Cocopah Tribe Engages & Empowers Boys & Young Men

Young Cocopah student during CPR training. Photo courtesy of Cocopah Indian Tribe

For more than a decade, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) has had a positive and lasting impact on Native youth. In 2002, First Nations launched the Native Youth and Culture Fund (NYCF) to enhance culture and language awareness, and promote youth empowerment, leadership and community building.

Recently, First Nations unveiled a new grant initiative that reflects our growing commitment to Native youth and youth development: Advancing Positive Paths for Native American Boys and Young Men (Positive Paths). Positive Paths, created in partnership with NEO Philanthropy and and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, seeks to reduce social and economic disparities for Native American males.

Studies suggest that Native American males are more likely to be absent from school, suspended, expelled or repeat a grade. However, a growing body of research indicates that suspensions and expulsions are not always the most effective means of reaching and disciplining these students.

Often, these punitive measures deprive students of the opportunity to develop the skills and strategies they need to succeed. Positive Paths supports innovative programs that emphasize alternative approaches to punitive measures that have a negative impact on academic achievement and graduation rates.

For years, the Cocopah Tribe of Arizona relied upon the public school system for enforcing truancy laws for its students. This approach yielded little to no results, especially among male students. Educators decided to take a new approach that emphasized engaging and empowering Native American boys and men.

In 2014, First Nations awarded the Cocopah Tribe of Arizona $50,000 through the Positive Path grant initiative to restructure its truancy program. The tribe’s new program has reduced truancy rates among Native American males by nearly 75 percent. As a result, student grades and graduation rates have increased significantly, as much as 25 to 50 percent.

The Credit Recovery and Career Exploration (CRACE) program links at-risk male youth to the people and resources they need to recover academic credits, to pursue future career opportunities and develop leadership skills. Students enroll in online classes and work with tutors to successfully complete their courses and graduate.

Students participate in mock trial. Photo courtesy of Cocopah Indian Tribe

Additionally, the program introduces student to careers that have the potential to strengthen and empower their tribal community. Since starting the CRACE program, participating Cocopah students have undergone CPR training, participated in mock trial exercises, and explored career opportunities in medicine and law enforcement.

Students participate in regular meetings with staff and instructors to provide feedback and discuss future plans. During the first meeting, education department staff members noted that many students seemed unsure about their future plans and goals. Over the past year, many students have narrowed down their focus, applying to college or preparing to enter the workforce.

Additionally, staff members have noted that this program helps instill students with a sense of pride in themselves and their community. One education department staff noted, “This program has helped make our students, their families and the community stronger. The program has already shown we can make a real positive difference in our students’ lives. This year we have had a dozen participating students make a 180-degree turnaround in regard to their grades, school attendance and personal attitudes.”

CRACE has received support from the tribe and the tribal community. According to the education department, tribal council members often act as mentors to at-risk youth. They also note that the tribe has recently passed a resolution that makes it mandatory for every tribal member to receive a high school diploma or GED to be eligible for benefits. This resolution sends a strong message to students: education is the key to strengthening and empowering their communities.

The Cocopah Tribe of Arizona’s CRACE program demonstrates the success of alternative techniques in inspiring students to achieve their education and take personal responsibility for their journey. CRACE brochures send the message loud and clear to students who utilize the service: “Your dreams are within reach. You just have to graduate high school to realize them.”

By Sarah Hernandez, First Nations Program Coordinator

Join Us in Supporting Native Children and Families

First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) recognizes that Native American youth are the very future of their communities, and that ensuring their well-being is crucial to the prosperity of those communities. That’s why First Nations established NativeGiving.org to raise awareness of community-based organizations that are committed to this important work at the grassroots level.

First Nations is calling on conscientious donors interested in investing in the work of participating organizations to make a gift via NativeGiving.org and support nonprofits that are dedicated to strengthening and improving the lives of Native children and families.

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”

– Sitting Bull

“We are excited about being part of this project because it can help us to build a solid foundation of sustainability. We realize that in order to live to see our Native schools and communities evolve to be truly empowering, we must develop long-lasting programs and projects that don’t fit into the standard mold of federal and state grants, and finding the support for these innovative programs requires heartfelt support from many caring individuals,” said Mark Sorensen, founder of the STAR School just 40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Consistent with Native American values of sharing and reciprocity, the goal of this unique initiative is to increase giving to philanthropic efforts in Native communities. Right now only three-tenths of one percent of foundation funding goes to Native causes, while Native Americans represent over two percent of the U.S. population. This disparity is compounded by the fact that the Native population has some of the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity, diet-related illness and the poorest educational outcomes.

To address this inequity, First Nations launched this website to leverage its national influence to direct more investments to worthy nonprofits such as those featured on this site. The featured nonprofits have developed successful and innovative projects that promote educated kids, healthy kids and secure families.

“First Nations has long known that developing a strong and healthy nonprofit sector in Native communities is one key to economic diversification and service delivery,” said First Nations President Michael E. Roberts. “This program will expand the reach of local Native nonprofits and improve charitable giving to Native causes and communities.”

In its own grantmaking process, First Nations has vetted each of the participating organizations. In addition to assisting them in raising funds through this site, First Nations is also providing technical assistance to build the management and fundraising expertise of each organization during this pilot project so they can sustain their critical programs for years to come.

Please browse the profiles of these organizations at NativeGiving.org, and then select one or more of them to support. Fully 100 percent of donations received through Nativegiving.org will go toward the selected organization’s mission.

NativeGiving.org is a project of First Nations and is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation under the foundation’s “Catalyzing Community Giving” initiative.

Gila River Goes Crazy for “Crazy Cash City”

Once again, students are going crazy for First Nations Development Institute’s “Crazy Cash City” workshop. In December 2014, 84 high school students from the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona participated in a “Crazy Cash City” financial education simulation in which students navigated a series of simulated financial tasks and challenges designed to teach basic budgeting and banking skills. The goal was for them to successfully balance their personal budgets through a simulated month of spending.

First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) staff conducted three two-hour reality fairs at the Gila River Indian Community’s new multipurpose building in Chandler, Arizona. The event was organized through a collaboration of First Nations and the Pima Leasing & Financing Corporation (PLFC), which is community development financial institution organized by the Gila River Indian Community Council. The mission of PLCF is to promote self-sufficiency and economic development by providing financing and business development services for community members. PLFC sponsored the workshop to promote financial skills development for local youth.

The workshop was a success thanks to volunteer support provided by the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians – Gila River Agency, and numerous Gila River tribal programs and partners. Funding for the workshop was provided in part by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The event was presented as an exciting, hands-on financial simulation for the students – since they were spending play money and not really buying things – but it was also informative, educational and highly interactive. The “Crazy Cash City” workshop is based on experiential learning principles – the belief that youth learn by doing, which research suggests is more effective than lecture-format workshops.

“Crazy Cash City” students were all given a folder containing a fictitious yet culturally appropriate family profile that listed an occupation, income, spousal and dependent information, and any outstanding debt or benefits, along with a debit card and budget-balancing sheet. The high school students then visited nine merchant booths that provided various choices for housing, transportation, child care and more, and they were asked to make smart financial decisions based on their family profile. “Fickle Finger of Fate” cards were also given to students to help them learn to plan for unexpected emergencies and opportunities that can arise in day-to-day life. The youth also were presented with examples of financial and investor fraud so they could learn when an offer might be too good to be true.

At the conclusion of the seminar, the students were expected to have a fully balanced budget logged in their check register and budgeting sheet. “One of the hardest things is trying not to go over your budget, trying not to go into debt,” said one student. “It’s really easy to go over your budget and get a lot of stuff.”

The main goal of “Crazy Cash City” is to give high school students the opportunity to practice good spending and budgeting habits prior to entering the real world after graduation, as well as to promote smart and informed decision-making skills that will last a lifetime. Learning how to manage finances ensures that Native people will be more likely to save and to challenge financial service providers to develop products that respond to their particular needs. These dynamic, interactive simulation workshops allow students to try out the skills they are learning and gain confidence when managing their money.

At the end of our last workshop, one enthusiastic student commented: “This is a great workshop. I think it should be brought to more communities around the nation.”

We concur young man. We concur!

By Tawny Wilson, First Nations Program Officer

Tradition & Technology: San Carlos Apache Tribe’s Food Database

Fluent Apache speaker Twila Cassadore helped conduct, record and analyze well over 100 interviews with Apache elders.

Can tradition and technology co-exist? The San Carlos Apache Tribe, located in southeastern Arizona, has developed a first-of-its-kind traditional food database system that seems to suggest the answer is yes.

The database allows tribal healthcare leaders to preserve traditional Apache recipes so that nutritionists can analyze the nutritional content of these foods to replicate the traditional Western Apache diet. This project will allow the tribe to design a healthy, pre-reservation menu that will help reverse the growing trend of diet-related illnesses on the reservation.

In 2013, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) awarded the San Carlos Apache Tribe $37,500 through First Nations’ Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative (NAFSI) to launch the database. With this grant, the tribe hired a fluent Apache speaker, Twila Cassadore, to conduct 100 interviews with tribal elders. Those elders helped identify more than 200 traditional Apache edible plants and nearly as many traditional Apache recipes.

The traditional food database led to new partnerships that aimed to involve the youth in Native food systems work.

A nutritionist has analyzed more than half of these recipes and modernized them so that they are more accessible to home cooks. For example, some recipes call for wild plants that are not typically sold in the grocery store or sown in the garden. The nutritionist, by finding a modern equivalent to these traditional ingredients, will help tribal members revive their pre-reservation diet.

“This database allows us to approach traditional cultural knowledge as a science,” says botanist Seth Pilsk. “To respect it in a traditional manner, but not shy away from studying and analyzing it. We are using traditional knowledge as a means to solving contemporary problems.”

Traditionally, the tribe incorporated food and food production into every aspect of their lives, from sacred rituals and ceremonies to their social and political structures. This project seeks to re-establish the tribe’s healthy relationship with food and, in the process, alleviate some of their current social and economic ills, including substance abuse, suicide, domestic violence, diabetes, obesity, poverty and unemployment.

Apache elders firmly believe that a return to a healthy, pre-reservation diet will help reverse these negative trends and enhance the lives of their tribal members – culturally, physically, socially and politically. Indeed, the information gleaned from this database has already started to have a positive impact on the community.

Tribal healthcare leaders have partnered with the Diabetes Prevention Program, the Wellness Program, The Department of Forest Resources, and the Language Preservation Office to develop a model program based on traditional – mostly food-related – activities. Most recently, they have held a series of meetings with the tribe’s Elders Cultural Advisory Council to identify the major principles needed to inform a Tribal Food Policy Committee. This committee will recommend policies for the tribal leadership to support traditionally-based food systems, health and economic development.

This project has allowed the tribe to successfully merge tradition and technology to improve the physical and social health of their people. The success of this traditional food database system reiterates that tribes have the knowledge and power to strengthen their own communities.

By Sarah Hernandez, First Nations Program Coordinator

New Grants Boost First Nations’ Reach and Mission

Over the past few months, we have been extremely fortunate to receive two significant grants that will go far toward addressing critical issues in Indian Country.

“Forward Promise”

We were one of four organizations to receive grants of $415,000 each from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in partnership with Public Interest Projects.  RWJF’s overall effort aims to promote opportunity and health for young men of color in rural communities in the South and Southwest, and it represent the nation’s largest private investment in rural young men of color to date. The program is known as the “Forward Promise” Catalyst Grants.

In First Nations’ case, we’ll use the funding for our “Advancing Positive Paths for Native American Boys and Young Men” project. It focuses on Native boys and young men in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. We’ll work with local partners on projects that address one or both of these areas of interest in a culturally relevant manner:

  • Early intervention strategies that focus on dropout prevention and increasing middle school retention and high school graduation rates.
  • Policy and programmatic efforts that elevate the importance of a caring adult to re-engage youth who may be disconnected from work or school.

 

We have already conducted an application period for grants under the program, and we are now evaluating the responses.  We expect to award four to eight grants ranging from $38,000 to $50,000 each.

“Simply put, Native boys and young men face big challenges in their rural and reservation settings, but these challenges – including poverty, lack of male leadership and involvement, rising drug and gang violence, and other risks that make success difficult – are not insurmountable,” noted Michael E. Roberts, First Nations president. “We are excited by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s investment in Native communities. It is exactly this type of investment that will allow these Native youth to move forward successfully with the support they need to become productive adults. By supporting organizations that address these issues with grants and our culturally-appropriate technical assistance and training, we’re positioning them for long-term success.”

“Catalyzing Community Giving”

We were awarded a $306,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, under the foundation’s “Catalyzing Community Giving” effort. First Nations will use the grant to collaborate with smaller local or regional Native American nonprofit organizations to build their internal capacity while engaging new donors – both Native and non-Native – around those organizations’ efforts in building sustainable food systems and strengthening Native culture among youth.

First Nations will work with 10 organizations in its two-year pilot project, called “Nurturing Native Giving,” that is intended to strengthen their fundraising effectiveness, with a primary focus on individual giving. First Nations will create a web portal that profiles the 10 participants, highlights their work, and which allows convenient donations to each organization. Further, First Nations will assist them in publicizing and marketing the portal and all funds raised will be directed back to these communities.

We will also provide significant training and technical assistance to the participating organizations through coaching, webinars and an online learning community to share resources and build the group’s collective knowledge and best practices from their own organizations. We’ll also facilitate a dialogue between project participants and Native grantmaking tribes and other funding entities in hopes that mutually beneficial partnerships can be established. Three convenings and a white paper will summarize the learnings and policy recommendations that can lead to increased giving in Native communities and, ultimately, grow the body of knowledge about Native philanthropy.

“First Nations has long known that developing a strong and healthy nonprofit sector in Native communities is one key to economic diversification and service delivery,” Roberts said. “This program will expand the reach of local Native nonprofits and improve charitable giving to Native causes and communities.”

Anti-Hunger Initiatives Help Older Native Americans

L to R are Harley Coriz of Santo Domingo, Maggie Biscarr of AARP Foundation, and George Toya of Nambe

In Indian Country, finding a restaurant is easy – if you want to eat at a fast-food chain that serves cheap, fattening meals. Native American cuisine now typically means fry bread, a disk of dough deep-fried in oil or lard. Few stores sell fresh produce on reservations. And, perhaps surprisingly, farmers’ markets are practically impossible to find.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture deems most reservations “food deserts” — low-income areas where many people lack access to nutritional foods. According to the Center for Rural Health, about 6 in 10 Native Americans age 55 and older survive on between $5,000 and $10,000 a year. The brutal one-two punch of rampant poverty and low-quality food hits tribal elders particularly hard. A 2013 study by First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) found that American Indian seniors “now suffer from higher rates of congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke than the general population age 55 and older.”

To help end chronic hunger among older Native Americans, AARP Foundation has awarded $438,000 to First Nations Development Institute since 2012. The nonprofit based in Longmont, Colorado, in turn provided grants, training and technical assistance to several innovative programs that aim to improve nutrition for American Indian seniors while fostering community. “First Nations does a really good job finding tribes that have the capacity and the need, and that’s a fine line,” says Maggie Biscarr, program manager for AARP Foundation’s Hunger Impact area. “You have to work with groups that really need it — and have some level of capacity to deliver.”

First Nations recently awarded $25,000 sub-grants to four tribes in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin for anti-hunger initiatives. The second round of funding follows a $100,000 grant distributed in 2012 for four innovative projects, including the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma’s Healthy Pork initiative; the Traditional Food Systems Revitalization Project of the Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico; and the Pueblo of Nambe’s Community Farm, also in New Mexico.

“We are pleased to again support an organization that has a proven record in hunger relief, and look forward to watching the new programs grow in impact for Native American elders,” says AARP Foundation President Lisa Marsh Ryerson.

Amos Hinton at Ponca

Amos Hinton from the Ponca Tribe

Amos Hinton, director of agriculture for the Ponca Tribe, reports that his program has bred, processed and distributed more than 6,000 pounds of free-range pork since 2012. “Commercial agriculture has gone so far away from the way animals were intended to be raised and grain was meant to be grown,” says Amos, who frets that many of his neighbors subsisted on “low-end processed lunch meats from cans” if they could afford meat at all. When Amos delivered locally raised, hormone-free pork to an elderly woman shortly after launching his project, he remembers being told, I’m so glad to see you, because I didn’t know how we were going to eat for the rest of the week. “That bothered me — really, really bothered me,” admits Amos, who is in the process of breeding four more pigs.

The AARP Foundation grant enabled the Pueblo of Nambe to buy a second-hand tractor, tools, and seeds, and to pay for some labor to build a 20-by-40-foot hoop house. The structure, made of flexible plastic over a wood frame, harnesses solar radiation to extend the growing season. Before the hoop house was built, George Toya, the Pueblo’s farm manager, estimated that his growing season started in May and ended in late September. After completion, the season doubled and now lasts from late February until November. The farm produces lettuce, spinach, beets and carrots, as well as the venerated chili pepper. “Chilies are everything here,” notes George, who donates much of the harvest to the community’s senior center.

When George was growing up, he remembers cutting wheat by hand with a sickle along with his father, grandfather and many neighbors: “When one field ripened and was ready to cut, [local] farmers came over and helped.” His family gladly returned the favor. “The work went really quick,” says George, who believes Nambe’s community farm has revived a communal spirit. “It’s starting to come back again.”

Harley inside the Santo Domingo greenhouse

The Pueblo of Santo Domino’s Traditional Food Systems Revitalization Project grows not only traditional crops but also relationships, says Harley Coriz, who oversees the local senior center. The grant they received enabled the tribe to build a greenhouse, where vegetables for seniors grow during winter. The venture connects tribal elders and youth who plant and harvest corn, melons and tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables. “The seniors teach youths the names of plants in the native tongue,” says Harley, who points out that the program yields an unexpected benefit: empowering women volunteers. “Mainly males did the farming, so a lot of the older ladies have never planted before and they were really enthused,” he notes.

“Everything is centered around agriculture in our society,” Harley continues. “We plant as a community, we harvest as a community and — they tell us growing up — life begins with putting seeds into the ground.”

This article, by David Wallis, was written and published by AARP Foundation, Bob Somerville, editor. It is reprinted here with permission from AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger nationwide campaign.

Final Meeting Held for 4 Tribes in Asset-Building Project

Representatives from all project partners at the final meeting, plus First Nations President Michael Roberts (far left) and First Nations Program Officer Lisa Yellow Eagle (fourth from right, back row)

On May 2, 2014, First Nations brought representatives from the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, the Hopi Education Endowment Fund (Arizona), the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (Minnesota) and the Spokane Tribe of Indians (Washington) together in Denver, Colorado, for a final meeting of the Native Asset-Building Partnership Project.

The project was meant to strengthen tribal and Native institutions through peer learning and model development that will help improve control and management of assets for the Oneida Tribe and the Mille Lacs Band.  First Nations found tribal mentors to help the Oneida and Mille Lacs design programs that will support, educate and strengthen the capacity of the youth of each tribe.

The Hopi Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) is an Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7871 program that raises funds for Hopi students’ education.  This means HEEF is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as being a division of a tribal government that can receive tax-deductible donations.  HEEF has mentored the Oneida on designing and implementing an IRC Section 7871 program.  Oneida has chosen to put together a framework for an Oneida Youth Leadership Institute to encourage, empower and provide leadership training to tribal youth.  Oneida has chosen to use the IRC Section 7871 designation rather than the 501(c)(3) designation because it supports tribal sovereignty while still allowing donations to be tax-deductible.

The Spokane Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources has conducted a summer youth and mentorship program for more than a decade.  The department incorporates traditions and culture into its summer programs and learning camps to teach youth how their ancestors used science to fish, hunt, build housing, etc.  The department mentored the Mille Lacs on designing and implementing a summer youth program in Minnesota.  The Mille Lacs designed a curriculum for high school students as extra-curricular science classes that will incorporate traditions and culture.  The Mille Lacs also will implement a summer internship program at its Department of Natural Resources during June 2014.  This will allow a tribal youth to work with the staff and learn about the different programs within the department as well as learning about career opportunities.

At the final meeting, all partners presented on their projects to First Nations and to the other partners involved in the project.  First Nations also helped the two partnerships come up with action plans for the next year (after the grant is complete).  The meeting was a success and the two projects developed more definite plans that will help them implement their projects in the upcoming months.

By Lisa Yellow Eagle, First Nations Program Officer

Recent Grants Give Big Boost to First Nations’ Mission

Over the past couple of months, First Nations has received several grants that will go a long way toward fulfilling our mission of strengthening American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities.

In March, we received a $1.2 million grant for a project that aims to build the sustainability and vibrancy of Native American organizations that are specifically targeting Native artists and Native cultural institutions. Under the project, we expect to award between 18 and 55 grants ranging from $500 to $30,000 each over the next three years.  The grants will help develop the effectiveness and capacity of reservation-based and select non-reservation-based Native museums, cultural centers, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), nonprofit organizations, tribal programs and Native chambers of commerce that have program initiatives in place to support Native art and Native artists. There also will be additional grants, scholarships and travel stipends awarded for professional development opportunities, conferences and related convenings.

The grant was awarded by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

In February, we announced that AARP Foundation granted us $250,000 to expand a project that addresses hunger, nutrition and food security of Native American tribal elders. The new grant expands work that began in 2012 when AARP Foundation provided First Nations with a $187,660 grant to begin the Native American Food Security project.

Under the first grant, First Nations awarded funding to four projects that have been successfully completed and evaluated.  They were to the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, the Pueblo of Nambe and Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico, and Sipaulovi Development Corporation (Hopi) in Arizona. Under the new grant, First Nations will award funding to additional Native American projects.

Earlier in February, we announced that the Comcast Foundation provided a $50,000 grant to supplement a 2013 grant of $1.1 million from The Kresge Foundation. Together, they are being used to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of American Indian nonprofit organizations located in urban settings, as well as providing training and technical assistance services.

This is just the latest from the Comcast Foundation.  Last year the foundation gave First Nations funds to produce television announcements along with more than $1.5 million in donated airtime on the Comcast Xfinity cable TV system.  This allowed First Nations to run its public service advertising spots more than 113,000 times on various channels.  In turn, these announcements helped build awareness of First Nations and the work we do to address pressing issues in Indian Country.