Norton Sound Health Corporation's NORTH (Native Outreach for Relationships, Teens, and Health) Program - The Native Outreach for Relationships, Teens, and Health (NORTH) Program is a five-year, comprehensive sexual health and adulthood preparation initiative designed to empower Alaska Native and American Indian youth. The project serves a highly vulnerable target population of youth between the ages of 10 and 19, as well as young mothers under the age of 21, residing in the remote Bering Strait region of Western Alaska. This geographic service area encompasses the regional hub of Nome and fifteen geographically isolated, off-grid villages accessible only by small aircraft or boat. The region faces profound public health and socioeconomic crises, including extreme poverty, a regional teen birth rate that is nearly triple the Alaska statewide average, and sexually transmitted infection rates that drastically outpace national baselines. To address these critical disparities, the NORTH Program utilizes a Positive Youth Development framework to deliver medically accurate, culturally tailored education that promotes personal responsibility, healthy behavior changes, and long-term self-sufficiency. The project operates in three sustainable phases over the five-year grant period. During the first year, the program will conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment utilizing local town halls and surveys to culturally adapt established, evidence-based adolescent health curricula so that they closely align with Indigenous values and subsistence lifestyles. In the following years, dedicated health educators will deliver this tailored instruction directly to hundreds of youth participants annually through daily classes in Nome and intensive, multi-day educational blocks in the remote villages. The curriculum seamlessly integrates core sexual health education—including pregnancy and infection prevention, abstinence, and human trafficking awareness—with essential adulthood preparation subjects such as financial literacy, career readiness, and healthy relationships. In its final year, the program ensures long-term sustainability by implementing a train-the-trainer model, equipping local school district personnel with the skills and resources needed to deliver the curriculum independently. Ultimately, the NORTH Program is expected to produce significant behavioral and systemic changes, including sustained reductions in teen pregnancy and infection rates, improved high school graduation rates, and enhanced economic mobility for youth across the region.
