Tuesday, April 1, 2025
4/1/2025
Scammon Bay Native Connections - The Scammon Bay Native Connections project will utilize our ancestral strengths and traditional Yup'ik ways of life to deliver an evidence-based prevention service program for our youth called Qungasvik (Tools for Life). Our vision for substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention and mental health promotion in Scammon Bay is to strengthen our identity as Yup'ik people. Our vision aligns with SAMHSA’s National Tribal Behavioral Health Agenda (TBHA) which, elevates the importance of tribal identities, culture, spiritual beliefs, and practices for improving well-being. Our overall goal is to reduce the unacceptable burden that suicide and alcohol abuse has placed on our community and our youth. To accomplish this goal, we propose to implement the Qungasvik (Tools for Life) evidence-based intervention that has been shown through research and data to reduce risk for alcohol use and suicide and to promote protective factors, reasons for life and sobriety in Alaska Native youth. Our Scammon Bay Native Connections project will serve the entire community of 600+ members through universal prevention strategies and Tribal gatherings. Culturally-centered selective and indicated prevention strategies will focus on engaging 180 young people 10-24 years who are at risk in the community in peer-based and Elder-led activities that promote positive behavioral health and holistic well-being. Young people at the highest risk ages 15-24 will also receive a referral into a new behavioral health cultural services project called Because We Love You (BeWeL), a brief virtual intervention adaptation of the Qungasvik (Tools for Life) prevention model. Our community has already shown in our first Native Connections project (Cohort 2) that we can be change leaders, and that we can come together to surround our young people with teachings, practices, and resources from our culture and our ancestors. We seek to build on our growing foundation of hope and healing with this new Native Connections project and become a model for sustained community change.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).