Maamawiikandaa: Let's All Work Together for SAMSHA's Tribal Behavioral Health Substance Use Prevention project - The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians will implement Maamawiikandaa: Let's All Work Together, a comprehensive, community-driven substance use and overdose prevention initiative serving Native youth and young adults through age 24. Through community responsive prevention education, workforce development, strategic planning, community partnerships, and coordinated overdose response, the project will strengthen prevention capacity, reduce substance use risk factors, and improve behavioral health outcomes while building a sustainable Tribal prevention system. LCO Reservation and surrounding Tribal service area in Sawyer County, Wisconsin. The project addresses significant prevention infrastructure gaps by expanding the capacity to deliver year-round, traditionally grounded substance use and overdose prevention services before youth require treatment. Capacity building will focus on strengthening the prevention workforce, enhancing coordination among Tribal departments and community partners, developing standardized overdose response protocols, increasing community awareness, and improving referral pathways linking prevention, behavioral health, treatment, and recovery services. The population of focus includes Native youth and young adults through age 24, with an emphasis on youth experiencing elevated behavioral health and substance use risk factors, including poverty, housing instability, trauma, chronic absenteeism, vaping and nicotine addiction, adverse childhood experiences, and family disruption. Prevention services will be delivered through the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School, the Boys & Girls Club of Lac Courte Oreilles, the Lac Courte Oreilles Community Health Center (Bizhiki), and community-based activities. The project will directly serve approximately 400 unduplicated youth and young adults in Year 1, increasing to 490 annually by Year 5, with approximately 500 unduplicated participants served over the project period. Project strategies include comprehensive community engagement and coalition building; a Tribal prevention needs assessment and strategic prevention plan; workforce development through trauma-informed, community responsive, and overdose response training; evidence-based prevention education; youth leadership and mentoring; family engagement; activities that strengthen protective factors; public awareness campaigns; and development of coordinated Tribal overdose response protocols. Prevention programming will leverage strong partnerships among Tribal government, behavioral health, education, public safety, emergency medical services, Elders, families, and community organizations to reach youth across school, after-school, and community settings. The project's goal is to prevent and reduce substance use and overdose among Native youth and young adults by strengthening protective factors, reducing substance use risk factors, and building sustainable community prevention capacity. Measurable objectives include: (1) delivering evidence-based prevention education annually to at least 90% of participating youth and young adults; (2) increasing participant knowledge of substance use prevention, healthy coping skills, traditional connectedness, and behavioral health resources by 20% annually; (3) developing, implementing, and annually updating coordinated Tribal overdose response protocols while increasing community understanding of overdose response by 20%; and (4) training 100% of participating partner agencies and designated staff annually on overdose recognition, opioid overdose reversal medication (OORM)/naloxone administration, referral pathways, and coordinated intervention procedures to strengthen community readiness and reduce overdose deaths.
