CCDO's In-Sites Magazine - Summer 2007 issue

NCAI Leads Meth Prevention Initiatives
By Kurt Lindblom, CCDO Consultant

Photo of the Indian Country Meth Toolkit.
The Indian Country Meth Toolkit

The war against meth begins with prevention. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has taken the lead in this area with its National Indian Country Tribal Meth Initiative Task Force. It exists to address all aspects of the meth crisis in Indian Country, but its most immediate results can be seen in the areas of awareness and prevention in the form of an anti-meth toolkit and a national prevention campaign.

Anti-Meth Toolkit

On June 11, NCAI unveiled the Indian Country Meth Toolkit—a self-guided, self-contained collection of resources designed to educate teachers, health officials, police, parents, or other community leaders about the impact of meth abuse in tribal communities. This interactive toolkit also shows them how to plan a response that is customized to meet their local needs. These resources were created specifically to be easy to adapt to the widest possible variety of Indian cultures. Among them are the following:

Examples of tribal codes related to meth, including the Lummi Exclusion (banishment) Code, Navajo and Crow Meth Codes, and Yavapai-Apache Employee Drug Testing Policy.
Anti-meth radio public service announcement.
Small anti-meth print ads for local tribal papers.
Educational materials.
Youth items, including "no-meth" stickers, "no-meth" temporary tattoos, "not even once" jelly wrist bracelets, and "meth-free Crow" jelly wrist bracelets.
Educational presentations, including Bureau of Indian Affairs' train-the-trainer PowerPoint presentation and the Indian Health Service's (Aberdeen) meth video.

This toolkit was adapted from the Meth Prevention Education Planning Toolkit, which was developed for non-Indian communities by Dr. Mike Vogel of the Montana State University Extension, Meth Education, Training, and Help Center. According to Vogel, the original toolkit was designed around three principles that have carried through to the Indian Country-specific model: develop a consistent message that speaks to a wide variety of communities, format resources for a persistent message, and build partnerships. "We found that the toolkit's characteristics of education, outreach, and training were extremely successful," said Vogel.

The meth toolkit first proved its effectiveness in Indian Country when the Meth-Free Crow Nation Task Force learned of it during a summer conference in 2006 and adapted it for their presentations on community-based meth awareness. Members of the Crow Nation soon asked Vogel how the kit could be adapted to the unique problems of Indian Country.

According to Ada L. Bends, Cultural Substance Abuse Counselor, Apsaalooke Nation Housing Authority Crow Tribal Youth Program and Meth-Free Crow Nation Task Force–Montana, "This concept jump-started the whole movement for a more generic Native design to be presented to Indian Country."

Both Bends and Vogel credit NCAI's involvement for making this nationwide project possible. "NCAI is the real engine beneath this effort," said Vogel.

To develop the toolkit for a general American Indian audience, Vogel worked with NCAI and tribal leaders using an approach similar to that used to produce the original toolkit. The developers first sent out a national call for every resource and piece of information available, and then they conducted focus groups to determine which materials were really needed and how they would be used. "Instead of throwing things into a box," said Vogel, "we needed to concentrate on adaptability and customization."

Future plans include working with individual tribes to develop culture-specific material.

Visit the NCAI Web site to learn more about obtaining the anti-meth toolkit for your community.

National Indian Country Anti-Meth Media Campaign

In November 2006, NCAI announced another anti-meth initiative: the National Indian Country Anti-Meth Media Campaign. This initiative is a partnership between NCAI and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to develop and launch a new public awareness campaign targeting methamphetamine abuse among Americans Indians. The coalition pledged a combined $300,000 in support of this effort. The initiative will mark the first national anti-meth media campaign tailored specifically to Indian Country.

The National Indian Country Tribal Meth Initiative Task Force is working with PDFA to finalize ongoing research to explore the most effective way to convey their message to tribal communities throughout the country. They will then craft anti-meth messages and educational materials specific to Indian Country and roll out the campaign using various media, as determined through market research. Initially, the campaign is expected to include Indian Country-specific radio and print advertisements. PDFA has created a number of anti-meth campaigns in the past and, working with ONDCP, has developed several anti-drug campaigns specifically targeting American Indians.

Of the $300,000 pledged by the coalition, DOI has pledged $100,000—$50,000 from the Office of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and $50,000 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs—ONDCP has pledged $150,000, and HHS has pledged $50,000 as a part of a larger HHS million-dollar Indian Country Methamphetamine Initiative.

For more information, contact:
Heather Dawn Thompson
Director, Governmental Affairs
National Congress of Indian Affairs