Native STAND Curriculum

Native STAND is an evaluated peer education program for American indian youth. All youth—including Native youth—face extreme pressures to fit in and belong. To make the best decisions for themselves, youth need factual, science-based information delivered to them in a way they can relate to, by people who they can trust and feel comfortable talking to. Peer educators can fill this important role.

The curriculum was developed by a multi-disciplinary workgroup that included Native youth, a Native elder, public health and youth development experts, and health curriculum developers. It is designed to meet the needs of today's Native youth. It honors tradition and culture at the same time that it meets today's Native youth where they are: walking between two different—but interconnected—worlds. While Native STAND acknowledges that Native youth face many of the same challenges as mainstream youth, it embraces the power of traditional teachings and cultural strengths that Native youth have within themselves and their communities.

Native STAND is adapted from STAND—Students Together Against Negative Decisions—a peer educator curriculum developed for youth in rural Georgia. It is theoretically based, using both the Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change) and the Diffusion of Innovations Model (identifying and relying on popular opinion leaders to promote change). Its approach is comprehensive and skills-based, and includes STD, HIV, and teen pregnancy prevention, as well as drug and alcohol issues and dating violence. Sessions focus on positive personal development, including team building, diversity, self-esteem, goals and values, decision making, negotiation and refusal skills, peer educator skills, and effective communications. Participating students are identified by their peers; the process ensures that nominees come from many social groups and represent diverse cliques.

In August 2009, Native STAND kicked off its pilot phase with four Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) boarding schools. Each site has made a strong commitment to implementing Native STAND and will receive considerable support and technical assistance during the one-year pilot phase (the 2009-2010 school year). All sites have participated in a formal evaluation of Native STAND curriculum. NCSD and its partners look to continue the project for the 2010-2011 school year.

Curriculum:
Native STAND's Facilitator's Manual, Peer Educator Manual, Resource Manual and videos are available at http://nativestand.org.

Webinars:
April 23, 2012 - Native STAND Informational Webinar

To learn more about Native STAND, contact Dana Cropper Williams at dcropper@ncsddc.org.