National Museum of the American Indian
Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.’s Executive Producer Rose High Bear and Discovering Our Story Producer Toby Joseph recently returned from Washington D.C. where they attended the Annual Native American Service to Science (STS) Academy sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The workshop was held at the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
Rose gave a presentation on WISDOM’s progress over the past year as a result of the technical assistance received at the April 2011 STS Academy Workshop. Toby showed a video he produced on the creation and research of Discovering Our Story. Their presentation was so well received that SAMHSA personnel requested it be made available at SAMHSA’s website. It will also be made available at WISDOM’s website.
This follows WISDOM’s first trip in April 2011 when Rose High Bear (Deg Hit’an Dine, or Alaskan Athabascan), Toby Joseph (Apache, Navajo, Ute), and Jim Hanson1, School Psychologist at Lincoln High School, Portland Public Schools, traveled to Washington DC to strengthen research capacity to document effectiveness of Discovering Our Story Program for the healing of Native communities. WISDOM joined four other substance abuse and mental health programs created by Native communities for Native communities. http://captus.samhsa.gov/access-resources/annual-native-american-service-science-academy-meets-dc
WISDOM’s culturally tailored multimedia health and wellness curricula have been designed to address the impact of historical trauma within Portland’s Native American community. Historical Trauma is increasingly regarded as the root cause of mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and Type 2 diabetes issues shown by research to affect generations of Native families. Each set of curricula includes a set of video or audio productions accompanied by five teachings (lesson plans) based on the Native American Hero’s Journey story and other Native story models.
Discovering Our Story is a collaborative project between Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. (WISDOM) and a number of Portland-area partners that serve Native Americans. Current partners include the National Indian Child Welfare Association, Native American Youth and Family Services, Northwest Indian Storytellers Association, Cedar Bough at Youth Villages, Lincoln High School Native American Student Union and ESL Program, Evergreen High School Title VII Indian Education Program, Beaverton School District Title VII Indian Education Program and Westview High School ESL Program, and Portland State University’s Graduate School of Education. Wisdom has received support for the past three years from a number of foundations and government agencies. 2
Progress made over the past year has helped WISDOM strengthen research and evaluation capacity so Discovering Our Story can be accepted as a best practices model for Native American prevention nationwide and be listed at the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). Technical assistance was provided by the Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Native American Center for Excellence (NACE).
NREPP currently lists 230 interventions that have been reviewed and posted on the NREPP Web site, with an 89 additional interventions accepted for NREPP review. Of these, 15 interventions have been studied in tribal locations, with 4 interventions studied with primarily Native American and/or Alaska Native populations. WISDOM is striving to be among the first programs developed by Native communities for Native communities to be accepted by NREPP.
WISDOM acknowledges the support of the Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Native American Center for Excellence (NACE) that has made this work possible. We also acknowledge our researchers, Pamela Thurman, PhD, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment National Advisory Committee at Colorado State University; and Jessie Parker Carlson, MSW, LISW, Public Health Program Evaluator at the Minnesota Institute of Public Health.
1Jim Hanson has since spearheaded efforts to work with Wisdom as we develop school based curriculum for Portland Public Schools based on Discovering Our Story. As result of his efforts, three school districts in the Portland area, plus the Muckleshoot Tribal School, Muckleshoot, Washington, have requested that Wisdom produce this curriculum and have agreed to pilot it.
2 This project has been funded by United Way of the Columbia Willamette and a number of other Portland area and national foundations, including The Spirit Mountain Community Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, The Collins Foundation, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Oregon Community Foundation, McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, O.P. and W.E. Edwards Foundation, Charlotte Martin Foundation, Running Strong for American Indian Youth, and Wildhorse Foundation.