FY23 CTGR SAMHSA Native Connections Tribal Behavioral Health Grant - The proposed project will serve the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde’s (CTGR) youth, parents, and young adults in Grand Ronde and the adjacent, overlapping Willamina School District in Polk County. In the 2021-22 school year, 22% of the Willamina School District was Native American, most of whom were enrolled Grand Ronde tribal members. Through this grant, our Youth Empowerment & Prevention Program (YEP) will implement, improve, and sustain effective services that will both prevent and reduce prevalent issues among our youth, including suicide prevention and awareness, substance use, and mental health issues. This will be completed through education, training, and equine-assisted therapy. The Tribe will focus on two populations. Our first population set is Tribal member youth ages 10-17 within Grand Ronde, Willamina, Sheridan, Dallas, McMinnville, and Salem. Our second population is Tribal member young adults ages 18-24. The total population we will serve through this grant is 400 tribal youth and their families. The Tribe is proposing three enhancements: 1) to work toward sustainable programming by providing Conscious Discipline training to new youth-serving program staff and expanding and deepening Conscious Discipline training for staff with an existing Conscious Discipline foundation; 2) to obtain further training and create more opportunities for Equine Assisted Therapy for our youth and young adults; and 3) to ensure training the wider Grand Ronde Community through annual suicide prevention trainings by using train the trainer trainings and staff trainings in Trauma Assisted Care, QPR, and ASIST. The four Goals and Objectives that the Tribe is proposing to focus on through this grant are: (1) to set a solid foundation for the CTGR Native Connections Program through a comprehensive planning year by conducting a community systems analysis and community readiness assessment to address suicide prevention, substance use, and mental health issues, develop an asset map, and then a strategic action plan including evidence-based programming, policies, and protocols; (2) to build youth resilience, connection to culture, and behavioral health using equine-assisted programming by retaining training and cooperative agreements that provide services to ensure the whole CTGR community is prepared to support youth hope and wellness through strategic awareness messaging and trainings related to trauma, suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention; (3) use a social-ecological approach to building youth's (and adults) social and emotional well-being through Conscious Discipline curriculum wherever youth are: home, school and community; and, (4) build youth and community resilience through training of staff, youth, young adults and parents in trauma-informed and suicide prevention, by creating connection to culture, and by optimizing behavioral health using Oregon Tribal Best Practices (TBP), QPR, and ASIST.
