U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders

Prevention Through Empowerment in a Native American Community

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Intervention:
Prevention Through Empowerment in a Native American Community is a prevention demonstration that combines several complementary strategies (a school-based cultural curriculum, training of teachers, development of a leadership core group, and a community curriculum) in an effort to address the self-perception of personal and communal powerlessness of Native American youths, which places them at risk for abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The initiative aims to increase school bonding by creating a more nurturing classroom environment, both culturally and personally.

Increasing both individual and communal empowerment as well as traditional values is important in reducing alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among Native American youth. The Prevention Through Empowerment in a Native American Community program model parallels the Freirian model of community empowerment (Petoskey, Van Stelle, and De Jong 1998). Paulo Freire (1970) identified several elements as critical to individual and communal empowerment:
  • Improved self-concept
  • Critical analysis of the world
  • Identification with members of a community
  • Participating in, organizing for, and carrying out environmental change
The program intervention has four components:
  1. A K–12 school-based cultural curriculum
  2. Training of teachers
  3. A leadership core group, and
  4. A community curriculum.
The K–12 school-based curriculum, called the Red Cliff Wellness School Curriculum, incorporates tribal legends and cooperative learning technique. In the first component, the K–12 curriculum seeks to change individual attitudes and behaviors through a cooperative learning approach in the school classroom. The curriculum is designed to develop the following resiliency factors in the participants:
  • Positive attitudes toward school
  • Positive academic performance
  • Positive attitudes toward tribal identity and values
  • Active participation in cultural activities
  • Personal disapproval of substance use
  • Perception of risk associated with substance use
The curriculum for each grade includes 20 to 30 separate lessons/activities that address resiliency factors in the individual, peer, and social domains.

As part of the second component, classroom teachers are trained to implement the curriculum, and technical assistance is provided to the teachers and school staff. Each classroom teacher is required to attend 24 hours of training before implementing the curriculum; each school also receives 10–20 hours of onsite technical assistance. The training also educates and sensitizes teachers who often know little about the culture of their pupils and increases teachers’ knowledge and skills related to substance abuse education.

As part of the third component, a core group of five to seven community trainers assumes a leadership role in promoting community health. This core group plays a key role in planning and conducting community training activities. Group members are carefully selected to include individuals who are respected by the community.

Finally, in the fourth component, a community curriculum is developed with four modules: 1) Spiritual and Cultural Perspective on Substance Abuse, 2) A Family Perspective on Substance Abuse, 3) Accessing Resources Through Effective Cooperation Between Tribal and Nontribal Agencies, and 4) Comprehensive Community-Based Planning. Each module takes 2 days (14 hours) to implement. Through the training, community problems and solutions are identified, defined, and described by the community members, and solutions are developed. The broad purpose of the community training is to build the skills and confidence of local community members to create an environment where parents, grandparents, and other community members develop a sense of ownership of community problems and become advocates and activists for change at all levels of the social system.

Evaluation Methodology:
Study 1
Only the school component of the Prevention Through Empowerment in a Native American Community intervention (the Red Cliff Wellness School Curriculum) was evaluated by Petoskey, Van Stelle, and De Jong (1998). The study design used pretest and posttest measures of participating schools and compared them with a school in another community that agreed to be used as a comparison group in return for receiving the modules at a later date.

The high-risk youth surveyed included all students in grades 4–12 at eight rural schools serving Indian reservations in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. A total of 1,937 surveys were completed over the 3-year data collection period. There were 755 surveys received in the first year, 620 in year 2, and 562 in year 3. Half of the respondents were male. Thirty-eight percent (736) were in fourth and fifth grades, 36 percent (697) were in grades 6 through 8, and 26 percent (504) were in high school. Seventy-four percent of the students were Indian. Sixty-one percent of the students reported living in two-parent households, 26 percent lived with their mother only, 5 percent with their father only, and 8 percent with other adults.

A subset of this population was used for comparison of treatment and comparison groups. Classrooms of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students (in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade at the final test point) were tested at a participating location and at a comparison location. Data was collected at the beginning of year 1 before the implementation of the curriculum (time 1), at the end of the year of implementation (time 2), and at the end of the second year after implementation (time 3). At time 1, there were 82 participants and 169 comparisons; at time 2, there were 75 participants and 162 comparisons; at time 3, there were 80 participants and 76 comparisons.

Outcome variables included substance use, attitudes toward substance use and perceptions of harmfulness, attitudes toward school, academic achievement, absenteeism, and cultural involvement. Students were tested using the First American Prevention Center Student Survey (which incorporates items from Monitoring the Future, the National Household Survey, the Primary Prevention and Awareness, and Attitudes and Usage Scales) and an acculturation scale developed by the National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health. The survey instrument evolved over the course of each year, increasing in scope and complexity each year. This restricted the ability to evaluate program effectiveness. The limited number of overlapping items across the 3 years of data collection somewhat constrained the analysis that could be conducted.

Two-way analysis of variance (or ANOVA) was used to compare the level of substance use in the two sites.

Evaluation Outcome:
Study 1
Alcohol Use
The study evaluated “alcohol used in the past 30 days” and “reported likelihood of alcohol use if asked by friends.” This intervention appeared to have a significant effect in slowing the rise in alcohol use among students in the intervention site, compared with the comparison group. Significantly fewer students who received the curriculum reported use of alcohol in the past month than students in the comparison group. However, the likelihood of accepting alcohol if asked by friends did not significantly differ between the two sites at any of the data collection points.

Marijuana Use
The study evaluated “marijuana use in the past 30 days” as well as “reported likelihood of marijuana use if asked by friends.” Baseline likelihood of accepting marijuana if asked by friends was not statistically different at the two sites. However, at the final data point, students who received the intervention were significantly less likely to report using marijuana if asked by friends than students in the comparison group. For the first marijuana indicator—marijuana use in the past 30 days—comparison students reported higher levels of use than intervention students before the implementation of the curriculum, at the end of the year of implementation, and at the end of the second year after implementation.

References:
Freire, Paulo. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, N.Y.: Seabury Press.

Petoskey, Eva L., Kit R. Van Stelle, and Judith Ann De Jong. 1998. “Prevention Through Empowerment in a Native American Community.” Drugs & Society 12(1–2):147–62.

 
Program Specification:
Program Type:
Alcohol and Drug Therapy / Education
Classroom Curricula
Ethnicity:
American Indian or Alaska Native
Gender:
Both
Age: Middle School: 11 to 13 years
High School/Young Adult: 14 to 21 years
Target Settings:
Tribal
Problem Behaviors:
ATOD/Underage Drinking
DSO Strategies:
Direct Services
DSO Intervention Types:
Prevention
Core Requirements:
Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO)
Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)
 
Additional Information:
Endorsements:

Status:

Program is in operation at this time.

Performance Measures:
Suggested OJJDP Performance Measures for the Program Types(s):
Contact Information:

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