Youth & Family Services
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH & FAMILY PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
CULTURAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
Basketball Skills Camp
Families, schools, and communities all need to work together to create an environment that facilitates healthy development of children and adolescents.
Adult Support: School staff can dedicate their time, interest, attention, and emotional support to students.
Belonging to a Positive Peer Group: A stable network of peers can improve student perceptions of school.
Commitment to Education: Believing that school is important to their future, and perceiving that the adults in school are invested in their education, can get students engaged in their own learning and involved in school activities.
School Environment: The physical environment and psychosocial climate can set the stage for positive student perceptions of school.
What Are the Factors that Can Increase School Connectedness?
Our Goals
To increase high school GRADUATION and choice readiness through our “after-school” tutoring program
To prevent and REDUCE SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES and truancy through our “out-of-school” programs focused on recreation, wellness, and life skills and cultural identity development.
To increase mental, social, emotional, and CULTURAL LEARNING and the opportunity to develop POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS with our mentors and support staff for our youth through our “out-of-school” programs focused on recreation, wellness, and life skills and cultural identity development.
To increase a sense of BELONGING and CULTURAL CONNECTIONS through multitiered care coordination of resources and services offered to the youth and families through our “out-of-school family wellness, parenting and cultural programs.
NATIVE, Inc.’s GPIs YFEC strives to IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTCOMES through the following strategies:
To INCREASE high school GRADUATION and choice READINESS through our tutoring, college and career readiness programs held during “afterschool” programs
NATIVE, Inc.’s GPIs YFEC strives to IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTCOMES through the following strategies:
About GPIs YFEC
The Great Plains Indians Youth and Family Engagement Center (GPIs YFEC) is partially funded by the North Dakota Division of Juvenile Justice, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and fully funded by NATIVE, Inc., and the Native American Development Center. The programs held through this engagement center serve Native American youth and families living in the Bismarck urban area, and it is currently expanding into the Fargo urban area.
We provide a community space for Native Americans to engage in and access culturally responsive programs and cultural connections to ensure their sense of belonging within mainstream communities. A culturally relevant environment with mentors and role models fosters a culture of resiliency and perseverance necessary for the development of self-efficacy amongst a population facing similar societal struggles. Culture is a protective factor to prevent suicide, anti-social and unruly behaviors, behavioral health, and health disparities.
This is a safe community space for surrounding students and citizens within urban areas to access human, employment, transportation, housing, and financial services to meet the basic needs of their lives, to access educational and career opportunities, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and leadership to improve their lives, and tribal cultural programs to develop self-esteem and cultural identities, to access Tribal, State, and local resources to supplement barriers caused by poverty and access referrals to case management services to prevent behavioral health, criminal behaviors, and homelessness.
Our Mission
For the Great Plains Indians Youth and Family Engagement Center is to intervene and prevent racial disparities amongst Native American youth and their families involved or at-risk of being involved with the justice system through college and career readiness educational opportunities, culturally relevant parenting curriculums, and life skills and cultural identity development.