OJJDP Tribal Youth Program Midwest Regional Meeting

The After School Native Mentoring Program (ASMP) was developed using the four themes from the Gathering of Native American (GONA) curriculum to enhance the process of an afterschool program (Belonging, Mastery, Interdependence & Generosity). This curriculum incorporates peer-to-peer facilitators, prevention, and wellness while incorporating your cultural practices and traditions for middle school students with high school peer facilitators as mentors. The ASMP curriculum approach is used to increase capacity academically, build relationships, develop social capital, improve wellness, increase opportunities for cultural leadership and peer leadership.

Aligned with traditional kinship systems, Friends of the Children’s (FOTC) paid professional mentoring model provides youth with individualized, relationship-based support from age 4-18 (pre-K through high school graduation). We will explore how the holistic, relationship-centered model helps Indigenous children and families find a path to cultural connection and belonging resulting in positive outcomes. We will also share learnings from Indigenous FOTC sites regarding the fit and success of the program for Indigenous youth within the boundaries of sovereign tribal nations and Urban Indian communities. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities in launching services in tribal communities and providing programming rooted in children’s culture and heritage to improve long-term outcomes.

The vision of the Seventh Generation Kinship Framework is to build lasting relationships between Native youth and caring adult mentors within their community employing the following strategies:

• Connection through one-on-one mentoring and group cultural activities;
• Enhance the cultural identities of Native youth by integrating cultural values, kinship ways, and practices into all group mentoring activities; and
• Decrease youth contact with law enforcement and the courts by guiding them toward healthy lifestyle choices.

The Seventh Generation approach to mentoring, developed under an OJJDP grant, was inspired by the Maza Tiopa Mentoring Program, Porcupine, South Dakota, which created a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents. The Maza Tiopa Mentoring Program was based on the traditional culture and kinship relations of the Lakota people. The Seventh Generation Mentoring model can be easily duplicated by other Native programs to create a similar mentoring program.

The Tribal Youth Resource Center Young Leaders and Mentors (TYRC-YLM) are excited to share their successful experience in partnering with OJJDP TYRC as a youth resource for Tribal grantees. This TYRC-YLM panel will share the importance of partnering with Tribal youth and the positive impacts that lead to building skills and expanding their relationships in their own communities and at the national level.

• Learn what “uplifting youth voice” looks, sounds and feels like
• Learn how relationships building with your youth impacts your program
• Learn how uplifting your youth’s voices increases protective factors
• TYRC-YLM will share resources and what other Tribal youth programs are doing

In this session, TYRC Consultant, Joe CrowShoe, and TYRC Events and Communications Coordinator, Hannah Ellman, will offer learnings from a new Tribal Youth Resource Center project and publication, the TYRC Inherited Magazine, with the goal of uplifting and amplifying Indigenous youth voice. The publication, set for release by the end of 2024, will share the stories and reflections of Young Leaders, and insights from youth program staff and Juvenile Healing to Wellness court staff using creative approaches to involve youth at every step of program planning and implementation. This session will provide attendees the opportunity to engage with the TYRC Inherited Magazine material, assess their program’s current strategies for engaging youth voice, provide opportunity for self-reflection on the topic of trusting youth voice, and engage in conversation, relationship-building, and peer-learning across communities

The Tribal Youth Resource Center’s Young Leaders will share their traditional arts, talents and stories that have contributed to their well-being and resilience. These culturally grounded coping methods serve as inspiring examples of how to navigate adversity in a healthy way and are integrated into tribal programming around the country. This session will highlight organizations and initiatives that have provided support and promoted Culture is Prevention.