Maximizing Protective Factors for American Indian Youth Through the Implementation of Cultural Based

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Maximizing Protective Factors for American Indian
Youth Through the Implementation of Cultural
Based Mentoring Programs
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Agenda for Teleconference
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Risk and Protective Factors

• Risk Factors Contribute to negative outcomes
• Needs Must be addressed/fulfilled to achieve
  optimal/avoid negative outcomes
• Protective Factors Buffers impact of risk
• Strengths Promote positive outcomes

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Examples of Risk Factors

• Aggressive and disruptive behavior at home,
  school and in the community
• Chronic truancy
• Substance use
• Unstable family dynamics
• Peers who engage in acting out behavior
• Involvement with the Juvenile Justice System

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Examples of Protective Factors

• Attachment to home, school and community
• Positive adults in life
• Positive peers in life
• Involved in constructive extra-curricular
  activities
• Interested in learning about tribal culture,
  values, ceremonies
• Communicates effectively in home, school and
  community

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The Why ? Risk Protective Factors
Considerations
All OJJDP TYP grantees have cooperative
agreements and are funded to work under one or
two TYP Program Areas Categories I V.

• Which have the intended outcomes to
• Reduce dynamic risk factors for tribal youth in
  their community
• Build on the protective factors or strengths for
  tribal youth in their community.

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Cultural Based Mentoring Programs One of Many
Successful Prevention Paths
A cross site evaluation of CSAPs overall
substance abuse prevention programs identified
several elements to successful programs
(SanchezWay, 2000)

• Effective programs employ a variety of approaches
  and interventions in numerous settings
• Common elements of successful programs is that
  they foster caring, supportive relationships with
  one or more adults
• Create opportunities for youth to develop
  feelings of self-efficacy and competence

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Cultural Integration

• Successful prevention efforts in tribal
  communities can build bi-cultural competence in
  youth and can operate simultaneously on several
  levels in the community.
• Cultural integration has to be created
  implemented by the community, not developed
  outside of the cultural norms of the community it
  represents.

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The Why? Of Mentoring Programs

• In 2005, law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
  arrested an
• estimated 2.3 million youth (Snyder, 2004). Close
  to a third of
• these arrests involved youth under the age of 15.
• Although juvenile crime has declined since the
  mid-1990s, the
• high number of youth arrested each year remains a
  significant
• problem for many communities. Low-income, urban
  neighborhoods,
• and tribal reservations experience
  disproportionately high rates of
• juvenile delinquency (Sampson, 1995). Youth who
  live in these
• communities have an increased risk of becoming
  victims of a violent
• crime when compared with youth in less
  disadvantage communities
• (Lauritsen, 2003)

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Mentoring ProgramsWhat We Have Learned

• Social support from non- parental adults seem to
  protect a youth
• from participating in risky behavior. The social
  capital that youth
• accrue from social support close emotional ties
  with adults in the
• community operate to protect these youth from
  substance abuse
• use, violence and delinquency (Harris Ryan,
  2000).
• Perhaps the single most important protective
  factor for development
• among at-risk youth is a positive relationship
  with at least one caring
• adult (Scales Gibson, 1996).
• Research has found that high risk youth who
  establish ties with a
• supportive adult in addition to a parent(s) were
  significantly more
• likely to develop into competent and autonomous
  young adults
• (Rhodes, Ebert Fischer, 1992)

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Mentoring

• In order to reduce
• the impact that
• delinquency has on
• a community, families,
• and youth effective
• interventions and
• programs are critical.

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Resources for Developing Informal
FormalMentoring Programs for Youth

• National Mentoring Center www.nwrel.org/mentorin
  g
• One to One/National Mentoring Partnership
  www.mentoring.org
• OJJDP Training Technical Assistance Center for
  Mentoring System Involved Youth
  www.mentoringsiyouth.org
• Public/Private Ventures www.ppv.org
• National Mentoring Center www.nwlel.org/mentorin
  g
• Mentor/National Mentoring Partnership
  www.mentoring.org
• OJJDP Juvenile Mentoring Program
  www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/ojdp/182209.pdf
• EMT http//emt.org
• Your EDC Tribal Youth Technical Assistance
  Specialist

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OJJDP Tribal Youth Programs Our Youth Our
Future..