Welcome to Nurturing Brilliance of Native Youth, Community, and Cultural Connection as Prevention. My name is Kiara Mattresino with Kauffman and Associates, and I will manage the logistical support for this Zoom session. At the bottom of your screen, you will find a series of icons. If you have any questions throughout today's session, please use the chat function and we will address your questions either by chat or during the Q&A section at the end of the presentation. If you would like to speak aloud to ask your questions during the Q&A, please use the raise hand function under Reactions. Finally, please be aware that today's session is being recorded. Closed captioning is available by clicking the CC function. If you need technical assistance during the session, please type the issue into the chat box and one of our techs will address it as soon as possible. Without further ado, I would like to introduce today's webinar facilitator and tribal monitor for their introductions and warm welcome. Tanya Tavarez, take it away. Hi, my name is Tanya, as she said, and I would like to thank you all for being here today. We really appreciate you taking the time to be in this space and honor Native youth. So I am a part of the Opioid Response Network, and I lead the New England region, so the six New England states, and I am part of the Indigenous Communities Response Team for Tribal East. I have been in the addiction research and science field for about 15 years now. And I have a BA in psychology from URI, University of Rhode Island, and a master's in social and behavioral sciences from Brown University. And I currently am based in Providence, Rhode Island, for Brown University, and we are on Narragansett tribal ancestral lands. And in my home, I am on the unceded Mi'kmaq ancestral lands. And we can go to the next slide. I will be introducing now my coworker, Emily, who is also part of the Opioid Response Network, and she can take it away. Thank you, Tanya. And hi, everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Emily Mossberg. I bring a background in public health and substance use prevention to my current role as a training and technical specialist for the Northwest region of the ORN's Indigenous Communities Response Team. I am honored to be working alongside my counterpart, Chelsea Kamira, to provide ORN support to Native communities in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho. And I will now pass it over to Erin Irvine to start us off in a good way. Hi, everyone. My name is Erin Irvine, I'm a member of the Salish Tlingit Tribes, I'm a mother of four beautiful children, and I've been with Kauffman and Associates for about three years. I'm so happy to be with you all here this morning and being offered the opportunity to open us up in a good way. As I mentioned in my brief introduction, I am a mother, I have four beautiful children, and being a mother is one of the most important parts of who I am. So when I was asked to open us up this morning, I thought about today's topic, nurturing brilliance of Native youth, and since I have four little people in my home that meet that criteria, I thought about what do I do to nurture the brilliance in my children. And growing up, I didn't have a healthy home or healthy parents, and I learned a lot about what I value, about what I didn't value, and what I seen and what I experienced growing up. And I figured out pretty quickly of who I did not want to be like. And as I became a mother, I've spent a lot of time learning and molding myself to find ways on how I teach my children values. And as growing up, like I knew I valued culture and language, but as a third generation survivor of boarding schools, I didn't have much of that at all growing up in my house. But when I became a mother, I knew I wanted to instill cultural values into my children. And so now I'm really proud to say that my children attend a Salish immersion school and are learning our language and our cultural values. And as they learn in school, they bring it home to me, and I also get to learn a lot of the language. And I learned my introduction that I shared this morning. So my children taught me the language, so I'm really excited to learn from them. And as my career has progressed, and I've been blessed to do the work that I get to do in tribal communities alongside amazing mentors that I've been really grateful to learn from, in each setting that I'm in, I learn something new. And so as I learn something new, I also get to bring home some tools to teach my children. And one of these tools I'll be sharing with you today that I've come across in my work, they're called value cards. And one of the intensives that I've did some facilitating healing groups in community, what they did there is they had a card deck, and on each card was a value. And with this value, you would pick it up, someone would read it, there would be a quote, and we would hold that for a minute and think about how, and reflect on how that value looked like in our lives. And so to this morning, I'm going to draw a card for you guys, I'll read it to you and just share this tool that I use to help build the brilliance in my children every day. And so I have a website and I'll share it with, I'll share with Kelly to share with you guys because there is a virtual card deck that you can use and I'm pulling it up right now and that you pull the card and today's card is determination. Determination is the power of intent that drives our dreams. It is a strength of will to act with resolve. We focus our energy on a purpose and persevere until we meet our goal. Determination is the commitment to follow through until we accomplish our purpose. We care about something so much that even when difficulties arise and the things don't come easy, we keep on keeping on. If one path doesn't work, we try another way. We do not allow ourselves to get distracted or to go off track. We complete the tasks we choose to do with determination and we will succeed. The quote that goes along with this card is, a difference between determination and stubbornness is that one comes from strong will and the other comes from strong won't. Unknown. The practice of determination. I'm clear about what I want to accomplish. I'm committed to meeting my goals. I focus my full attention on what is important and I do what it takes to follow through. I'm flexible. I am persevering. I finished what I start. I'm thankful for the gift of determination. It is the wind in my sails. I just wanted to share that tool with you guys and building brilliance and instilling values. Thank you for your time this morning and I hope you enjoy today's webinar. Thank you very much for that opening, Aaron and I really loved that idea of the strong will versus strong won't and I put in the chat I'll definitely be using that with my seven year old who has a real healthy dose of both currently. So if we can try to balance out the scales there but a little more on the strong will side I think that would be wonderful. So I'm going to go through our agenda briefly with you. Just so you kind of understand what we'll do today and we're going to first start off with the opioid response network and indigenous communities response team overview that Emily will do for us shortly. Then we'll move into nurturing brilliance of native youth, the community and cultural connection as prevention, and that will be led today for us by Melanie Johnson and Raquel Ramos. We'll talk about caring for our relatives and share out we'll go through question and answers, and also speak briefly on how the ORN can help you we are here when you need us. We have a webinar survey today that I know they will talk a little bit more about but we really, really appreciate you taking the time to fill that out. It's very brief and it just helps us to continue to provide this technical assistance these training opportunities for free. And then we'll talk about the future webinar topics and we'll move on with closing out the webinar and let you guys get back to the rest of your day. So I'll turn it over to Emily. Thanks, Tanya. All right, I'm going to go through a few slides about the opioid response network and the work that we are doing with TOR grantees and other native communities. We first want to acknowledge that today's webinar is funded by SAMHSA. We do have ORN and SAMHSA staff on the call today as well as leadership and project officers. Thank you all for being here with us today and supporting this webinar series. Next slide. The opioid response network is funded by SAMHSA to provide no cost training and consultation to communities across the country. The ORN can assist with requests related to opioid and stimulate use prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction. Next slide. The ORN's work with native communities is guided by a set of key foundational premises. These include assuming native community strengths and expertise, supporting sovereignty, following local community leads and assuming native brilliance, which means to assume that each native individual community program and organization is brilliant in their own way and in their own right. Our overall goal at the ORN is to help fill gaps as defined by our requesters and communities. Next slide. The ORN has created the indigenous community response team to help support TOR grantees and other native communities. This team is comprised of individuals who have great experience and expertise working with tribal communities across the country. Next slide. This map shows the different TOR regions across the country. Two indigenous communities response team members are available to support each TOR region that you see on this map. Again, I work in the northwest region, shown in green, with my counterpart, Chelsea Kamirfa. Next slide. You can visit our website at opioidresponsenetwork.org to learn more about the ORN or to submit a request for assistance. Next slide. This slide shows the link to a feedback survey that asks about your satisfaction with today's presentation. We will also be putting this link in the chat. As Tanya mentioned, we would very much appreciate if you could take a minute to complete this survey before you leave the session today. Now I will pass it back to Tanya to introduce our presenters for today. Thank you so much. I'm going to start with introducing Melanie Johnson, and then I will introduce you to her co-presenter, Raquel. Melanie is a proud member of the Sac and Fox Nation, and she is currently serving as the director for the Whole Child Initiative. That's within the National Indian Education Association, and it is really a groundbreaking initiative that's dedicated to enhancing the well-being of Native students. She's also a member, I mean a mentor, for the American Indian and Alaska Native professionals. She contributes to CADCA's Indigenous Peoples Advisory Council. She's also an active member of the Opioid Response Network Indigenous Communities Workgroup. She clearly has a lot of spare time to be here with us today and talk about this, so we appreciate you doing so. She holds her Master's of Education from the University of Oklahoma. She's a Certified Substance Use Prevention Specialist, and she exemplifies her commitment to supporting wellness and resilience in Indigenous communities. Melanie, would you like to say anything before you start, or would you like me to introduce Raquel first? Yeah, just go ahead and introduce Raquel as well. Great, thank you. So, if we can go to Raquel's slide. So, this is Raquel Ramos. She's here with us today, and she's a proud member of the Comanche Nation, and she's a descendant of the last chief of the Comanches, Q'anaan Parker. She's also a Prevention Specialist within the National Indian Education Association's Whole Child Initiative. She has nearly a decade of service in the field, and she's a prominent leader in substance use prevention among tribal communities and Native youth. And like many of you here, she is a tireless advocate for unwavering dedication and endeavors to bridge the gap between education, prevention, and fostering holistic approaches that are empowering communities and Indigenous communities and promoting wellness. And we thank you for being here today too, and I will turn it over to you, Melanie, to start this off. Kitapi, Tanya. Aho Nadeshi, kiskitsi. Thank you for that introduction, and thank you for, you know, inviting us to speak on our experience and things that we want to share with you all. As you can see from the learning objectives, we really want to dig into some things that is really looking at shifting the paradigm, and what does that look like? Some of my colleagues I see on the call, people who have been doing this work, some of you are veterans like us, but there are some that are probably new to this field. And those are the folks that, you know, we're trying to bridge gaps between what we know and what we see happening. These learning objectives are really to look at how do we nurture the brilliance, and I want to thank one of my mentors, Holly Echo Hawk, for just being a mentor to me and helping me to sort of carve out what nurturing brilliance looks like. Because, like Aaron, you know, I come from humble beginnings myself. I'm in my hometown that I grew up in, where I think I'm probably the only Native. I had some cousins here that grew up with me, but we really didn't understand what the nurturing of that brilliance looks like. And then just looking at these objectives and seeing how Raquel was able to do that, and then seeing how she was able to pass that knowledge and expertise on to folks at the different tribes that she worked at. So we really just want to share what we know and to invite you all to go on this journey with us. And so go ahead and move to the next slide. Before we do that, let's take a poll. How important is culture and youth prevention work? There are no right or wrong answers. We just want to kind of get an idea of what you are thinking and how that applies to the work that you're doing. We'll give that a little bit of time. Extremely important, Danica Brown says. Looks like she also has some Quanah Parker connections. And just let me know if we're through the poll and I can move on. Very important. Well, I don't have to tell you while I'm preaching to the choir here that it is very important. You know, when we talk about that, go ahead and move to the next slide. You know, putting my education hat on, we really had to look at what do Native children and families need to thrive? And as Holly Echo Hawk, who is a tribal behavioral health expert, and I sort of started this journey a couple of years ago in a book that she helped to write. I helped her along, but I think she is the one who sort of inspired this leading with vitality and hope and just the reemergence of looking at brilliance. And then merging that with the work that we do at the National Indian Education Association, we had to really meet those educational needs of Native children and youth in our schools and our education systems. We realized that they needed to be redesigned. You know, some people say that education was weaponized against our grandparents, our parents, even us to this day. And the National Indian Education Association always had this long held vision for holistic approaches is what they call it, but just really that belongingness and what Native children and youth really need. And so looking at the traumas and the discriminations that were faced by Native youth, we really had to establish some policies in the schools. And that's sort of where this mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual need. We always knew that. That was nothing ever new to us. We already innately knew that. And so did our children. But we faced these barriers together. Next slide, please. So when we look at one of those barriers, and I know that this is something that we've all experienced, and I say that in a way that it's a historical trauma. And I remember that somebody was talking about intergenerational trauma. I think it was Ali, Arlene Esky, and he was saying that intergenerational trauma, it's a symptom of something much bigger. But just imagine, to reimagine how our Native youth are seen, heard, and feel belongingness. So if we can reimagine that, it's important to really recognize that addiction rates among Native American youth could be influenced by historical traumas, systemic disparities, limited access to culturally competent healthcare services. And just looking at these objectives, we always see the negative side, that we have higher rates of substance use compared to non-Native peers. We look at how past month illicit drug use among Native American youth age 12 to 17, they exceed the national average. And we also look at higher rates of alcohol and tobacco use in our groups. Just recently at the CADCA conference, I was startled to see, not surprised, but we still have high rates of substance use, but this time it was with much higher age groups from, I think it was in the 25 to 30 range. And it was that way with our Indigenous men and then our women followed up. And so that to me was a call to action. That was like, okay, we're doing everything we can try to do in Indian country. We need to do better. We need to work together. And so this is just, you know, some of the information that you can be collecting in your communities, but collectively we need to work together to reduce those rates. So this is really looking at the problem that we're all aware of. Like Raquel always says, it's always the elephant in the room that no one really talks about, the biggest secret that no one talks about, but we're going to talk about it and we're going to call it out and we're going to do something about it. So go ahead and go to the next slide. So when I was talking about shifting a paradigm earlier, I think I was talking about looking at ways to shift the paradigm. So we looked at this as a culturally anchored prevention, why it matters. So to meet the urgent and longstanding needs of our people, we must stop the spinning of the world and shift it into a different direction. Our executive director, Diana Knoyer, had that to say in our opening listening sessions that we held last year. And we had a listening session for over 500 folks. There were three different ones, but we learned from that. And not so much things that we didn't already know, but we wanted to hear from our organization and how we're going to start shifting that paradigm. And one of the things that I like to think is that we helped to shift that paradigm. We anchored our work in prevention. And we're not just addressing immediate issues, we're proactively creating conditions that support the well-being of Native children and youth. And that shift from reactive measures to a proactive and comprehensive approach considers all these different ways that students can learn, like a buffet of ways that we can use in interventions to help. And looking at evidence-based programs, looking at promising practices, but really looking at tribal best practices. So we recognize that education isn't just about academics. It's about nurturing the whole child physically, mentally, emotionally, and culturally, but then also looking at the whole family. So if we can prioritize prevention, it allows us to lay that foundation to have that support where our Native children and youth can thrive academically, emotionally, and culturally. And so these are some of the things that were discovered in our report and some of the things that we want to do as we move into the next 50 years at NIA, but most importantly, what we're doing collectively together. Next slide, please. So if you could just take a moment and just imagine, just imagine the brilliance that our young Native people who have had a lifelong witness to psychological intelligence, cultural strengths, and resilience of your family. But you keep this knowledge to yourself because you believe that only a blood relative or another tribal person would understand you. You hold this awareness as your private gift, like a secret stone of power that you alone possess and control. And you remain quiet about this inherited gift, as you were taught not through words, but through observation that being reserved, respectful, and silent are warrior strengths. And this ancestral power source of being watchful and silent nourishes your natural brilliance. How many of you could relate to that? I know for myself, that was something that I learned early on is just because I might be quiet, I may be sitting in the back of a room, but I'm watching everything. And our young people still do that. And I think in Western education, those things were considered unintelligent. They weren't paying attention. And I want to say that those are some of the things that to me are respectful. You respect who that person is who's speaking. And some of those things were brought out in the chapter that Holly and I were able to work together on. And Holly has opened that lens for me to see it through the eyes of just reimagining, reimagining myself in that situation and looking at brilliance and looking at the innate intelligence and the balance and the resources and just knowing the strengths of our Native people. So, you know, in one of our previous presentations, Holly Echo Hawk and Jeff King described the brilliance of Native Americans with numerous examples of how Native tribes have influenced how we approach disease prevention, sustainable food practices, and fire prevention, and just looking at different ways. And one of the things that I thought was so interesting is that Western psychology interactions with Native people led to such fundamental psychological concepts as Jung's conception of the unconscious, the psyche. We also have talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and self-actualization and Erickian stages of psychosocial development. I learned about all these things in college and thinking that where were our Native people? Why weren't they acknowledged? Why weren't they being seen that way when all along the time that they were? So we need to start, you know, educating our young people that you do have the brilliance. We have these things, but they're not talked about in the way that these folks are. So it's just a way to look at hierarchical and linear ways of knowing while Indigenous people rely more on shared and holistic ways of knowing. And so the linear mind looks for cause and effect and the Indian mind seeks to comprehend relationships because that's what we always say. It's always about the relationship. Next slide, please. So as we move along in fostering this brilliance, we all understand how culture matters. It's identity development. It's having that belongingness. It's that self-concept and that self-esteem that you get when you are in your regalia and you're standing up and you're seeing all your relatives out there. For most Native people, it's looking at cultural identity and having that identity and having that belongingness and connection. It's also things that help us to identify the groups that we're in. And I think that showing these is a protective factor. Showing our young people their cultural connections is a protective factor. I think that just looking at ways of the diversity in different tribes, in different ways of knowing, in different cultures, we're all Native people. We are fostering brilliance through our culture because that's where it is. And I think reimagining that and just being able to foster that and not think of it as an extracurricular activity. It's a day-to-day feeling that you have because you want to get up every morning fostering brilliance from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep and looking at all the ways that we do that. We still have to live in the Western world, but we can still start to foster brilliance through culture. Next slide, please. So how do we empower Native brilliance? Well, it's really a call to action. And I have been able to be a part of that through prevention. Advocating for increased funding for prevention programs. And not just prevention programs, but for education, for any organization like NIA, NCAI, CADCA, even those folks. Everyone has to advocate at the heel to look at appropriations every year. But just having advocation for these fundings at your tribes, you know, recently our tribe was able to apply for funding and to see the capacity being built and seeing the lives being saved is such a great feeling. Fostering collaboration between stakeholders. That's one of the things that prevention work can do for you. It helps you to really look at your relationships. We talked about that being one of our innate brilliances. We're able to foster collaborations. We know who those stakeholders are. And just supporting culturally responsive prevention approaches. If it's something that you're not sure about, you know, look at your three grandmothers. Go to three grandmothers and say, is this something that is culturally appropriate for our prevention programs? And most of the time it is. Look at promoting healthy alternatives and lifestyles. You know, I think just being together as a family and doing things that you wouldn't normally do if a parent comes in just to have laughter together. That's building a healthy alternative other than substance use. Just going to have a meal together is, you can say a lot in a meal, and I think just spending that time and having those protective moments, protective factor moments with your loved ones, and just empowering Native youth leaders in prevention efforts. Every time I see a young person that has a voice, or even those silent ones, always encourage them. If you see that they're maybe quiet or they're going to their cells, take time to give them some encouraging words, because as you can remember as being a young person, there was probably somebody in your life that took the time, and that is a protective factor, and just looking out for one another. No matter where you are, if you see a Native youth or even adult, reach your hand out and introduce yourself. I think we've gotten away from that a lot because we have social media, just having those abilities to embrace and empower Native brilliance through just those little interactions. It doesn't always have to be cultural, but just having that basic human connection with folks. I think that's one of the things that we thrive upon is having that human connection. Next slide, please. To wrap all of this up, I just wanted to bring your attention to this report that Holly Echo Hawk and I were able to help with. It's in a book called Reclaiming the Brilliance of Native Youth. We were working with Dr. Chris Mason. The title of the book is Leading with Vitality and Hope, Embracing Equity, Alleviating Trauma in Healing School Communities. That relationship was a collaboration. It was with a stakeholder trying to build allyship with others so that they can understand and understand who we are as a people. One of the things that we took from that was that our vision collectively is that public educators, and I'll even say preventionists, and those who work in substance use, anyone that works in any health, that are working on health disparities, understand the strengths, the resilience, and the innate intelligence of Indigenous people. We envision a world in which all educators understand that their training is based in a Western worldview, which supports Western superiority and lacks understanding of Native contributions to history and contemporary society. We envision a future where educators are aware of the ancestral streams of Native youth and that the innate intelligence of Native youth is assumed and nurtured. I just want to say that right there, that was something that grabbed my attention because in Western education, our children aren't looked upon so much as brilliance because they don't know the innateness. They don't know that connection that we all share in the drum, in an arena, at a cultural event. I mean, we all feel it. And so always assume brilliance because I think that is what our children need. It's everything that we need to fill that belongingness. It's everything that we need to shift that paradigm. It's everything that we're going to do to shift this world and turn it back to reclaiming who we were as Native people. Maybe not 100%, but we need to make efforts together. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Raquel. Thank you. Raquel Preston-Fields Oh, no way. Thank you, Melanie. That was awesome. So how do you follow that, y'all? Let me go to my slides. Okay. So I'm going to talk a little bit differently. We're going to talk about cultural relevant programming. So when programs are designed to align the community's cultural values, traditions, and their languages, the engagement increases significantly. So this means that participants are more likely to actively participate, which in turn improves their retention and overall participation rates, making the program more effective. Culturally relevant programs also show a deep respect for and the celebration of participants' cultural identities. Recognizing and honoring identity fosters a sense of pride. It gives them a sense of belonging and self-worth among participants, all of which are essential for their well-being. Another benefit for cultural relevance is its impact on communication. By using familiar symbols, stories, communications, lifestyles, we can ensure that our messages are clear and they resonate deeply with our audience, leading to more meaningful outcomes. Next slide, please. When programs are designed to align with the community and cultural values, traditions, and languages, engagement increases significantly. This means that participants are more likely to actively participate, which in turn improves retention and overall participation rates, making the program more effective. Culturally relevant programs also show a deep respect for and celebration of participants' cultural identities. Recognizing and honoring identity fosters a sense of pride and belonging and self-worth among participants, all of which are essential for their well-being. Another benefit of cultural relevance is the impact on communication by using familiar, I'm thinking I just did the same slide twice. Another benefit of cultural relevance is the impact on communications by using familiar symbols, stories, and communication styles. So, we can ensure that our messages are clear and resonate deeply with our audience, leading to more meaningful outcomes. Sorry about that. Next slide. Let me make sure I'm on the right slide now on my notes. Give me just one second to get. So, whenever we think, so I'm just going to reiterate from the last slide, whenever we do our culture classes or you implement culture within your prevention programming, just make sure that you have that prevention message, you know, because if we do something without a prevention message attached to it, all we're doing is just an activity and or an event. So, for prevention activities to be effective, we need clear, targeted messages to educate and empower individuals. Without these, our efforts may not achieve their goal of preventing harm and promoting well-being. Culture classes, which draw the community together, are an ideal setting for integrating opioid prevention messages and ensuring they resonate deeply and have maximum impact. And we'll share a little bit more about what prevention culture classes look like. Next slide, please. I strongly believe in the strength-based approach, which empowers our Indigenous youth by recognizing and building on their unique talents and their cultural strengths. And we also have to make sure that we understand that not all of our Native youth want to participate in cultural activities such as beadwork, drum making, dancing in the arena, making their regalia. So, we have to make sure that with our Native youth that we don't discount any of their specific talents, whether it's basketball, baseball, boxing, you know, just whatever it is that they do. It can make a real difference in their lives and it can also help reach their full potential. So, let's go a little bit deeper into faith-based or strength-based approaches. Next slide, please. It is such an empowering way to work with communities instead of focusing solely on problems. We start by recognizing and building upon the strengths that already exist within the community. For Indigenous communities, this means honoring our cultural heritage and the resilience that has sustained us for generations. It is also about collaborations and partnerships as well. We work alongside community members respecting their knowledge and insights. This is not, this not only empowers individuals, but it also strengthens the fabric of the community as a whole. So, what I love most is how strength-based approaches promote self-determination. It is about giving people the tools and the support they need to make decisions and shape their own futures. Next slide. As stories and celebrate achievements, we create a positive narrative that inspires hope and motivation. Of course, we also look at the bigger picture considering social and environmental factors that impact well-being. It's about taking a holistic perspective and leveraging community resources to create meaningful change. I've seen firsthand the impact of strength-based approaches, not just in data and research, but in the lives of individuals and families. It's about fostering resilience, promoting wellness, and ultimately empowering communities to thrive on their own terms. So, I'd like to share with you a strength-based approach that I had the opportunity and Melanie had the opportunity to participate in. Next slide, please. So, a media campaign to empower youth by highlighting their capabilities and potential. This campaign can be found on SayYesAAIP.org website, which includes things like healthy and positive promotion. So, we left the line blank. So, they can say yes to our way of life. They can say yes to basketball. They can say yes to cooking. They can say yes to actually anything that there is. With this campaign, we had the opportunity. We did not just say, okay, this is what we think will work and this is what we hope will work. We actually did surveys within the community where it was going to be shown at, which is in the Osage Nation area, and we got feedback not only from the adults, but also from the youth. We had many focus groups. This campaign also included positive, I lost my train of thought. This also included positive television commercials. It included positive social media videos that came up there, and on their actual website, you're able to find things like the Talk, They Hear You campaign from SAMHSA. You're also able to see ways that the adults can do the SAMHSA Talk, They Hear You as well. It's just really positive campaign that we were able to be a part of, and it's the say yes. Next slide, please. You think about community engagement and empowerment. Prevention initiatives are deeply committed to community-driven approaches involving community members. You have to involve your leaders, your stakeholders, and decision-making processes is essential for creating programs that truly meet our community needs. One of the most inspiring aspects of our work is seeing Indigenous youth step into leadership roles. I encourage you to provide opportunities for them to participate in decision-making processes, lead projects, and develop essential skills for creating positive change. Partnerships and collaborations are key to amplifying Native youth voices and activities. Work closely with your community organizations. Work closely with your schools, including your Johnson O'Malley, your Native Indian education departments, and other stakeholders to create meaningful opportunities for youth engagement. At the heart of our prevention efforts is the active engagement of Indigenous youth. Their involvement is not just a part of our work, but it is the work itself. Make sure that you're that you have a youth voice in absolutely everything that you do. It is this story that drives us to continue our efforts in making lasting impacts. Community engagement and empowers impact and success stories. Next slide, please. And so, I'm going to share with you a community engagement, and it's going to connect to everything I just told you. So, Native Generation Youth Council truly embodies the spirit of youth leadership and empowerment. By putting youth at the forefront, we're not just talking about a symbolic gesture. We're talking about real, tangible impact. When young people lead, they bring fresh perspectives, innovative ideas, and a deep understanding of the issues that matter most to them and their communities. For instance, our culture classes aren't just about teaching traditions. They're about fostering a sense of identity and pride among our youth members. When they co-present at conferences with me, they're not just there to fill a slot. They're there to share their expertise, their insights, and experience, making meaningful contributions to the important discussions. Our youth powwow group, our youth youth powwow group, isn't just about dancing. It's about building connections, showcasing talent, and preserving our rich cultural heritage. When we talk about youth empowerment, it's not just about giving them a seat at the table. It's about giving them the tools, the resources, and the support they need to thrive. Their leadership isn't just a checkbox. It's a driving force behind the direction and effectiveness of everything that we do. Everything or they're not just leaders of tomorrow. They're leaders of today, shaping the narrative, driving change, and inspiring us all to do better and to be better. So how do you see this approach resonating with the youth in your community? And you can just put that in the chat and I'm going to hand it back to Mellon. Thank you, Raquel. I think that we were going to open it up. Somebody can help me out here with the agenda. If you want to put it in the chat, how motivated are you to start or enhance youth programming in your community? I think we all are pretty much motivated. It just takes some time and effort with folks who have done many years in prevention and then passing that torch on to others to continue that work. But just to know that all the work that we've been doing is to help. And we've seen a lot happen in the new prevention programs that are coming up. And then especially for our TOR grantees, we've been seeing a lot of great things coming from you all. We're excited to see that. So with that, I will turn it over. Oh, before we do that, the poll looks like I was right. Eighty-eight percent are very motivated. We encourage you all to keep doing that just because that is something that our children need. And they're just, as Raquel has said before, very hungry. Our kids are starving to have more culture in the classrooms. And so I'm going to turn this back over to Jaysa, unless someone's going to introduce her. Yeah, I would be happy to introduce Jaysa before she gets started. So Jaysa Michelle is going to be talking about caring for our relatives and the tribal youth connections. And she is also a proud citizen of the Comanche Nation. She's the program director for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes Partnership for Success Grant, which is also funded by SAMHSA. And she's dedicated to using culture as a prevention tool, which I think is really what we've been talking about for the majority of this talk so far, is just how we really need to be integrating culture and honoring culture in everything that we do to support our Native youth. And Jaysa is dedicated to doing that, to help reduce and prevent substance use in the tribal communities. And she believes that our young people are the future of all of the tribal communities, as we also were just talking about. And she has noted that when we take the time to love and lead them with greater clarity and deeper compassion, then that is how we're healing the communities as a whole and at large and just really setting everyone up for the future. So Jaysa, you can go ahead and take it away. Awesome. Thank you. Hi, everybody. Just want to say thank you for this opportunity. I'm going to get started. Can you go to the next slide, please? And the next slide. All right. So as stated, my name is Jaysa. I am the program director for our Tribal Youth Connections Program here with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. Next slide, please. Our staff pretty much consists of myself and our Outreach Specialist, Darian Williams. Next slide. Who are we? We are funded by the Partnerships for Success Grant under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services through SAMHSA. Next slide. And primarily what our program focuses on is prevention of underage drinking and prescription drug misuse for the youth in our community here in Caddo County, ages 9 through 20. Next slide, please. And really the main way that we do that, as you guys have heard, we utilize our culture as prevention. So what does that really look like for us? Our main focus is hosting cultural classes and prevention-based classes in the schools in our community. And really that just gives our youth an opportunity to have some kind of outlet to deal with whatever they are going through in their lives. It provides healthy coping skills for our young people. And really, as Raquel had mentioned before, the main way that we pair or tie in our prevention is by making sure that all of our classes do have some kind of prevention message tied to it. I was told once that if you do not have a prevention message tied with your cultural class, you are only teaching them a skill. And so that has really, truly stuck with me. And that's what we really strive for when we host those classes for our young people and for the community. Next slide, please. I think when you think about, a lot of times people ask us, where do you actually host your cultural classes? Or how do you go about doing that? And our biggest resource, our biggest asset is we are in the schools in our community. That really has been where we have really thrived for us. And so the main way that we do that, we have gone into Anadarko Public Schools, Fort Cobb-Rongston Public Schools, Graysmont Public Schools, Riverside Indian School. And really, we are partnering with different school programs. So like Raquel had mentioned, we utilize the partnership with our JOM programs, our Johnson O'Malley programs. We've made connections and partnerships with the Indian education programs also within our public schools. And really that offers us an opportunity to go in during a class period, teach these classes to them. We utilize the SparkWheel program for the schools in our community. And really the purpose of SparkWheel is to help them bridge the gap to whatever barriers they might be facing in school. And so we're able to kind of go in and have that time to connect with them and to really utilize their culture for those young people. Next slide, please. This is just some more cultural classes. This is outside of the school. For our specific program, we have really been blessed with the opportunity to have a large space where we're able to host large community classes, cultural classes for whether it's our young people or older adults, or even our elders, we're able to really fuse all different age groups together to do these cultural classes. And really kind of that's where that wisdom gets shared or you're able to bridge the gap between different age groups. And so they're able to connect with one another and create those positive relationships with one another. Next slide, please. One of the ways that we also were able to utilize our cultural classes is we have built up afterschool programs with some of the schools that we partner with. And they give us opportunities to come into those schools after hours. And our students are able to participate in our cultural classes like you guys see. Our young men were able to learn and participate the importance of drum making and what that looks like for them. And our young women were able to understand the importance and be able to learn how to make ribbon skirts in the cultural classes in our afterschool programs. Next slide, please. Our biggest points really is our partnerships and collaboration, not only within the schools, but really it's understanding, like Raquel and Melanie have mentioned before, it's understanding who your community stakeholders are and how you build relationships with those individuals in the community and really being able to partner with them on different community events. For the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, we are blessed to be able to house eight different SAMHSA programs within our own SAMHSA department here. And truthfully, we really all kind of come together to help each other provide resources for our community. And so that's been a great opportunity for all of us to really kind of collaborate together. Next slide, please. One of our biggest prevention efforts for our underage drinking really is our pre-prom mock car crash simulation. And that gives an opportunity for our students to, junior and senior students, to really understand the importance of what the impact of them driving impaired could look like. I think we all know that our young people tend to participate in those kinds of activities around prom. And so it really is able to give us that opportunity to not only do we bring them that prevention, but in doing so, we have really included every important community stakeholder. Our law enforcement, UC Metaflight, our first responders, really they all come together to really help bring this event on for the students here. And it's great to see the opportunity that, I think the students feel that engagement from the community members. And so that gives them a little bit more of ownership and some belonging to their own community. Next slide, please. I think our biggest success also is our community outreach events. When I think about our prevention efforts and kind of what we do as a program, it's in our name, Tribal Youth Connections, right? And so that really is an opportunity for us to get out into the community, to do the groundwork and to build those connections with our young people and even just with anybody in general in the community. And so some of our large community events that we put on annually is our summer youth camp, our native summer youth camp. It's something that our kiddos really look forward to, the parents really look forward to. And really that has been something that where, during that camp, we're able to provide those prevention messages also. Little breakout sessions, they get their cultural activities, but that's a big part of where our prevention messaging comes in as well. Next slide, please. And before I end this, I think it's important to remember, I've had somebody also tell me that it's consistency and commitment that matters, right? But I've added a third C to it. And so now myself, I've taken it on as the three Cs method for myself. And really that is your commitment, your consistency and your connection. And you have to be committed to showing up consistently in order to build and foster those important connections within your own community. And when I think you're able to fuse all three of those together, that is truly when you begin to make an impact, not only with your community stakeholders or your tribal communities or tribal leaders, but most importantly with your youth. And I think that's the biggest thing is when you take that time to build that connection with them, you're able to build that positive relationship with them. You give them that sense of belonging, you give them that ownership. And truly that is when you're able to help infuse that prevention with our young people. And that's all I've got. Thank you so much for that. You said, that's all I've got. Like it's some small thing that you all are doing here. So we wanna take the next 10 or so minutes to talk about any questions that you might have. I didn't see any come in the chat, but one of the immediate things that comes to mind for me is oftentimes I sit and I listen to these webinars and I'm like overwhelmed by the work that's being done and how great the ideas are. And it all sounds great. And then I go back into my setting and then I'm like, oh my God, like what do I do now? And how do I make that work here? Where do I start? What do I need? So maybe we could talk a little bit about what are the actual like logistic supports that are needed to move these programs from conception to practice so that some of the people joining today who are like, oh, that sounds great, I would love to do that can kind of get a sense of what does it take to actually do that? If I might weigh in on that a little bit, having been doing this work alongside Raquel for many, many years, it's taken us, what Raquel, over 10 years. And I think that when this funding comes available to tribes, which we were behind in so many ways, we could see here in Oklahoma, the state was about 20 years ahead of us. And so to see the tribes picking up so quickly and having great mentors like Raquel, I could hear Raquel through Jaysa. And that's really what we're trying to do is build capacity and pass that torch onto those who have the passion and the fire. And what it takes is everything that has been talked about, commitment, showing up, accountability. You might have setbacks with some of the grants, but I think that if you can continue to do that, people see that. And they wanna be a part of what you're doing. So I think that's just a really big shout out to Raquel and Jaysa and all the people out there that are doing this work with these tours and Native Connections and PFS grants. Keep doing it and keep showing up. And I think that that's gonna take us a long way. So I just wanted to share that. I think you're on mute, Tanya. You'd think I'd be used to Zoom by now, and yet I still somehow always talk while I'm on mute. I was saying, Raquel or Jaysa, did you have anything to add? And if so, one other point that I would like to add is how do you sustain these types of things when grant funding isn't there? Because that's always a concern in operating on grant funding. I'll go ahead and talk about that. You know, for one, I feel like a extremely proud mama bear right now, just listening to Jaysa talk and all the great things that she's continuing with Tribal Youth Connections. So first off, whenever we think of whether it's the tour, any kind of SAMHSA grant, whenever we think of prevention, prevention doesn't stop whenever you leave a space. So for instance, I had the great opportunity of starting four programs. And in these four youth organizations or youth programs or SAMHSA programs, one being Tribal Youth Connections, I Am Indian, Tradition Not Addiction, and Native Generation. And each one of them, I started with the same foundation, starting out with culture classes, being able to find those champions within your community, mainly your leadership, bringing them on board, finding them elders in your community as well. And so three of the organizations, the Tribal Youth Connections, I Am Indian, and Tradition Not Addiction, they were all SAMHSA funded. And I thought the same thing, Tonya, of if I didn't have any money, how would this still work? Because it's easy whenever you have SAMHSA dollars and you start implementing strategies and you start implementing prevention into your community because you have something to set aside. The Native Generation, a lot of people call it N8V, but the kids came up with the name, the N8V is Native. The N8V is Native. So Native Generation that I shared is a nonprofit organization. And I started that with zero dollars. And if you noticed, the images were similar to what Jaysa had shared on hers. We had zero dollars, but we ran like we had a million. And the reason why we did is because I utilize the exact same foundation of culture classes. And that's finding someone in your community that will give you that space. That's finding organizations in your community and or in your tribe that can either donate culture class supplies and so on, because your prevention message doesn't change. Take as prescribed, don't share other people's medication, safe disposal, those prevention messages don't change, but it's just bringing the, for me, it was bringing that universal approach together and including all of these stakeholders. Native Generation is still an active nonprofit. And like I said, it's just how you approach, how you engage your community, how you have that consistency and commitment. And then now I'm gonna add my other C that Jaysa added to it, consistency and commitment. And what was the other one, Jaysa? Connection. Connection, consistency, commitment, and connection. You know, because, and that's all it is. You can run your prevention program because once you have that buy-in from your communities or you have that consistency, commitment, and connection to individuals that see that what you're doing is good. And you have that piece of your youth because if you don't have your youth in the center, it's just gonna be a you program. But when you include your youth, it's a community program because we as adults try so hard to be a voice for the voiceless. And we fail to realize that our voiceless, which is our youth, have a huge voice and they make mountains move. And yes, like Melanie said, become a line item on the tribal budget. You know, that's what Tribal Youth Connection, or I'm sorry, Tradition Not Addiction with the Cheyenne Arapaho tribe did. They became an actual line item because SAMHSA grants. I don't know if we still have SAMHSA people on here. Don't let us buy food this season. But that's our connection though. We as native people, when we invite people to come to us to do something, we feed them. That's how we are culturally. And we understand, you know, the federal guidelines. However, so we have to find, you know, those people that can do it. Your diabetes program within your tribe. They have, you know, they're teaching, you know, healthy snacks, they're teaching healthy lunches, you know, have them give them turkey wraps, you know, the kids love them. So let's see, let me look in here. I have to go. Oh, somebody has to go. Bye, Nancy. Did I answer your question, Tonya? Yeah, you did. And I would like to welcome if anyone else has any other questions that they want to put in, because otherwise, I mean, I have questions all day long. I feel, you know, we just talked about that point too, you know, federally funded, because we run into this, we can't use where SAMHSA funded. So we also can't buy food. But there are other things I think that sometimes with grants that don't align. And we, you know, we talk about where grant funds to do this work culturally appropriately and responsive and meet these needs. But then there are other things like deadlines or these different things that are placed on that don't necessarily align with the culture or how, you know, I guess what I'm saying is they're much more Western oriented in the way that we write these funding proposals and these grants and these requirements. And is there work that's being done to change some of that so that we, you know, can have these considerations at really at the top level of like funding structure and guidelines that might help it to be more, you know, just help it be more feasible to move forward and do this and do this work effectively without a lot of that sort of red tape? That's a really good question. I think, you know, being part of the Opioid Response Network and learning from all the lovely ladies that I get to work with and seeing some of the requests that come in, I think, you know, prevention professionals, like we were able to do some trainings for the Prevention Technology Transfer Center and really starting to build capacity and looking at not just preventionists doing this work, but all the key stakeholders being able to bring their resources to the table. And I think that's what it's gonna come down to is, you know, there's foundations that you don't have to really worry about sometimes with the restrictions, but I think it's the stakeholders, you know, if you can build those coalitions, I think that people can have MOUs and they can share in some of that responsibility because we all want the same thing, right? But it's really having that champion person out there that people know that they can count on and that are looking to be the person to take charge. And sometimes there's people out there that just want to give money. We haven't found all of them yet, but that have money that they need to spend down or they want to contribute. So everything that the ladies had shared, I think that if you're out there, people that want to give out money, you look at prevention programs, look at what is happening because we do have restrictions on things that we can do. Not all tribes have all the money like some of the bigger tribes do, we're struggling. So, you know, take a chance and become a stakeholder. Thank you for that. Does anyone else have any other questions that they would like to bring up? You know, it's a lot of information. I think somebody wanted to, had mentioned before of sharing out all the prevention programs. And I would love to see that too, like what all the great prevention programs out there and just map it and show people what's being done. Because I think once you see it, it kind of gives you motivation and excitement and a visual to show everybody that we're all collectively doing this together. Yeah, I think that would be great as well. Go ahead, Danica. Yeah, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board has a website for providers that has, it's kind of a database of prevention programs and a database of prevention models that were created for and by Native people called, and the site is called Healthy Native Youth. And I'll put the link in the site, but they're like health prevention initiatives, substance use, suicide prevention initiatives, all of those kinds of things. And I think there's, I don't even know how many are in there now, but there's, it's quite a nice repository of interventions. And then we've been, I've been working with some of the Washington tribes. They're working to do a systemic prevention initiative that's based on the Icelandic prevention model. So if people are interested in that, they can feel free to email me and I can send you information about what that model looks like and particularly in indigenous communities. Thank you. I have another question about how, what is the best way to do this or to have folks who are non-Native and working to treat and work with Native youth, but in like largely non-Native settings, like how do we do that integration or what is the best way to integrate some of this programming? And have you done anything like that? Whereas, you know, Jason, I saw some of those, like the classes that you were doing, have you done any of those where you bring in the Native youth to teach their non-Native youth counterparts or do anything like that? Yeah, so I think really like it's, it's like, it's kind of like what Raquel said is like, it's giving them the opportunity to have that ownership and then they share that with other people. And so really it's not necessarily myself or my outreach specialists going in and, you know, teaching to those non-Native communities. It is really like when we give that information or the prevention or the cultural classes to our youth or even just to anybody in the community, it's like passing the torch, right? It's like kind of like what we've all been talking about. They take it to the next person and then they take it to the next person. And I mean, like really like, I had somebody actually asked me this yesterday at an outreach event of, you know, what advice would you give to somebody who maybe is non-Native entering, you know, that kind of work or those communities, how would you suggest going about that? And so I think, you know, for me, what I just explained to her was, I think a lot of it is coming and sitting at the table with us, right? Meeting us where we're at, getting to know us and taking that time to connect with us. And I think the biggest thing is building a relationship and trust and rapport. Without that, you truly are probably gonna get a lot of pushback or resistance. And so I think when you take that time to sit at the table with us and really ask us what we think is important or what do we need, or, you know, what kind of resource can we offer those, you know, other groups or organizations that are non-Native, then I think that really is what kind of helps bridge that gap a little bit. Thank you. That's great. So I'm just gonna ask one more time if anyone has any questions that have come up now. And if not, we can move forward. So I'll give it a minute here. We just had something come through the chat that says can you share the type of messaging you share with your community against opioid misuse, and how do you integrate symbolism and stories. That's a great question. Thank you, Tisha. Um, so I think for, uh, for us, I think the, where the, you know, the, the opioid misuse, um, kind of kind of comes in for us is it's kind of like those, uh, the different topics that, you know, Raquel was talking about when we have our cultural classes, that's where we're taking that time to have conversations with them about, um, you know, what does, uh, safe storage look like, what does safe disposal look like, um, you know, uh, different things like that. Um, I think really kind of what we here have an advantage of is that, um, when it comes to, um, you know, that, that particular topic, we have other programs here who really focus on that. Um, and you know, our, uh, our, our tour program, our tribal opioid response program, um, where we're able to partner with them. And so they can come in and then they can, um, you know, give that prevention message on, on that scope of work and, and what, you know, where they know, you know, the most information on with that. Uh, and so that's something that, you know, we really utilize here is, is, uh, you know, for, for that particular, um, you know, that, that particular topic, that is something that we really rely on our tour program for is to kind of come in and share their knowledge and they can have the prevention message of, for some of our cultural classes and vice versa. We all kind of work together that way. I'd like to share something also. So one of the, one of the things that we had done, um, with a couple of the, um, tribes that I'd worked with is, and also with AAIP. So the, this right here is NIA, the Native American Youth Initiative. That is also, um, what created the Say Yes campaign. And so, um, we did notebooks also. And so this looks like a basic notebook. We know that all students need to have notebooks. We did the same thing with, um, I Am Indian as well. And we have the youth do an art contest with I Am Indian. Um, they did an art contest and, um, whatever image won. Um, then we ended up, uh, digitizing the art contest. However, these aren't just regular notebooks. On the inside of the notebook, we have the myths and facts of prescription drug misuse. And so the theory behind, um, these notebooks, um, it, our other notebooks, I'm sorry, our other notebooks on the back, we had a resource wheel, which was a medicine wheel, but the resource wheel had, um, teen suicide hotline, runaway hotline. We had our office phone number on there, just different resources that, um, our youth can connect to. And so the theory behind it was whenever our youth were in school and they were using their notebooks and they got bored that they would actually start to read, um, the myths and facts of prescription drug misuse, you know, and what it says. Um, and another way that we were able to see whether or not these notebooks actually worked is we did a survey with the notebooks pre surveys. And then we did post surveys. We generally give the notebooks out during the back to school bashes, uh, where all the students would receive, you know, their school supplies. Um, this is in the tribal communities. Um, and we did this every year. Not only did we do this with our opioids, um, we've, I know that the Wichita tribe did that with their suicide prevention as well. And it has also been done with our underage drinking and we use the SAMHSA myths and facts. So there's different ways to do messaging. Um, if you're going to do messaging, um, poster wise, I would recommend using images of youth that are in your community. Um, so then that way your youth will be more in the parents as well. They're going to be more responsive to seeing somebody on that poster and reading what the message actually is as opposed to having somebody that they absolutely do not know. Thank you for that. Um, could you speak a little bit more? I know you talked about having youth, um, present with you and do things and also maybe using some of the youth on these posters and messaging. Is there like a consent process that has to happen for this? And you know, if so, and especially if you're in like a grant funded programming or setting like that. And what does that look like if there is? Oh, generally, we did not just select youth that we didn't know. And we have a youth council in each one of the tribes that I've worked with. And with the with the youth council, um, the youth knew what the messaging was, as far as safe storage, or, you know, whatever training or whatever, um, co presenting that we would do. And yes, there were consents, we made sure that the youth parents knew what it was that we were doing what they were going to be talking about, even whenever it came to travel, because we didn't want to have to print 1200 posters. And then the parents say, Oh, my gosh, what is my child doing on this poster, we made sure that the youth attended, or we selected youth that were in constant attendance, not only of the culture classes, but the activities and the events that each one of the programs were participate or that they would actually put on, because that's where that relationship building is. That's where that communication comes in. And that's also where that were that promotion of Ah, you know, here I am, we know that Sally is a part of tribal youth connections. And we know what tribal youth connections is about. And so with your young people, it's like, okay, we know that we can come to Sally if we have a problem, and she could connect us to Jason. So it's all about relationship building. Thank you. So we do have a few more minutes for questions if anyone else has anything else to bring up. Danica, thank you for sharing some of those other resources that you put in here. Okay, well, and then I think I will turn it over now to Emily, and we'll go through and talk about how the ORN could support you. Yes, so as a reminder, the ORN is here to support you. We can provide no-cost consultation and training focused on youth-targeted prevention efforts, youth engagement, really anything related, and also incorporating culture into those efforts. Next slide. The ORN has consultants in every state and territory who are available to provide this consultation and training. So if there's anything we can help you with, we encourage you to submit a request for assistance on our website. Again, that's opioidresponsenetwork.org. And I will pass it back to Tanya to close out today's session. Thank you. So, just a reminder, our next webinar is coming up in June on the 27th. It will be at the same time from 2 to 3.30 Eastern Time, 11 to 12.30 Pacific Time. And you can either use the QR code in the link here to register and get your link to join from that webinar there. And you can move to the next slide. And this is just giving you a little bit of the upcoming tribes, what we have here. So Growing Our Own, Investing in Tribal Behavioral Health Workforce. Then we have July, Covering Bridge Housing, the Critical Need for Native Recovery. And in August, we'll be discussing Engaging Tribal Leaders and Linking Substance Use Disorder Services in Tribal Economic Development. And Kristen, you said, can you send that webinar? Would you like us to put the link into the chat? I think Chelsea had just done that there. And then all of the recordings and the webinars are made available about a couple weeks after for processing, but then you can watch them all again on demand as well if you're not able to make any of these. And then if you could just take a quick minute to either take out your phone now and scan the QR code or access the link that Chelsea just put in the chat. This is our opioid response network evaluation survey. Again, it's very brief, and it will just be asking about your satisfaction with the training program today, some basic demographic information. And this helps us to not only improve our services, but also make sure that we're able to continue to move forward and provide free training and education to you all as you need it. And thank you guys all for being here with us today. And thank you so much to our presenters. I learned so much from you all today and found so many new resources that I can now dive into, and I think that others probably did as well. So thank you for the work that you're doing beyond just being here and speaking to us today. This presentation was amazing. Thank you all.

Native youth

culturally relevant programming

prevention efforts

Indigenous youth empowerment

strength-based approach

cultural identity

resilience

ancestral knowledge

media campaigns

prevention strategies

Indigenous culture

cultural values