First Nations Women's Alliance is the Recognized Dual Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Tribal Coalition serving the geographical area of North Dakota Advancing Primary Prevention. - PROJECT ABSTRACT As the designated Dual Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Tribal Coalition in the geographical area of North Dakota, First Nations Women’s Alliance (FNWA) is applying for a 12-month, $74,100, CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education: Assessing Coalition Capacity to Advance Primary Prevention. FNWA is a 501©3 organization which is Indigenous led and governed by a board of directors consisting of three Tribal direct service programs, (Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and the MHA Nation), a Tribal College campus program (United Tribes Technical College), and two at large members. We anticipate Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe to join at our next Board of Directors meeting. The primary mission of the coalition is “Strengthen our Tribal communities by creating a forum for leaders to come together to address the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. We are committed to ending all forms of violence by providing culturally relevant services and resources.” The problem of sexual violence in Indian Country has been documented on a national level but remains undefined on a community and Tribal level. The need is great to name and understand the scope of the violence and forge solutions which tap into the protective strengths of Indigenous culture. If we are to grow healthy human beings (implement prevention), we must be able to nurture whole human beings, and so identifying physical and mental health disparities in access and quality of services is key. We propose to approach this primary prevention work by carrying out an organizational assessment to determine our capacity as a coalition to take on more in depth prevention efforts, identifying existing strengths in partnerships, knowledge and skills, and also to determine how we might fill gaps. Secondly, we will develop recommendations for future action with the assistance of a diverse group of partners and stakeholders. Because we recognize that our small staff cannot conduct such an assessment inhouse, we propose to contract with an outside entity to assist us. We have approached the University of North Dakota (UND) Indigenous Health PHD Program to help craft and implement the assessment and facilitate the drafting of recommendations for action. They have tentatively agreed, and we will pursue a formal consultant agreement if FNWA is funded. The Program has specific expertise in health disparities, data gathering and analysis, and evaluation from an Indigenous perspective and will provide an evidence-driven lens as well as a Tribally-focused framework for both the capacity assessment and recommendations. Anticipated results of our work include a clearer direction and stronger momentum for integrating health equity in primary prevention in all aspects of our prevention and intervention work and a more integrated and comprehensive approach to prevention and intervention which acknowledges and respects the whole person. Oversight for the project will be provided by Executive Director Sandra Bercier, Board Liaison Cheryl Donoven, a designated staff person; and Dr. Melanie Nadeau/UND.
