Intertribal Talking Circle for the Prevention of Substance Abuse in Native Youth

This project will evaluate an after-school substance abuse prevention intervention, compared to a standard substance abuse education program, targeting 6th grade AI youth in three AI communities: Ojibwe/Chippewa in Minnesota, Choctaw in Oklahoma, and Lumbee in North Carolina. A community-based participatory research approach will be used to culturally and technologically adapt the intervention. A two-condition controlled study will evaluate the efficacy of the intervention to increase AI youth Native self-reliance while decreasing AI youth substance use involvement. An adult training program second level intervention study will also be implemented to train tribal personnel from the three regional tribes on how to implement the intervention as a tribal program beyond the study period. Effectiveness will be determined by a small partial cross-over randomized trial comparing the intervention to a wait-list control condition. Process evaluations will focus on the future adoption and implementation of the intervention, and recommendations for sustainable adaptations.