NenŨnkUmbi/Edahiyedo (We are Here Now or NE) is an evidence-based intervention designed to reduce sexual and reproductive health (SRH) disparities in American Indian youth ages 14 to 18 years old. This 9-month program includes the following four components:
Individual: Adapted Native STAND Curriculum
Family: Sexual Reproductive Health Guide for Parents
Community: Cultural Mentoring Program
Systems: Agency Coordination and Quarterly Meetings
We Are Here Now can be integrated and adapted in tribal communities, schools, clinics, and other community-based programs. The toolkit may be useful for communities interested in building their research capacity or implementing an evidence-based intervention to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
Visit the We Are Here Now website to read their supporting publications.
Alcohol and Drug Prevention, Healthy Relationships, Mental Health, Other Healthy Life-Skills, Sexual Health, Violence or Bullying Prevention
Duration:
18 sessions (60 minutes each)
Cost to purchase:
Free
Teacher Training or Certification Required:
No
Student to Teacher Ratio:
20:2
Program Outcomes:
Delayed sexual initiation, Improved contraception use, delayed sexual initiation, increased number of protected sex acts/increased condom use, decreased frequency of sex, decreased use of drugs and alcohol during sex, increased youth-caregiver communication, increased access to sexual and reproductive health services
Endorsements:
N/A
Program Contact Information
Olivia Johnson
Fort Peck Community College
elizabeth.rink@montana.edu
Training
Teacher Training or Certification Requirements:
We Are Here Now intervenes at the individual, family, cultural, and systems level. For the individual level, the original Native STAND lesson plans and curriculum were used to demonstrate how Tribal communities can adapted Native STAND for their specific cultural context as well as build in skill building and education for family members, cultural teachings, and coordination of clinical services to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services. We encourage anyone interested in adapting We Are Here Now in their community to use the updated Native Stand 2.0 version, which has been updated to improve usability. We also encourage the materials provided in the We Are Here Now toolkit for information on how to integrate tribally relevant family, cultural, and systems level components into their program to complement their adaptations to Native Stand 2.0.
Formal training is not required to implement the Native STAND curriculum. If you would like to request training on Native STAND, you can do so through our TA Request Form.
Designing the NE intervention was a collaborative process over 15 years between the Fort Peck Tribes and Montana State University. Using community-based participatory research methods and principles, adaptations of NE took 12 months to complete. There were many cultural aspects that were considered when developing and designing NE; they are detailed in this section.
Our mixed methods evaluation documented the facilitators and barriers to implementing a multilevel intervention with Fort Peck. Our evaluation identified several important facilitators that improved the acceptability of the trial, including:
Integration of local cultural knowledge
Youth engagement with multiple teaching modalities
Leveraging community relationships to support delivery
Supporting caregivers
Fostering of school administrative support
Study participants reported a wide range of positive outcomes from the project:
Restoring cultural knowledge
Learning about healthy relationships
Encouraging sexual behavior change, and
Promoting healthy communication with sex partners and among family members.
This section details the evaluation methods used to assess NE outcomes and provides considerations for adapting an evaluation for a similar intervention and other public health programs.
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