Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The Children and Youth at Risk (CYFAR) grant addresses the Social and Emotional needs of the Chippewa Cree (Rocky Boy reservation communities) and Flathead Communities. Rocky Boy Communities: Stone Child College is one of the on-site grantees that worked with the youth of Rocky Boy High School and Box Elder High School. Students from both schools had several goals to help address the needs of the Chippewa Cree community socially and emotionally. Goal 1: Students were tasked with identifying mental health issues that they would want to address or help the community with. During the weekly meetings, each school decided to address the needs of elders, MMIW (missing, murdered, Indigenous women), and the youth of each school. Those were their top 3 priorities. Goal 2: Create a technology group to disseminate the information and events for both schools, so the community is aware of the group's successes and how effective the two schools are at addressing the mental health needs of Rocky Boy Reservation. Goal 3: Speak with freshman classes at both schools to deliver the YAM curriculum. After students complete the YAM classes, students will then be recruited to help each group at each school with activities and goals of the grant. These three goals are part of the CYFAR campaign to help the Chippewa Cree people with identifying the mental health needs of the community with the help of local students. Flathead communities: During the first three years of work by the Teens for Emotional Awareness (TEA) groups, establishing a brand and messaging within their own school communities has been the focus of most of the TEA's work. These impacts within schools will be enhanced through this year's efforts by bringing VR calming centers to our new Counselor partners, as well as more impactful signage through use of the large-scale poster printers purchased last year. Also, this year, the TEA members will be seeking out partnerships with tribal and community organizations to spread their messaging. Through partnerships being established with the local chamber of commerce, business owners will be asked to join in the champaign via the QR code displays mentioned above. It is hoped that through media products such as TikTok's and Instagram stories produced in year three, our messaging of stigma reduction and mental health awareness will be widespread. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have taken advantage of all professional training and development opportunities offered via annual meetings and online CYFAR trainings as posted. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are currently preparing a report based on recent analyses of the community surveys and will provide a summary document to the board at Stone Child and Salish Kootenai Community colleges. We will offer each college the opportunity to officially present a summary of findings based on the community interest. Programming in each community remains intact under the sustainability plan and will be informally shared within the school systems. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Both sites have been successful in recruiting an annual cohort of students to participate in the PALS leadership groups. They have done this via the planned YAM curriculum implemented annually to freshman in each of the participating high schools. Each of the program coordinators have engaged youth in learning clubs to generate ideas for mental health awareness campaigns and methods, including use of technology, to implement the campaigns. In addition, Flathead has integrated programming into several types of school-based clubs to develop youth leadership and collaborate on CYFAR-funded programming activities. These include: CYFAR Teens for Emotional Awareness (TEA) Club: This club is directly formed as a goal of the CYFAR program and includes facilitating student learning for promoting mental and physical health and implement student-led mental health awareness campaigns. Link Leaders Club: Leaders engage students with mentoring opportunities, support academic success, and provide opportunities (events) for youth to connect socially in positive ways. eSports Class & Club: The aim of this group is to promote student leadership, public speaking, and support emotional and physical response awareness. Salish Language Class & Indian Club: The purpose of this class and club is to revitalize and promote the traditional Salish culture and language, strengthening identify and connection with their community. Native Culture Club: This club is dedicated to promoting traditional indigenous culture and language and has included introducing a community garden, traditional meat drying rack and pavilion, and crafting traditional ribbon skirts. CYFAR project resources have been used to: Purchase technology (computers, laser equipment, video production equipment and software) that will sustain the forementioned club's work for programming in their respective communities. Currently, we have purchased video production equipment, wide format poster printers and virtual reality (VR) headset projects for students who need additional calming. We hope to see the VR technology integrated into long term use sustained by school personnel and future students themselves. Support participating students' ability to attend annual 4-H conferences and visitations to state colleges Integrate programming for the purpose of sustaining CYFAR-sponsored initiatives in the participating reservation communities. Initial results from the CYFAR-planned community survey are in many ways promising. We are excited to begin a more robust analyses and report of the survey findings. Here are highlights from our initial analyses: For both communities, post-programming survey results demonstrated substantial improvements in the following: Agreements ('agree' or 'strongly agree') with the following statements: People tend to avoid helping others with mental health problems. -Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people agreeing with this statement [Flathead: 58.1% vs. 45.3%; Rocky Boy: 53.9% vs. 45.5%]. I feel more alone and isolated. - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people agreeing with this statement [Flathead: 50.0% vs. 22.0%; Rocky Boy: 52.2% vs. 26.2%]. My mental health is worse. - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people agreeing with this statement [Flathead: 48.1% vs. 25.2%; Rocky Boy: 38.6% vs. 27.0%]. I don't' like it when people tell me about their mental health problems. - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people agreeing with this statement [Flathead: 46.8% vs. 9.3%; Rocky Boy: 19.0% vs. 14.3%]. When people I know are anxious or depressed, I wish they would talk to someone else about their feelings. - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people agreeing with this statement [Flathead: 63.9% vs. 14.1%; Rocky Boy: 58.1% vs. 53.0%]. We also asked respondents the percentage of people they believe who both suffer and seek professional help for mental health problems. The following results do not necessarily indicate the actual reality but could be an indicator of improved mental health at the population level. What percentage of people in your community do you think suffer from mental health problems? - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people who believe that mental health problems affect less than 20% of community members [Flathead: 53.0% vs. 12.5%; Rocky Boy: 5.5% vs. 3.5%]. What percentage of people in your community who suffer from mental health problems do you think seek professional help? - Compared to pre survey results, post survey results illustrated substantial decreases in the percentage of people who believe that for those affected by mental health problems less than 20% seek professional help [Flathead: 87.5% vs. 66.8%; Rocky Boy: 61.7% vs. 55.9%].
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The Children and Youth at Risk (CYFAR) grant addresses the Social and Emotional needs of the Chippewa Cree and Flathead Communities. Rocky Boy Communities: Stone Child College is one of the on-site grantees that worked with the youth of Rocky Boy High School and Box Elder High School. Students from both schools had several goals to help address the needs of the Chippewa Cree community socially and emotionally. Goal 1: Students were tasked with identifying mental health issues that they would want to address or help the community with. During the weekly meetings, each school decided to address the needs of elders, MMIW (missing, murdered, Indigenous women), and the youth of each school. Those were their top 3 priorities. Goal 2: Create a technology group to disseminate the information and events for both schools, so the community is aware of the group's successes and how effective the two schools are at addressing the mental health needs of Rocky Boy Reservation. Goal 3: Speak with freshman classes at both schools to deliver the YAM curriculum. After students complete the YAM classes, students will then be recruited to help each group at each school with activities and goals of the grant. These three goals are part of the CYFAR campaign to help the Chippewa Cree people with identifying the mental health needs of the community with the help of local students. Flathead communities: During the first three years of work by the Teens for Emotional Awareness (TEA) groups, establishing a brand and messaging within their own school communities has been the focus of most of the TEA's work. These impacts within schools will be enhanced through this year's efforts by bringing VR calming centers to our new Counselor partners, as well as more impactful signage through use of the large-scale poster printers purchased last year. Also, this year, the TEA members will be seeking out partnerships with tribal and community organizations to spread their messaging. Through partnerships being established with the local chamber of commerce, business owners will be asked to join in the champaign via the QR code displays mentioned above. It is hoped that through media products such as TikTok's and Instagram stories produced in year three, our messaging of stigma reduction and mental health awareness will be widespread. Changes/Problems:At the Flathead site, the site coordinator resigned due to family issues. We quickly hired an interim replacement and the the new site coordinator begins her work full-time September 1st. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The end of May staff attended the national CYFAR conference in Pheonix Arizona. The CYFAR assistant presented our updates on our programs we have been doing in the Montana CYFAR team. At this conference staff attended various workshops that could contribute to better our programs here in Montana. The end of July staff attended the Behavioral health and wellness Program (BHWP) conference in Albuquerque, NM. Various workshops were held regarding mental and behavioral health. They also participated in the Youth mental health first aid workshop (8 hrs) and certificates were received that will last up to three years. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Informally through schools and community events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Rocky Boy site: YAM training in both schools Rocky Boy and Box Elder. Work with students and cohorts on PALS/technology groups within Both Schools. Collaborate with Wellness Coalition, Rocky Boy and Box Elder Schools, Rocky Boy Health Board, and Youth Tribal Council, on: Youth Mental Health Awareness Conference, New Year Eve All Nighter, Family Engagement Activities, Xmas Pow-wow, Round Dances, Cultural Activities (beading, sewing, language, regalia making, native games, hand game team/league playing other reservation teams, Kinship, sweat lodges, types of ceremonies, cultural importance, singing, ), Turkey Trot/Fun Runs, Red Ribbon Week, outdoor activities (fishing (fly, ice), archery, etc.), Cooking classes, Gardening (growing sweetgrass, berries, tobacco, healing garden), Book Club, Flathead site: CYFAR T.E.A. Club The club will recruit and maintain eight to ten students that are focused on promoting mental and physical health well-being. For school year 2023-2024 MHS will be implementing the SEL curricula Character Strong. RHS implemented this curriculum during the 2022/2023 school year. Club will meet once a week, during advisory class which is where Character Strong, will be implemented. The Club instructor will work closely with the school counselor to support through activities and events the goals of the Character Strong curricula. Club participants will complete pre & post CYFAR Common Measures survey. Course Work: Students and instructor will create, design, implement and/or support one in-school or community wellness activity per quarter. This can be accomplished through creating posters, supporting other CYFAR funded club activities/events. One suggestion has been to purchase a t-shirt press and be able to make the t-shirts for the Trading Card Club or to even create wellness promoting t-shirts as give aways during activities/events/presentations. This club would help facilitate and host guest speakers and promote community awareness to those presentations. For example: this may include supporting Teacher PIR Day events by adding a youth voice to the program. Because this club is to be youth driven, we are generalizing activities until we can meet with them in September and create the school year program. eSports Class & Club Description: This club promotes student leadership, public speaking, emotional, and physical response awareness. By using the world of gamming, the teacher can support and encourage students in addressing social/emotional challenges such as social anxiety, fear of public speaking, and recognition of physical symptoms brought on by emotional stimulation. Course Work: Students meet weekly (usually 2x) with the class cohort and teacher. They work on building technology skills through constructing new gaming computer stations from the ground up. They have gaming time that includes local and potentially regional and State competitions. Self-reflections are recorded weekly through journal entries. Students also take biological measurements and create records of blood pressures, temps, and respiration before and/or after gaming sessions. This promotes recognition of and practice in meeting emotional/physical responses created through the environment of gaming. Link Leaders Club Description: Excerpt taken from the Boomerang Project website. https://www.boomerangproject.com/link/what-is The transition to high school is a major event in the life of a young person, and yet very few substantial strategies for support exist in most high schools. Numerous studies show that the transition to high school is marked by a period of emotional stress and discomfort for adolescents, often times resulting in a decrease in academic achievement and an increasingly difficult social adjustment. It is this combination of factors that can be the impetus to poor decision making, as well as high risk and self-destructive behavior for freshmen. High schools don't have to just stand by and allow this rite of passage to happen to their freshmen. You can, with some strategic and intentional actions, put in place a structure where freshmen get the necessary support to successfully navigate this significant transition and start their high school experience on a positive note. Course Work: Link Crew is a yearlong transition program with four components that contribute to its success: High School Orientation- Link Leaders and freshmen start building the mentor relationship and freshmen receive information about how to be successful in high school. Academic Follow Ups- Link Leaders support freshman academic success and character development through structured classroom visits. Social Follow Ups- Link Leaders and freshmen connect outside the classroom at social events to increase student engagement and promote positive school climate. Leader Initiated Contacts- Link Leaders connect with their freshmen on a more individual basis Salish Language Class & Indian Club Description: This class is dedicated to Salish language revitalization and promotion of the Salish culture. The teacher works with students on a weekly basis exploring cultural identity and connections. Identity and connection being pivotal point to creating and maintaining positive mental and physical health. Course Work: Students are working to promote traditional ways of being centered around hunting, gathering, and communal lifestyles. Trading Card Kid Club Description: This club is a teen led; adult guided activity focused on promoting an anti-drug/alcohol awareness program. The teacher works with students on a weekly basis exploring ways to encourage peers and younger students to take a stand against drugs and alcohol. Course Work: Student who participate in this club must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, be willing to sign a public contract stating that they are dedicated to maintaining a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle, host workshops in the community regarding drug and alcohol awareness and give presentations in elementary and middle schools. Trading cards with high school student stats are created that include the participants: GPA, extracurriculars, hobbies, and their favorite quote. They give these out during workshops and presentations. Younger students can also earn a trading card from their school leadership for demonstrated positive behavior and attending additional non-required school prevention programs. Trading events are hosted by the high schoolers at the elementary and middle school levels. Requests have been made by the club instructor for guest speakers on the topics of drugs and alcohol education for students, teachers, and community. MSU specialists and speakers can play a key role in those deliveries. Presentation t-shirts for club participants have been requested. This will allow students to address audiences in a formal setting and with a unified focus. CYFAR Year 5 Community Programming The post community survey is scheduled tentatively to be administered reservation wide during the months of March - May of 2024. All in-school and community survey data analysis will take place over the summer for final reporting in August of 2024 at the conclusion of the grant.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
At the Rocky Boy site, The SCC CYFAR coordinator position was vacated 11/2021 and the position remained vacant until 03/2022 when a CYFAR Coordinator was hired the project assistant position was also vacant from 11/2021 to 04/2022, A project assistant was hired in 04/2022 until 08/2022. Another project assistant has been hired as of 08/31/2022. Contact was made with the principals of both schools to introduce the CYFAR staff and the plans to continue working with the students. An information booth was set up at both schools during the youth mental health awareness fair. Pamphlets, books, stress balls, and other stress relievers were given to the students. Contact was made with the students that had participated with CYFAR previously. A meeting was scheduled with the students but due to end of school year and graduation no students attended. Meetings will be planned in the future to coincide with 4H. Recruitment efforts will include going into the freshman classes, mass emails, form letters, development of a brochure to handout, and social media. A collaboration has already been established with the wellness coalition within the reservation and staff will continue to work with the various departments and grants. In April 2023, on the 4th and 5th of that month staff participated in the Youth Conference in collaboration with the Rocky Boy Health Board and various other Tribal Departments had put on for Rocky Boy and Box Elder Schools. They had a booth set up throughout both days provided students with information about our PALs group and pamphlets about mental health. They also provided students with pencils, notebooks, stress balls, and lip balms. In the same month they visited Rocky Boy Schools providing lunch to students. The first week of May, fifteen students interested in PALS visited the state Capitol, Helena, Montana. This was an overnight trip where stduents attended an all-day conference that had a lot of topics about Mental health. This was the only program that had brought youth, it was a great turnout. Students also participated in Social Emotional Physical activities, such as visiting the hot springs, a movie, and trampoline park. May 9th and 16th staff visited both Rocky Boy and Box Elder schools and had a Taco-Bout-It Event. They provided resources on mental health & suicide awareness. May 17th and 18th staff once again visited both schools with affirmation hearts we had students finish the sentence "I am...." With a positive ending about themselves. After that was done they were rewarded with a survival candy kit and stress balls.The affirmations were then put on the bathroom mirrors. Wellness Coalition meetings are held monthly. Our yearly Powwow was right around the corner which staff were a part of the youth powwow committee. Participants planned on having an informational booth day where various tribal departments as well as schools had a booth with games and information on programs and plans, they had for the future. They had a booth that gave info on 4H and provided children with DIY projects. At the Flathead site: While YAM was being taught, our second year (10th grade) cohort of the TEA groups worked on leadership and presentation skills during meetings each week. They continued their prior work related to the TEA brand and messaging by designing and displaying new signage as the old signs had been mistakenly destroyed over the summer. The Ronan 10th grade TEA began development of new presentation materials as they learned of a "Mental Health Day" being planned by the middle school counselor to take place in February (photos to be uploaded to CYFAR suites). The TEA in St. Ignatius learned of this outreach to the middle school and therefore planned their own presentation to entire 8th grade. The presentations to Middle School students at both the Ronan Mental Health Fair (410 students attended) and to the St. Ignatius 8th grade (38 students) were highly successful. The attendees stated, "I didn't know these things" and that "the TEA members were really nice". The TEA members themselves got great satisfaction from spreading the word of Mental Health Awareness to younger students. The counselors and teachers involved in the events encouraged the TEA to return with a similar program this coming year. During the middle of the school year, TEA members repeated the successful elements of their first-year campaign. More flyers, posters and other signage regarding both TEA branding and mental health messaging were produced. TEA members helped set up and ran trial print jobs from the large-scale printers purchased during year 2. More no-sew blankets were provided to law enforcement for use during child transport, and the anxiety reduction practice of placing and maintaining personal care products in student bathrooms was continued. Toward the end of the year, TEA members expressed interest in expanding their outreach and partnerships. Toward this end, TEA leadership was able to meet with chamber of commerce members concerning future collaboration with community businesses. TEA members of both schools met with counselors and PE teachers concerning future projects involving the use of VR headsets and expanding lifelong physical activity as related to mental health, respectively. The outcomes of these discussions will be discussed below. Oculus headsets were purchased over the summer and a review of literature and of popular applications related to school counselor use of VR calming techniques was undertaken by the site manager. In August, TEA leaders met with school counselors and selected the TRIPP application for initial use. TEA members will be beta-testing the application and providing feedback to the counselors concerning students use. Purchase of this equipment and software should provide sustainable anxiety relief for years to come. TEA members feel proud to have brought this cutting-edge therapeutic technology to their schools. This year a major goal of both TEA groups is to bring QR codes linked to mental health awareness sites into participating community partner "front windows". Forming these partnerships will exercise the TEA members developing communication and presentation skills. Other, tech savvy members will be doing the QR linking to websites. Poster production will continue to be a developing skill as many members describe themselves as "artistic" and have not yet had the opportunity to produce their own "Awareness" posters. Another developing skill is video production; members have begun working on making TikTok mental health challenges with the camera equipment purchased this prior year, this too should be a sustainable activity. Late summer discussions with PE teachers occurred relating integrating Mental Health awareness into PE curriculum. The subject of lifelong activity came up and the TEA wanted to know how they could support the purchase of equipment used in those types of activity. Corn hole, disc golf, pickle ball were all thought of as activities that should be introduced at a younger age. The TEA group plans on following through on helping these new activities to be introduced at the elementary school level as well as helping to teach understanding of the mind-body connection for lifelong mental health.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The Children and Youth at Risk (CYFAR) grant addresses the Social and Emotional needs of the Chippewa Cree and Flathead Communities. Rocky Boy Communities: Stone Child College is one of the on-site grantees that worked with the youth of Rocky Boy High School and Box Elder High School. Students from both schools had several goals to help address the needs of the Chippewa Cree community socially and emotionally. Goal 1: Students were tasked with identifying mental health issues that they would want to address or help the community with. During the weekly meetings, each school decided to address the needs of elders, MMIW (missing, murdered, Indigenous women), and the youth of each school. Those were their top 3 priorities. Goal 2: Create a technology group to disseminate the information and events for both schools, so the community is aware of the group's successes and how effective the two schools are at addressing the mental health needs of Rocky Boy Reservation. Goal 3: Speak with freshman classes at both schools to deliver the YAM curriculum. After students complete the YAM classes, students will then be recruited to help each group at each school with activities and goals of the grant. These three goals are part of the CYFAR campaign to help the Chippewa Cree people with identifying the mental health needs of the community with the help of local students. Flathead communities: During the first two years of work by the Teens for Emotional Awareness (TEA) groups, establishing a brand and messaging within their own school communities has been the focus of most of the TEA's work. These impacts within schools will be enhanced through this year's efforts by bringing VR calming centers to our new Counselor partners, as well as more impactful signage through use of the large-scale poster printers purchased last year. Also, this year, the TEA members will be seeking out partnerships with tribal and community organizations to spread their messaging. Through partnerships being established with the local chamber of commerce, business owners will be asked to join in the champaign via the QR code displays mentioned above. It is hoped that through media products such as TikTok's and Instagram stories produced in year three, our messaging of stigma reduction and mental health awareness will be widespread. Changes/Problems:Rocky Boy communities: As stated under accomplishments, the former site coordinator left, leaving the position vacant for several months. A new coordinator was hired and is now trained in YAM curriculum instruction. Both communities: Also, with the long period of schools dealing with COVID and its respective impacts, it has been difficult to engage students, teachers and other school officials in program implementation. There is one great strength from these issues: Our programming remains flexible and students are encouraged to use their gained leadership skills to make programming ideas their own. We expect a rebound in programming activities this year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?YAM trainings for student cohort recruitment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As stated under accomplishments, student cohort recruitment and programming will continue. We will conduct cohort focus groups early 2023 to better understand the programming impacts. We hold bi-weekly team calls to discuss programming, evaluation, and sustainability actitvities and strategies. We are encouraging site coordinators to schedule regular Common Measures assessments.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
At the Rocky Boy site, The SCC CYFAR coordinator position was vacated 11/2021 and the position remained vacant until 03/2022 when a CYFAR Coordinator was hired the project assistant position was also vacant from 11/2021 to 04/2022, A project assistant was hired in 04/2022 until 08/2022. Another project assistant has been hired as of 08/31/2022. It has been a learning experience for the project coordinator and assistant to familiarize themselves with Stone Child Colleges policies, procedures, the roles extension services perform, executing the CYFAR Grant and 4H duties. Once the coordinator and assistant were hired many trainings were attended. Stone Child Colleges strategic planning sessions, which are on-going. The yearly CYFAR Professional Development training, On-line leadership classes and trainings. The coordinator has attended YAM training in Helena, MT. Now that the Rocky Boy site CYFAR coordinator is YAM certified, the plan is to work with both Rocky Boy and Box Elder High Schools to present the YAM curriculum to the freshman classes. classes. Another YAM training is to be scheduled soon; the assistant will be attending. Contact was made with the principals of both schools to introduce the CYFAR staff and the plans to continue working with the students. An information booth was set up at both schools during the youth mental health awareness fair. Pamphlets, books, stress balls, and other stress relievers were given to the students. Contact was made with the students that had participated with CYFAR previously. A meeting was scheduled with the students but due to end of school year and graduation no students attended. Meetings will be planned in the future to coincide with 4H. Recruitment efforts will include going into the freshman classes, mass emails, form letters, development of a brochure to handout, and social media. A collaboration has already been established with the wellness coalition within the reservation and staff will continue to work with the various departments and grants. 4H will be starting for the various age groups and a 4-H leadership group will be established. The Stone Child Extension Service is eagerly waiting for their new building to be set-up, once completed the staff will be able to fully concentrate and coordinate activities for the CYFAR and 4H Program. At Flathead, the year began with the teaching of Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM). A delay occurred during the fall of 2021 due to 2 circumstances. One being the onslaught of the Delta variant of COVID which hit our county quite hard due to low vaccination rates. Although fully vaccinated, and mask wearing, the site manager was out with Delta for two weeks in late September and early October. Meanwhile access to schools was as limited as the beginning of the prior school year, but this eased by late October as Delta quickly waned. Simultaneously, the YAM curriculum was undergoing significant enough changes to necessitate new IRB approval from both MSU and the SKC IRBs. Those approvals were eventually obtained, but this process delayed developing a new cohort of TEA members until February of 2022. 145 9th grade students at our two schools were trained in YAM during this reporting year. 6 new TEA members joined the Ronan TEA and 4 joined the St. Ignatius TEA as a result of YAM related recruiting. While YAM was being taught, our second year (10th grade) cohort of the TEA groups worked on leadership and presentation skills during meetings each week. They continued their prior work related to the TEA brand and messaging by designing and displaying new signage as the old signs had been mistakenly destroyed over the summer. The Ronan 10th grade TEA began development of new presentation materials as they learned of a "Mental Health Day" being planned by the middle school counselor to take place in February (photos to be uploaded to CYFAR suites). The TEA in St. Ignatius learned of this outreach to the middle school and therefore planned their own presentation to entire 8th grade. The presentations to Middle School students at both the Ronan Mental Health Fair (410 students attended) and to the St. Ignatius 8th grade (38 students) were highly successful. The attendees stated, "I didn't know these things" and that "the TEA members were really nice". The TEA members themselves got great satisfaction from spreading the word of Mental Health Awareness to younger students. The counselors and teachers involved in the events encouraged the TEA to return with a similar program this coming year. During the middle of the school year, TEA members repeated the successful elements of their first-year campaign. More flyers, posters and other signage regarding both TEA branding and mental health messaging were produced. TEA members helped set up and ran trial print jobs from the large-scale printers purchased during year 2. More no-sew blankets were provided to law enforcement for use during child transport, and the anxiety reduction practice of placing and maintaining personal care products in student bathrooms was continued. Toward the end of the year, TEA members expressed interest in expanding their outreach and partnerships. Toward this end, TEA leadership was able to meet with chamber of commerce members concerning future collaboration with community businesses. TEA members of both schools met with counselors and PE teachers concerning future projects involving the use of VR headsets and expanding lifelong physical activity as related to mental health, respectively. The outcomes of these discussions will be discussed below. TEA members realized that this type of partnership building was a special skill and interest of a few TEA members, and they decided to call themselves "TEA Liaisons". Unfortunately, the technology teachers continued to feel overloaded with obligations as COVID continued to influence school culture, therefore the original tech goals of building apps and e-mags have been modified due to TEA member interest to VR calming and social media development.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Ronan News Article: "Ronan students learn about mental health"
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The Children and Youth at Risk (CYFAR) grant addresses the Social and Emotional needs of the Chippewa Cree and Flathead Communities. Stone Child College is one of the on-site grantees that worked with the youth of Rocky Boy High School and Box Elder High School. Students from both schools had several goals to help address the needs of the Chippewa Cree community socially and emotionally. Goal 1: Students were tasked with identifying mental health issues that they would want to address or help the community with. During the weekly meetings, each school decided to address the needs of elders, MMIW (missing, murdered, Indigenous women), and the youth of each school. Those were their top 3 priorities. Goal 2: Create a technology group to disseminate the information and events for both schools, so the community is aware of the group's successes and how effective the two schools are at addressing the mental health needs of Rocky Boy Reservation. Goal 3: Speak with freshman classes at both schools to deliver the YAM curriculum. After students complete the YAM classes, students will then be recruited to help each group at each school with activities and goals of the grant. These three goals are part of the CYFAR campaign to help the Chippewa Cree people with identifying the mental health needs of the community with the help of local students. CYFAR (Children, Youth, Families at Risk) granted Stone Child College the opportunity to recruit youth from both Rocky Boy and Box Elder High School to start a campaign to bring the importance of mental health awareness. Students were selected after they participated in classes that taught them about mental health. These students became the PALS groups, two groups were formed from both Rocky Boy and Box Elder High School freshman. A technology component was created to help create a platform to help disseminate information about what the PALS students were doing. Once the PALS groups were selected at both schools' activities were chosen by the students to start their campaign for the community. Different entities on the Rocky Boy Reservation welcomed the students to help with the mental health campaign. Progress with the grant came from the students' hard work, the technology team, and support of the community to help students spread the importance of mental and physical health. At the Flathead sites, the mental health awareness curriculum "Youth Aware of Mental Health" or YAM to the entire 9th grade of both Mission High School and Ronan High School. Due to COVID restrictions, no face-to-face programming occurred between March and September of 2020, at which point we were able to re-enter Mission High. Ronan High had us wait until November out of COVID concerns. 125 9th graders were taught YAM in our two schools. Interested Youth, who completed YAM, began in November (Mission) and January (Ronan) to work with the site director to develop a civic campaign around social, emotional, and physical health and wellness activities and events for their communities These groups were self-named the TEA (Teens Emotionally Aware). Only the leadership groups have met so far, as technology teachers from both Ronan and St. Ignatius did not provide technology clubs or support for our groups work during limitations for afterschool and extracurriculars during the 20-21 school year. These relationships are being re-established for the 21-22 school year. -From YAM training, 6 youth in Mission and 8 in Ronan were identified and volunteered to form a 4-H leadership group. The group works with the site's manager collaboratively to develop a community awareness campaign, with a focus on mental health. We are pleased to say that the leadership group members have interests in teaching, marketing, and graphic design as well as a passion for mental health awareness. At their first meeting of the year, they assigned roles to each other, as well as picked an initial project and long-term goals. Both groups identified "developing a brand" and "permeating school culture" as immediate goals. Towards those ends, both groups have designed logos, team shirts, posters, water bottle stickers, and locker magnets promoting mental health and suicide awareness. The project manager met with them weekly with additional meetings and communications occurring on Google Classroom. -Brand development: Posters, flyers, notes and social media graphics were designed and distributed. -Positive messaging: Thank you flower arrangements and affirmations were designed and distributed. -Community support: No-sew blankets were made and distributed to law enforcement for use when a child is transported. -Anxiety reduction: Personal care products were placed in school bathrooms so that students could access without adult involvement. -Summer reading in Mission: 8 weekly sessions during the '21 summer school were conducted. TEA members volunteered to read age-appropriate books which promoted mental health and mindfulness to elementary students during summer school. The summer school director remarked "these students were remarkable in their ability to relate and convey the material to the children" . One 3rd grade child said she "really enjoyed the stories and learning about mental health". Summer reading in Ronan involved 6 weekly participations in an established reading program at the local library. TEA members assisted and discussed how the books and activities related and promoted mental health. Changes/Problems:Flathead site: The only deviation from the original goals was the above-mentioned unavailability of support from the school technology teachers, but the change was largely COVID related, and we hope to overcome that barrier given better pandemic conditions. Rocky Boy site: Due to COVID it took longer than expected to get into the school and establish the PALS groups at both schools. The CYFAR coordinator was YAM certified in August, that was also delayed due to COVID. Teachers were very reluctant to help with the technology portion due to being overworked at both schools. They are experiencing burnout and felt overloaded trying to be flexible with COVID restrictions within the classroom. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this reporting period, the Flatehead site manager completed both Mental Health First Aid and Youth Aware of Mental Health training and is now fully certified to teach both. The Stone Child College CYFAR coordinator, Shana Henry, completed the YAM training in Bozeman, Mt. She also completed the Extension Agent training and attended the CYFAR virtual conference in June. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In October of 2020 we provided a yearly update in person for the CSKT tribal council members. Data from the community survey is being analyzed for dissemination to each of the site communities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The TEA groups wish to build upon their prior efforts to become more impactful on a community level.We are looking for community events in which we can lead a helping hand and where we can provide a booth of information and messaging to disseminate at the community event.One of their prime passions is to expand Mental Health Awareness in their respective Middle Schools.Both sites have planned providing presentations and positive messaging within the Middle Schools.They are solely responsible for creating this content and methodologies, we are excited to see what they come up with.Both groups want to continue each of the projects of Awareness and Inclusion at their schools. New logos and posters are being produced.The summer reading programs are planned to be expanded in both communities.Both groups would like to begin meeting with adult groups but have not yet settled on their messaging.They are wisely waiting to see the results of the Community Survey to understand community needs better. As site director I would like to utilize the summer of 2022 as a time of developing leadership skills to a further degree.This could entail a local leadership camp for all TEA members.In addition, I feel some first-year cohorts are ready for a national 4H or CYFAR student convention if available. Now that the Rocky Boy site CYFAR coordinator is YAM certified, the plan is to work with both Rocky Boy and Box Elder High Schools to present the YAM curriculum to the freshman classes. The two PALS groups will continue to meet on a weekly basis. Both groups will continue to plan events each month for the Rocky Boy community. Students at both schools are excited and eager to join PALS so it won't be an issue recruiting new students for the two groups. The PALS group will grow! The technology group will change, due to the teachers changing. Students from both schools will continue to complete the survey once they are in the PALS groups.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
At the Rocky Boy site, The SCC CYFAR coordinator was ablet o get into both Rocky Boy and Box Elder School to meet with the freshman classes. Due to COVID, meeting students online was attempted first, but the turnout was low. Box Elder School Principal, Mr. Leeds graciously asked the school board if we could meet with students in person during the Physical Education classes. The school board approved the in-person presentations. The CYFAR coordinator presented the importance of healthy relationships, how to manage stress, healthy eating habits, and the importance of goal setting. Rocky Boy High School has a larger student body, it took a full day to present to each Physical Education class. Each class also participated in healthy relationships, stress management, healthy eating habits, and goal setting. Once both schools completed the classes the CYFAR coordinator recruited freshman students to create cohorts from both schools. Students from both schools were recruited by going into the freshman classes and mass emails. Students that completed a CYFAR application were accepted. Both cohorts of students then started planning events for the Chippewa Cree community. Students were engaged and excited to help all ages of the Chippewa Cree Tribe. Each month there was a different activity in the community. The technology group started working on the website, interviewed the PALS students at both schools to record their testament on the importance of mental health, and created logos for CYFAR. The PALS students the technology group met with the summer school students to teach the K-6 students how to operate robotics. The technology team met throughout the summer to help work on the e-mag. The technology did get a great job setting up the laser printer to print the coins. When students return to school in the fall, they will be able to print the coins to hand out at future events. At the Flathead site, the mental health awareness curriculum "Youth Aware of Mental Health" or YAM to the entire 9th grade of both Mission High School and Ronan High School. Due to COVID restrictions, no face-to-face programming occurred between March and September of 2020, at which point we were able to re-enter Mission High. Ronan High had us wait until November out of COVID concerns. 125 9th graders were taught YAM in our two schools. Interested Youth, who completed YAM, began in November (Mission) and January (Ronan) to work with the site director to develop a civic campaign around social, emotional, and physical health and wellness activities and events for their communities These groups were self-named the TEA (Teens Emotionally Aware). Only the leadership groups have met so far, as technology teachers from both Ronan and St. Ignatius did not provide technology clubs or support for our groups work during limitations for afterschool and extracurriculars during the 20-21 school year. These relationships are being re-established for the 21-22 school year. -From YAM training, 6 youth in Mission and 8 in Ronan were identified and volunteered to form a 4-H leadership group. The group works with the site's manager collaboratively to develop a community awareness campaign, with a focus on mental health. We are pleased to say that the leadership group members have interests in teaching, marketing, and graphic design as well as a passion for mental health awareness. At their first meeting of the year, they assigned roles to each other, as well as picked an initial project and long-term goals. Both groups identified "developing a brand" and "permeating school culture" as immediate goals. Towards those ends, both groups have designed logos, team shirts, posters, water bottle stickers, and locker magnets promoting mental health and suicide awareness. The project manager met with them weekly with additional meetings and communications occurring on Google Classroom. -Brand development: Posters, flyers, notes and social media graphics were designed and distributed. -Positive messaging: Thank you flower arrangements and affirmations were designed and distributed. -Community support: No-sew blankets were made and distributed to law enforcement for use when a child is transported. -Anxiety reduction: Personal care products were placed in school bathrooms so that students could access without adult involvement. -Summer reading in Mission: 8 weekly sessions during the '21 summer school were conducted. TEA members volunteered to read age-appropriate books which promoted mental health and mindfulness to elementary students during summer school. The summer school director remarked "these students were remarkable in their ability to relate and convey the material to the children" . One 3rd grade child said she "really enjoyed the stories and learning about mental health". Summer reading in Ronan involved 6 weekly participations in an established reading program at the local library. TEA members assisted and discussed how the books and activities related and promoted mental health.
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:We had unanticipated problems hiring a PD for the Flathead site and so there was a long delay. The PD began workin January. We also had difficulty obtaining IRB approvals. While we had approval from both institutions (MSU and Stone Child College), the Flathead Reservation requires additional IRB approvals - this is resolved and all IRB approvals are in place. YAM programming started at Ronan HS in February but was halted after three weeks due to COVID-19. The community pre-survey will be distributed electronically beginning in June. The data that is collected will provide a baseline understanding of people's knowledge of social, emotional, and physical health and wellness in their community (prior to the community campaign). Stone Child College has had difficulty hiring anyone, possibly due to the fact that the tribe is shut down. When they hire someone, that person will attend YAM training that was postponed until August 2020. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?New PD attended 4-H Agent Update, a 2-day conference for 4-H and multi-program county Extension agents. Conference content included how to enroll non-traditional 4-H club members, evaluate programs, bring 4-H into after-school programs, access, equity, and inclusion, and information on 4-H curricula. YAM training scheduled for April was postponed until August 2020. New PD for Flathead will attend the training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to have 10 cohorts of freshmen trained in the YAM program and for eightyouth groups to be created (two at each high school, one technology group, and one leadership group per school). Technology groups will identifycontent for the phone app and e-Mag and will createaction plans for the development of a phone app and a first issue of an e-Mag. In addition, the tech and leadership groups will meet several times to agree on overall plans for the community campaign including how to promote it, how to recruit community members to contribute content and plans for specific activities.At least two activities in each community will be implemented. Youth from the technology and leadership groups will take the CYFAR common measures pre-survey to measure leadership skills. Community members in Ronan, St. Ignatius, and Box Elder will take a pre-survey to measure awareness, attitudes, and knowledge about mental health issues. People who take the survey will be identified and recruited by the leadership groups. Flathead PD will receiveYAM training so he can facilitate the program in future years. New hires at Stone Child College also will receiveYAM training. Everything was put on hold secondary to COVID-19. Programming that had begun at Ronan HS was canceled due to a stay-at-home order and the tribes shutting down. As of June 1, 2020, Montana enters the second phase of "opening" which means that groups of 50 or fewer can gather; however, tribes remain closed to outsiders and research, except electronic, is prohibited. We plan to distribute the community pre-survey electronically. In addition, Montana State University has restricted travel to "essential" only.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Surveys were developed forthe YAM component (1) and for community members (4). Due to conflicting information about which IRBs need to review protocols, and significant delays in hiring staff, programming was notdue to begin until the week of February 18, 2020. YAM programming began in late February at Ronan High School. After three weeks (of a 5-week program), Montana's Governor announced a stay-at-home order due to the Covid-19 virus. In addition, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe (CSKT) halted all research and programming. Programming has been postponed until September 2020 when schools start again and a new freshmen cohort will receive YAM training. A community survey (pre/post) was approved by IRBs for electronic distribution. This will be sent out in the coming weeks to gather baseline data related to social, emotional, and physical health and the community's knowledge of these issues. The same survey will be sent out in year 5 of the grant to assess if there was a long-term change in knowledge as a resultofthe community campaign.
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