This session will cover how the Cherokee Nation Tribal Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court (JHWC) uses culture in their rehabilitation process. The presenters will share case studies demonstrating how their engagement techniques have been instrumental in helping shift youth and family member attitudes with respect to the disciplinary and justice systems.
This session will cover the need to be informed about the fatal risks of fentanyl use, the proper use of Narcan (Naloxone), and the reality that fentanyl affects everyone. The goal of the presentation is to raise awareness and hope in our Tribal communities. Narcan (Naloxone) saves lives, and with proper training and harm reduction education the hope is destigmatize and reduce overdose deaths in our communities.
This session will cover the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Tribal Restorative Practices, as part of their Juvenile Healing to Wellness Program. The program uses Elders Panels and mentoring to help youth repair from hurt and harm.
This will be the second of a TYRC Online Learning Event series focused on the needs and current service gaps of unsheltered and runaway Native youth across the country. During this Online Learning Event (OLE), Frankie White Dress, Director, Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Youth Shelter, and Sheri Riemers (Nindaanisequay, White Earth Nation) Executive Director, Ain Duh Young Center (www.adycenter.org), will share prevention and intervention strategies that are proving to be successful in working with unsheltered and runaway Native youth. Alejandra Bruyere, California Native Youth Collective Representative for the Center for Native American Youth, will also share stories of resilience and hope. Data collection strategies and resources on this topic will be provided during the OLE to support OLE participants that are seeking to expand their services to this population of Native youth.
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:
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 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.
The Tribal Youth Justice Resource Center Young Leaders and Mentors (TYRC-YLM) are excited to share their successful experience in partnering with OJJDP TYJRC as a youth resource for Tribal grantees. This TYJRC-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.
The Tribal Youth Justice 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.
In this session, TYJRC Consultant, Joe CrowShoe, and TYJRC Events and Communications Coordinator, Hannah Ellman, will offer learnings from a new Tribal Youth Justice Resource Center project and publication, the TYJRC 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 TYJRC 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
