Session: Implementation of Prevention Programs with Indigenous Youth and Families (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

SESSION INTRODUCTION: The goal of this symposium session is to describe factors that promote and challenge the successful implementation of prevention programs focused on Indigenous youth and families. Highlighting efforts across three states (Arizona, Colorado, and Hawai‘i), this symposium contributes to the lack of information specifically related to implementation science and promising prevention programs for Indigenous populations.

The first paper, “Lessons from the Field: Implementation of a Culturally-Adapted Early Substance Use Prevention Program with American Indian Youth and Families on a Northern Plains Reservation”, describes the development of Thiwáhe Gluwáš’akapi, a culturally adapted, family-focused substance abuse prevention program for Tribal populations in the Northern Plains. Through the development of the program, the authors highlight both structural issues (e.g., childcare, transportation issues), as well as social and cultural issues, that challenged successful implementation of the program, and describe how they dealt with these issues as they arose in the field.

The second paper, “Community Involvement to Design and Implement a Culturally-Appropriate College and Career Readiness Program for Urban American Indian Youth “, describes the implementation of the Forward Promise program, a culturally focused, school dropout prevention program for Southwestern American Indian youth. Evaluation data indicated high consumer satisfaction for the program. However, the authors noted issues with interagency coordination and collaboration, which served as the primary challenge in the implementation of the curriculum.

The third paper, “The Validation of a School-Based, Culturally Grounded Drug Prevention Curriculum for Rural Hawaiian Youth”, describes the community stakeholder evaluation process of Ho‘ouna Pono, an emerging, culturally grounded drug prevention curriculum for Native Hawaiian youth. Public school faculty and staff on Hawai‘i Island indicated that they appreciated the culturally focused content of the curriculum, but expressed concerns that resources necessary to implement the curriculum would compete with those needed to implement Common Core academic standards. These findings have implications for the long-term adoption and sustainability of school-based curricula in rural and/or Indigenous communities.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will summarize the presentations and facilitate a discussion between the presenters and the symposium attendees. This symposium will attract prevention researchers with an interest in the implementation, adoption, and/or sustainability of empirically based prevention interventions for indigenous youth and families, and contributes to NIH’s overall goal of eliminating health disparities.