The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
At the annual United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) conference, tribal youth engaged senior Administration officials on issues affecting their communities. Many conference participants voiced concern about illicit substance use among their peers. A substantial portion of the American Indian and Alaska Native population is under the age of 24 (42 percent compared to 34 percent of the general population), and a significant percentage of the population falls in the 15-19 age group. Young people are our Nation’s greatest resource, so it is essential that we do everything we can to encourage healthy, drug-free youth communities in Indian Country.
At the annual United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) conference, tribal youth engaged senior Administration officials on issues affecting their communities. Many conference participants voiced concern about illicit substance use among their peers. A substantial portion of the American Indian and Alaska Native population is under the age of 24 (42 percent compared to 34 percent of the general population), and a significant percentage of the population falls in the 15-19 age group. Young people are our Nation’s greatest resource, so it is essential that we do everything we can to encourage healthy, drug-free youth communities in Indian Country.
One of the conference participants was Margarita, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Youth Task Force Coalition, which is a community coalition sponsored by the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program. This coalition is one of the many examples of how the DFC program is helping to build healthy tribal communities. How has the program grant helped her community? “DFC has played an important role,” said Margarita. “I don’t think the adults know what problems youth are facing because they are not youth anymore. Having young people at the table gives them the advantage to know, ‘okay, this youth said this isn’t a good idea, so maybe we should take a different approach in fighting the battle against substance use.’ ”
But it isn’t just about being a voice at the table. Margarita said she also wants “to be the type of role model that people look up to,” and being a role model involves talking to her peers about substance use. Giving her friends “the facts and the statistics of using,” she said, is the best way to illustrate how substance use “will affect their lives in the long run.”
The work that Margarita and her group are doing shows how DFC coalitions are positively influencing youth in tribal communities. As Margarita put it, participating in a DFC-sponsored coalition “opens the doors to opportunities that never would have opened before.”
To learn more about the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, click here.
