OJJDP FY 2008 National Mentoring Program

White Bison proposes to expand and enhance mentoring services in four Tribal communities in order to assist Native American youth; families and clans prevent adolescent substance use and delinquency through the development of a social support mentoring infrastructure. The primary outcome is healthy youth development within stigma-free community norms supported by a naturally occurring mentoring network. In the extended Native clan network, the wellness of the individual is inextricably connected to the long-term wellness of the community. White Bison's current national Wellbriety program has trained 700+ volunteer communities. These local initiatives will be guided and sustained through a culturally appropriate community coalition-building process. The project has five goals based on Native community needs: 1) Develop an effective core group of 120 Mentoring Services Coaches with 240 additional locally-trained mentors; 2) Sustain these services using SAMHSA's Drug Free Communities' coalition-building strategies; 3) Develop the Communities' Readiness capacity through culturally competent youth norms of prevention, sobriety and Wellness; 4) Link 480 identified youth to Wellbriety Mentor Groups, Sons and Daughters of Tradition, with three evidence-based curricula with validated delinquency and drug use prevention outcomes and 5) Develop a Wellbriety Indian Center & web portal for national cross-site peer support and information exchange. The project will evaluate a minimum of 100 trained Mentoring Coaches, using CSAT's GPRA instrument; enhanced by a GPRA+ Native Wellness Index. Measurement will be at Baseline, 6 Months and 1 Year. A process evaluation and validated 'Readiness Survey' will be used to measure community change; including an additional 240 Firestarter-trained mentors. CA/NCF