, reservations, and urban centers for over 20 years. The program works with the entire community to organize a developmental process through systemic change integrating the programs with culture-based healing for substance abuse and youth.
Horse Spirit Society
Horse Spirit is a nonprofit organization located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and provides equine development activities promoting the utilization of the traditional Lakota culture, Lakota language, and Lakota traditional equine practices that encourage primary children and youth participants to refrain from the use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Prevention educational materials and information are given out in a series of three-day leadership horseback riding camps held during the summer months.
Nkwusm Immersion School
The Nkwusm School has led the way in Salish language revitalization in young people for the last five years. The school's mission is to recreate the process whereby the Salish language is passed from parent to child as once was common. Expansion has gone from a single classroom with only preschool children to multiple classrooms and chidren into primary school. Cultural identity in youth develops a sense of belonging and connectedness, thereby reducing youth substance abuse.
Pilgrimage Journey
The Pilgrimage, a three day retreat for those affected by substance abuse, was developed in 1985 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, by a Catholic priest and two recovering community members. Through concepts based in the cultural and spiritual beliefs of native people in combination with the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Pilgrimage offers a holistic retreat experience that focuses on the root causes of addition and empowere people in their recovery from addiction.
Children's Center for Inner Healing
Fairbanks Native Association provides culturally relevant approaches to residential substance abuse treatment that builds personal, family and community resources during the recovery process. The Center works with clients to build their personal cultural skills and identity as well as integrate them into the extended Native community. Long term recovery and prevention of relapse are goals of the center that help residents and their children in the long run.
Red Road Program
The Red Road Program in California provides a traditional teaching approach to substance abuse prevention by helping Native Americans who return to Tribal lands clean and sober from treatment centers and state/federal prison rehabilitations. Participants learn traditional roles and values that bring life and continue sobriety. Traditional approaches include offering of a drum, sharing of spiritual healing songs, sweat lodge ceremonies and other traditions. Red Road program is also structured to provide educational ways of prevention, intervention and treatment of substance abuse.
Service to Science Academy Summer 2008 Programs
Coalition for Healthy and Resilient Youth (CHRY)
CHRY is a coalition-based initiative that provides and supports opportunities for youth to build leadership and resiliency skills. Strategies include team-building and leadership, workshops and institutes on cultural traditions, values and history such as rites-of-passage from elders, education offferings, youth advisory board positions, and youth summits. CHRY has several different components including intergenerational dialogue, Rez Hope, youth development, anti-racism training, and community mentoring. The overarching goal is to honor and work with youth to develop a strong and vital community.
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Tribal Youth Prevention Programs
Grand Ronde Tribal Youth Program offers a variety of youth and family oriented programs and activities. The primary emphasis for the Service to Science Academy was on the Canoe Journey. The Canoe Journey is a year-long prevention intervention for youth. It is an intense cultural-based group activity that serves as an alternative to drug behaviors. It also integrates with the inter-tribal gathering of Northwest Tribes. Fundamental to the Canoe Journey is the formation of the “canoe family” that meets weekly to provide drug-free culture-based social activities to prepare and support the journey. Tribal youth participants and tribal social services report that the Canoe Family and Canoe Journey have become the most successful culturally specific initiative to involve large and sustained numbers of tribal youth in a drug-free activity.
First American Prevention Center: Red Cliff Wellness Curriculum (Red Cliff)
The First American Prevention Center promotes the cultural, emotional, and social growth of Native American children, families, and communities to prevent the development of alcohol and drug abuse and promote overall individual, family, and community wellness. Red Cliff is a comprehensive manualized education and training curriculum that includes a K-12 school-based prevention program, a community change curriculum, and a family wellness kit. All of the Red Cliff materials are culturally focused and the curriculum is designed for Native youth, families, and communities. It has been implemented in tribal communities and used in multi-cultural settings.
Gathering of Native Americans (GONA)
The GONA curriculum provides culturally specific substance abuse prevention training in American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) communities and it is conducted by AI/AN trainers. The original curriculum was developed in 1993. Since then, the 4 day curriculum has been adapted and enhanced by hundreds of tribal communities and organizations in the United States. The GONA curriculum uses four core levels of life reflecting American Indian paradigms and prevention-based strategies: Belonging, Mastery, Interdependence, and Generosity. The GONA curriculum provides a structure for AI/AN communities to formulate culturally based strategic plans to promote holistic systems of health and pro-actively address the affects of historical trauma, alcohol, tobacco, and other substance abuse challenges.
Mino Biimaadziwin Hoop Dance Society
The Mino Biimaadziwin Hoop Dance Society Curriculum is an experiential learning program for Native youth ages 6 to 17 years that focuses on the seven grandfather teachings of the Anishinaabe: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. The curriculum is designed to promote thoughtful behavior choices, provide youth with information and skills to reduce risk behaviors, and develop a greater sense of self-esteem through learning, practicing, performing, and living the Anishinaabe culture. It uses an incentive point system that promotes positive behavior. Mino Biimaadziwin Hoop Dance Society is a program of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Behavioral Health Department.
Native American Fatherhood and Family Association (NAFFA)
NAFFA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that works directly with tribes to strengthen Native American families using the NAFFA copyrighted curriculum. Certified facilitators use the curriculum to promote the responsible involvement of fathers to become more actively engaged in the lives of their children, families, and communities. NAFFA recognizes the sacredness of families and the critical role that fathers play in raising happy and safe families.
Protecting You, Protecting Me (PYPM)
PYPM is a school-based curriculum using high school juniors and seniors to mentor first through fifth grade elementary students on the Hopi Indian Reservation. The goal of the Hopi PYPM Program is to provide culturally appropriate, age–specific, and developmentally sensitive information and skills to students on the Hopi reservation. The program facilitates the development of healthy attitudes and decision-making skills which reduce the risk of alcohol use/abuse and vehicle related injury. The Hopi program utilizes the peer-helper model. Elementary lessons focus on vehicle-related safety, risky behaviors, and the dangers of alcohol and its effect on brain development.
Yakama Nation Comprehensive Community Alcohol Program – Spring Jam
Spring Jam is an annual community event organized by the Yakama Nation Comprehensive Community Alcoholism Program and the community of White Swan. Spring Jam draws thousands of tribal and non-tribal members together for a week-long alcohol and drug free event centered around a youth basketball tournament. It involves activities for children, youth, and families including the basketball tournment, poster/essay contest, media classes, culture classes, ropes courses, and motivational speakers. The event promotes increased awareness of alcohol issues, reinforcement of cultural values, and empowers the community towards wellness.