Progress 09/01/18 to 02/28/21
Outputs
Target Audience:This project focuses on the Fort Belknap community and surrounding areas. We have recruited 20 coalition members from Harlem, Lodge Pole, Hays, and the Agency. Additionally, we held three open community meetings in Lodge Pole, Hays, and Aaniiih Nakoda College. These meetings were advertised and open to anyone who wanted to join. During these meetings, we allowed the community to discuss their ideas and concerns regarding the substance abuse in the community. We decided to usethe data from these meetings to design community projects focused on youth that we couldcarry out in the community during the second year. We also have youth that serve on our coalition from Harlem High School and Hays Lodge Pole High School, as well as two ANC student members. Thus, youth was the decided target group for our activities. COVID-19 hit in spring 2020, and the Fort Belknap Reservation never opened up to regular activity even though the surrounding communities of Harlem did. All public gatherings have been banned since March 2020; thus, we were no longer able to hold in-person events. Consequently, we decided to open up some of our vitual activities to Elders, adults, and families to include more residents and hopefully, offer social connections and activities to help the community cope with the shutdown. Changes/Problems:Our project was interrupted by COVID-19. The reservation did not open again like other communities; thus, the reservation has been on shutdown since March 2020. No social gatherings are allowed, which disrupted our ability to continue to hold community youth events. We adapted by trying vitual contests and activities. We held a yard cleanup and a COVID supply scavenger hunt that youth could do from their homes. However, we had little participation. Our activities have been announced via fliers, the local radio station (KGVA), and on social media, but our participation has remained low. Thus, we have encountered barriers to advertising or encouraging participation when activities went virtual. Our coalition had decided to focus on providing more youth activities and helping connect local youth to possible mentors, such as coalition members, but COVID made this process difficult. Our focus on youth activities was meant as a prevention or early intervention measure to provide youth with services that dissuade substance use. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three students who worked on the project presented a poster on our project at the First Americans Land-Grant Consortium (FALCON) conference sponsored by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium or AIHEC in October 2019. Students also were able to attend sessions about movie-making and other topics. Lastly, students were able to see other student posters and presentations to learn about work from other tribal college students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The reservation has remained on a shutdown since March 2020, and all social gatherings are still prohibited. Since we have struggled to get participation in virtual events, we have not attempted to hold public meetings. However, we have made brochures that provide information about our group, and we have created a Facebook page to help the community learn more about our coalition. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Establish a community coalition comprised of representatives from key stakeholder institutions We have recruited 20 members from the following community institutions: Chemical Dependency Center, Hays Lodge Pole High School, Harlem Junior High School, Harlem Elementary School, Suicide Prevention, KGVA radio, Aaniiih Nakoda College, the Tribal Council, Social Services, and high school/ANC students. With the conclusion of the grant and the end of stipends, we may not retain all members; however, the coalition looks like it may have at least 10 members willing to continue this work on a volunteer basis. Also, the project director plans to continue coordinating the coalition's meetings and activities on a volunteer basis. Therefore, the coalition will continue. Goal 2: Formulate an organizational structure for this coalition. We elected a Chair and Vice Chair. The Chair leads each meeting now. Decisions are made through a voting and approval process. We developed a brief manual that states basic rules, such as starting meetings on time, missing meetings, reporting work, etc. We follow Robert's Rules of Order. We also created a coalition name, The Buffalo Seekers, that has been translated into both the Aaniiih and Nakoda languages. We have the following mission statement: The Buffalo Seekers Substance Abuse Coalition aims to establish a unified stance to address the substance abuse concerns as defined by the community by developing and implementing community-driven, culturally-focused sustainable approaches that foster healthy mindsets and responsible decision-making with the goal of restoring harmony to body, mind, and spirit of those impacted by substance abuse. Goal 3: Coordinate community outreach activities to assess the community's concerns regarding substance abuse and their suggestions for key needs to be addressed by the coalition. We held three community meetings in Lodge Pole, Hays, and the Agency that were advertised and open for anyone. We used a focus group format to guide discussions. Community members were allowed to share ideas and concerns, as well as learn about our coalition. We originally planned on holding three more meetings; however, we have not been able to hold these meetings due to the reservation's shutdown with COVID-19. Goal 4: With the coalition, compose a strategic plan and evaluation process with measurement tools. We composed a working draft of a strategic plan. This document is a working draft because it is meant to be a learning process, and we want to be able to revise it to better meet our needs and goals. The goals from our strategic plan are as follows: Coalition Goal 1: Youth Identity: The coalition will nurture of youth through offering and supporting youth-based activities that nurture cultural identity, positive family and interpersonal relationships, school partnerships, and a sense of community (the culture of "we"). Coalition Goal 2: The coalition will influence the reduction of substance abuse in the community through utilizing existing community resources, educating stakeholders, forming partnerships to address community needs, and increasing participation in culture and spirituality. Coalition Goal 3: The coalition will improve behavioral health outcomes for youth through mentoring youth on establishing positive, reciprocal interpersonal relationships, fostering physical/psychological safety, learning ways to share and offer help to others, developing life skills and fully participating in one's own growth, as well as the growth of one's community. Each goal has four objectives, anticipated outcomes, and ways to measure those outcomes. For simplicity, some of our outcomes are measured by participation rates with the goal of increasing participation by 25%. There is a lack of participation for many community programs; thus, we decided to focus on trying to engage people with our activities first. Later, we may adjust our outcomes and measurements to focus on measuring value-added or community impact. For evaluation, we created a Youth Satisfaction Survey that was circulated through Survey Monkey, email, Facebook, and word-of-mouth. This survey listed activities that we did and inquired about future activities. Since activities are currently virtual, we also included items to explore more ideas for virtual activities. For example, someone recommended virtual bingo. Informal interviews and after-activity surveys were not used to due community restrictions. Goal 5: Implement strategic plan and evaluate outcomes. We were able to implement our strategic plan as it was drafted until March 2020. Activites were ceased until May 2020 to determine if the shutdown would end and if regular in-person events could continue. In June, we planned our first virtual event that focused on a yard cleanup and community cleanup contest. Due to low participation, we opened activites to all age groups. Unfortunately, youth participation has been minimal since the shutdown, which impacted our goals focused on youth. There were items included on our evaluation survey, Youth Satisfaction Survey, that included behavioral health needs related to COVID and assessed the need for virtual COVID support groups. As the coalition continues post-grant, we plan to explore offering workshops on self-esteem and coping skills to youth virtualy via Zoom. Recruitment for activities has been extremely difficult, but incorporating these activities will align well with our strategic plan. Our evaluation also showed us that advertising our group and activities remains a challenge in the community that needs to be improved.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Our coalition group decided to focus mostly on youth activities. Youth would be defined as anyone under the age of 18. We held some community events that targeted children under 10, and we held some events that targeted adolescents ages 14 to 18. In February, the Coalition supported a community event to honor Elders in the community as a means to build commuity connections. The Coalition also held an event at the community Mid-Winter Failr by offerring youth activities to K-12 students who attended the event. This summer, the Coaltiion distributed informational flyers about COVID health tips with masks and hand sanitizer to the general public. Changes/Problems:This project is implemented on a Native American reservation. The Fort Belknap Tribe never reopened the community and never left phase 1. This has blocked our ability to hold public, community events, which was the heart of this project. We have been holding virtual events, such as youth activities that youth can do from their homes, such as home scavenger hunts, but participation has been extremely low. Our monthly Coalition meetings have been through Zoom, and not meeting in person anymore seems to have also slowed motivation and cohension. Unfortunately, the PI feels that the project has been significantly impacted by COVID in terms of what it could have been. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PI and the student coordinators attended the annual FALCON Conference in Denver in October 2019. The student coordinators designed a poster presentation about the Coalition and shared our experiences forming the group, creating the structure of the group, and our plan for activities. The PI and student coordinators attended the whole conference to learn about other projects funded by the USDA. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We submitted for the no-cost extension to have more time to evaluate our project and then share results with the community. This portion of the project has not been completed, yet. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are going to continue to hold virtual-based community events to the best of our ability. We will use our college's Facebook page, community Facebook pages, and other electronic means to administer our feedback survey. We may also find a way to locate some community volunteers who can provide some feedback on the activities that we did host since interview feedback is part of our evaluation process, too. If COVID restrictions lifted (the reservation has never left phase one), then we can hold three more community meetings to share our results and obtain additional feedback on where we should go moving forward. If COVID restrictions do not permit this, then we may host Zoom meetings for this process, but I suspect that participation may be low in this format.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: We established a group of 20 community members from various instituations across the community. Some members dropped out, but they were replaced with new members. Two students who originally worked on the project as coordinators later joined as members. Goal 2: The Coaltion elected a Chair and Vice-Chair the first year of the project, and these chairs were elected again to continue in the second year. The Coaliton also created a manual of rules and procedures, as well as a mission statement. Goal 3: The Coalition held three open community events to assess the community's concerns. Goal 4: The Coalition created a strategic plan with key goals, objectives, outcomes, target dates, and evaluation measures in the second year. Goal 5: The Coaltion implemented various youth-focused activities. Some activities were focused on younger children under the age of 10. Some activities were focused on adolescents. Activities were designed as a prevention effort towards substance abuse because they aimed to provide more positive youth activities in the community, as well as connecting Coalition members to the youth as potential mentors. Activities included game nights, video game tournaments, a Mid-Winter Fair Youth Fair, arts and crafts, and Native American cultural events, such as Round Dances. In February, the Coalition supported an Elder's Honors Day for Elders in the community. The Coalition also sponsored a Yard Cleanup Event since the community cleanup event was cancelled due to COVID. This summer, the Coalition also created a COVID health tips brochure to distribute to the general public in the community along with masks and hand sanitizer. With the no-cost extension, the Coalition plans to host some Zoom events focusing on arts and crafts. We have not evaluated our project, yet. The PI submitted a no-cost extension to have more time for this process since COVID interrupted the group from holding public events. We plan to implement this part of the project in the next 6 months.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:This project focuses on the Fort Belknap community and surrounding areas. We have recruited 20 coalition members from Harlem, Lodge Pole, Hays, and the Agency. Additionally, we held three open community meetings in Lodge Pole, Hays, and Aaniiih Nakoda College. These meetings were advertised and open to anyone who wanted to join. During these meetings, we allowed the community to discuss their ideas and concerns regarding the substance abuse in the community. We are using the data from these meetings to design community projects focused on youth that we can carry out in the community during the second year. We also have youth that serve on our coalition from Harlem High School and Hays Lodge Pole High School, as well as two ANC studenrt members. Thus, we are engaging youth in our mission. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The first year is mostly a planning process. During the second year of the project, we plan to implement our activities, evaluate them, and then report our results to the community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are currently finalizing our projects and creating our strategic plan. The community is pursuing a youth mentoring program. We plan to implement several activities/projects geared towards youth and mentors, including cultural enrichment activities. Projects will be broken down, and coalition members will volunteer or be assigned to lead projects so that we can accomplish more activities. We will also accept community volunteers to help, as needed.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Establish a community coalition comprised of representatives from key stakeholder institutions We have recruited 20 members from the following community institutions: Chemical Dependency Center, Hays Lodge Pole High School, Harlem Junior High School, Harlem Elementary School, Suicide Prevention, KGVA radio, Aaniiih Nakoda College, the Tribal Council, Social Services, and high school/ANC students. Goal 2: Formulate an organizational structure for this coalition. We elected a Chair and Vice Chair. The Chair leads each meeting now. Decisions are made through a voting and approval process. We developed a brief manual that states basic rules, such as starting meetings on time, missing meetings, reporting work, etc. We follow Robert's Rules of Order. We also created a coalition name, The Buffalo Seekers, that has been translated into both the Aaniiih and Nakoda languages. We have the following mission statement:The Buffalo Seekers Substance Abuse Coalition aims to establish a unified stance to address the substance abuse concerns as defined by the community by developing and implementing community-driven, culturally-focused sustainable approaches that foster healthy mindsets and responsible decision-making with the goal of restoring harmony to body, mind, and spirit of those impacted by substance abuse. Goal 3: Coordinate community outreach activities to assess the community's concerns regarding substance abuse and their suggestions for key needs to be addressed by the coalition. We held three community meetings in Lodge Pole, Hays, and the Agency that were advertised and open for anyone. We used a focus group format to guide discussions. Community members were allowed to share ideas and concerns, as well as learn about our coalition. We plan to hold another set of meetings at the close of the project. Goal 4 and Goal 5: We plan to complete these goals during the second year of the project. The strategic plan is in progress now. We hope to begin implementing our plan in October 2019.
Publications
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