Native american family intervention project: Community based participatory research process involving a university and two southwest american indian tribes to co-develop and implement a culturally specific curriculum

Purpose: Utilizing a community based participatory research approach, the University of New Mexico Masters in Public Health Program is working with Tribal research teams in the Pueblo of Jemez and Ramah Navajo to adapt and implement an existing evidence-based Native American Family Intervention Project (from the Ojibwe people) to reduce risky behaviors in third and fourth graders. Given the interest in whether and how evidence-based programs can be implemented in and translated to other cultures, this paper will present the process of working with two very different tribal advisory committees and tribal communities to co-create a culturally specific version for their communities. In the first year, we re-established advisory boards, entered in political approval processes, and trained tribal members to co-lead focus group discussions with elders, parents, youth, and service providers. In the second year, we have begun to modify the curriculum based on each tribe's specific cultural importance. The two tribes have adopted very different advisory councils. We will discuss the difference in the two tribal processes: working with youth and elders; issues of wanting to include culture yet not violate spiritual traditions and confidentiality; issues of working with advisory councils and how to keep connected to the political leadership; and issues of how to incorporate new elements of the program yet retain sufficient program fidelity to maintain the evidence base. Potential outcomes of the CBPR process will be discussed, including intervention additions as well as capacity building, ownership of the program and future sustainability.