May is Mental Health Awareness Month |
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The month of May has many important themes ranging from Mental Health to #SexEdforAll to MMIW/MMIR Awareness to name a few. In this month’s issue, you will find helpful tools and resources to put in your educator medicine bag for your youth and don’t forget about you! Remember, indigiLOVE begins with I.
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Curricula Spotlight: Healing of the Canoe (HoC)
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The Healing of the Canoe is a culturally grounded life skills curriculum for youth, using the Canoe Journey as a metaphor & providing Native youth the skills needed to navigate their life journey without being pulled off course by substance misuse but utilizing tribal culture, tradition and values as a compass to guide them, and anchor to ground them in health and wellness. The curriculum template allows each community to use their own metaphors for a successful life journey. Watch an informational video and view the curriculum for implementation ideas.
For more information contact:
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Healthy Native Youth Support is Here |
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Would you like to implement a curriculum but need some help on where to start? Fill out a Request Technical Assistance form and we are happy to assist!
Have you already implemented one of the curricula in the HNY educator portal? If the answer is “Yes!” -- We’d love to hear about it and how it went for you. Please tell us by filling out our Curriculum Feedback form and you just might get a HNY SWAG goody!
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Circles of Support:
Create a Q & A Service like “Ask Auntie/Ask Uncle”
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The #1 visited section of the We R Native website is the “Ask Auntie/Ask Uncle” Q & A chat service. Join the We R Native dream team as they discuss their innovative mobile Health intervention so you can create your local “Q & A chat service” to serve your youth’s interests as a circle of support as a relative.
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To develop health promotion messages that resonate with AI/AN youth, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board uses social marketing, an evidence-based planning process that improves the impact of health promotion messages. The model uses formative research to identify priority populations, segment the community into distinct audiences, pretest materials with the audience, and then monitors the campaign to assess its effectiveness. Join us in June and July to learn more!
Seeking Your Input and Feedback
If you have attended one of our Community of Practice sessions or would like to let us know of some topics we should put on our list of topics, click Community of Practice Feedback to let us know. We want to hear from you.
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Positive Mental Health Toolkit |
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Native Crisis Helpline – NATIVE to 741741
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We all can feel low and it’s important to reach out for help. If you or a friend need support, text the word “NATIVE” to 741-741 to chat with a crisis counselor! Share the campaign of social media: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3. Share our poster and rack card.
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Last summer, the We R Native, HNY and THRIVE teams held a Virtual Springboard Lab where Native youth came together to brainstorm and discuss mental health topics. Out of that we created the #IndigiLOVE social media campaign! Check out the amazing art and videos on the new IndigiLOVE webpage on We R Native’s website.
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HNY Lesson Enhancement Activity: Self Care Plans
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It is really easy to lose ourselves in the daily grind. Whether you are a native youth or you are an adult engaging youth & young adults – it is important to take of YOU! HNY has developed lesson enhancements that can serve as positive activities to slow life down and get back to center. Click here to view activities for: Youth, Adults & Elders
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Sometimes all it takes is a thoughtful text to brighten your day and shift your perspective. We all need a little more joy in our lives, and We R Native wants to help spread the love. Simply text “CARING’’ to 65664 to receive two texts per week with funny videos, songs, and messages designed to improve your mood and remind you of just how awesome you are!
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Sexual Health Education Resources |
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Led by Youth
Reframing Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month
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Healthy Teen Network is elevating -- May is Sex Ed For All Month -- an effort spearheaded by a national coalition of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations committed to ensuring equitable and accessible sex education for all young people nationwide. Polling has consistently shown strong support for sex education among parents, educators, young people, and the general public. Read their latest news story “Parents and Youth Agree on Sex Ed for All”
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Sexual Health Observances 2021 Calendar |
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A tip and tool for educators newly added to the Healthy Native Youth Resources and Support section is the Sexual Health Observances 2021 Calendar. This is helpful for your classroom, health center or communications channels for health promotion and disease prevention for all ages.
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Native It’s Your Game 2.0 Fact Sheets |
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Native It’s Your Game (Native IYG) is a web-based HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention curriculum for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth ages 12-14. NIYG 2.0 is nearly completed but we do have updated Fact Sheets available on topics ranging from mental health, sexual & reproductive health and substance misuse. Click NIYG 2.0 Fact Sheets for your setting.
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(For Adults) Talking Is Power Text Messaging Campaign |
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Talking to teens about sensitive topics is never easy, but it’s important to talk openly and honestly.
Text the word “EMPOWER” to 97779 and you’ll receive weekly tips via text message, covering sexual health, pregnancy, STDs, and consent! Help promote the campaign with your own networks!
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We R Native is now on TikTok! |
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We R Native meets youth where they are at – TikTok is now on that platter of platforms to reach our native youth and young adults – so If you want to check it out (and maybe even possibly hit that follow button 😎) find us @we_r_native featuring “J. Delly”, TikTok liaison for We R Native! Topics range from Safe Snags, Birth Control, STI testing and more.
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Alaska Native News and Resources |
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May: Mental Health Awareness Month
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Wellness includes having a positive purpose in life, satisfying work, play, joyful relationships, a healthy body, living environment, and happiness. To honor May as Mental Health Awareness Month, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) will promote wellness activities to improve both mental and physical health.
Starting Monday, May 3, these activities will be posted on ANTHC’s website, along with a digital activity toolkit. Be sure to follow ANTHC on Facebook and Instagram to join in and recognize Mental Health Awareness Month.
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ANTHC offers many preventative health services and programs to elevate the health status of Alaska Native families and communities. Learn more about the wellness resources at https://anthc.org/what-we-do/wellness/.
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Talk to youth and teens in your community about how consent plays a critical role in both STD and sexual assault prevention. Make sure you’re on the same page for meaningful and impactful conversations about consent. Visit iknowmine’s newly updated consent webpage to educate yourself and youth about the complexity of this topic.
The webpage includes topics for teens like:
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Alaska’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons |
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Friday, May 14 at 11 am. – noon AKDT
Native Peoples Action (NPA), an Alaska Native-led grassroots organization, shares its multi-faceted approach to address the issue of Alaska’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons. Learn how NPA works with Alaska Native communities to amplify Indigenous peoples power and voices through direct policy advocacy, community engagement and the MMIWG2S Alaska coalition.
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Opportunities, Events & MMIW/MMIR News |
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We R Native Contest: I Strengthen My Nation Challenge
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In partnership with We R Native, the National Institute on Drug Abuse – NIDA is hosting two challenges this Summer to recognize and draw upon the strengths and resilience of Indigenous people that protect against substance misuse. Submissions are open now and will close July 7. Please spread the word!
Youth 14-25 years old are invited to submit original art and describe how it depicts resilience against substance misuse.
$500 individual submission or $1,000 group submission (Approximately 25 Prizes)
Teens and young adults are invited to 1) plan a project that would promote resilience against drug misuse, and 2) create a video that describes how your project could enhance it.
Prizes: $2,000-$10,000 per entry, Total to be awarded: $85,000.
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THRIVE Presents: Parenting through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Live Q & A
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Join the THRIVE Project on May 6th from 10am-11am PST for Parenting through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Live Q & A. During this Q & A, join other parents in a safe and supportive place to share the joys, pains, struggles and successes from parenting this last year. At the time of the webinar join via the Zoom link: https://echo.zoom.us/j/91491767757”
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Registration for the 10th Annual THRIVE Conference open! |
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The THRIVE suicide prevention project at the NPAIHB will host the 10th Annual THRIVE Youth Conference in a virtual format from June 21-25, 2021.
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Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Task Force Created |
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April 1 - Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the formation of a new Missing & Murdered Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Justice Services. The MMU is now a dedicated federal unit committed to investigating cases involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. It is an expansion of the 2019 Operation Lady Justice Task Force. |
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National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center |
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Providing national leadership to end violence against American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty. |
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Center for Native American Youth – Remembering Our Sisters Fellowship
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Indigenous women, girls, trans, and two-spirit people experience violence, sexual assault, go missing, and are murdered at the highest rates of any ethnic group. This epidemic of injustice has become known as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits+ (MMIWG2S+) crisis. We will never forget our sisters who have been lost to this crisis. Their memories have inspired the creation of the Remembering Our Sisters Fellowship. |
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