In this issue:
- The HOYI Mission
- Sustaining the HOYI team
- Data Guide to Decisions
- Financial Sustainability
- Cultural Well-Being
- Advisory Boards
- Collaborative Efforts
The Hoyi mission
The Hopi Opportunity Youth Initiative (HOYI) is a community wide collaboration of youth, parents, service providers, and community leaders engaged in research and development to improve the educational, career, and cultural attainment of all Hopi and Tewa youth and young adults. Our target is to connect the youth whom are not actively engaged in school or in the workforce between the ages of 14-26. The goal of the Initiative is to bring together community members and organizations to build a common understanding about the needs of our youth in order to promote positive change and explore opportunities to help strengthen support for future generations living on and off the reservation. HOYI also strives to build a safe and supportive space for youth to share their stories, their insight, and voice as we explore new pathways and expand existing programs for their success.
Sustaining the HOYI Team
HOYI has undergone much transition and development. We have a new addition to the team as Aeon Winter Albert comes to serve as our Program Associate.
Aeon is a member of the Snow clan from the village of Songoopavi. A 2014 graduate of Hopi Junior Senior High School, she continued her education at Seattle University where she graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. After graduating from SU, she went on to work as an assistant crew leader for Ancestral Lands-Hopi where she got to explore sites around Arizona and Utah. She enjoys photography, hiking with her dogs and road trips with friends. She hopes to make a positive contribution to the HOYI team by utilizing all of her previous experiences.
We are excited to welcome Aeon to the HOYI Team!
Data Guide to Decisions
Now that we have Mr. Eugene Cody on board to help shape and sharpen our data gathering efforts, we look to significant progress that will address the need and education around data. We will continue to focus on reaching out to those partners that have not come to the table. Mr. Cody will be tasked with coordinating our next data gathering where we share data collected and best practices around partnerships and data collection in the future.
Data
Hopi Higher Education
According to a recent New York Times article, Native Americans make up only 1% of students enrolled in college. Only 2 out of 10 who graduate from high school go on to college. The rate is more than 3 times higher, 6 out of 10, for non-Native high school students. And of those Native students who do go to college, less than half stay in school (0.5%) and receive degrees within 6 years.
HOYI hopes to work with our partners to explore cultural strategies to increase college retention and graduation rates. Other Native communities have found that culturally-based college exposure programs (such as Gathering of the Tribes at Riverside) significantly boost the number of students who go on to higher education. HOYI partners have begun to analyze the US Census data and other sources to better understand what the college entrance and retention patterns are for Hopi students. With this information, we hope that Hopi organizations can explore these types of strategies so our educated youth can eventually return home and serve their community while taking their place within Hopi society.
Community of Practice - Data Working Group
HOYI is aiming to nurture a reservation-wide effort of program collaboration for the purposes of improving services for Hopi youth. It has been said that HOYI is the “table and chair” and our program/organization partners are those we bring to the table to discuss issues that affect our Hopi youth. In the case of the Data Working Group, the overall goal is to create relationships and foster trust between organizations to nurture their data collection efforts for the benefit of every agency that serves Hopi youth. The creation of this “Community of Practice” is a step in establishing the collaboration efforts of the data sharing culture we are trying to instill between Hopi organizations and agencies.
Members of the Data Working Group have identified the following current goals and outcomes:
- Establishing formal collaborative agreements between partner organizations;
- Discuss various avenues of career preparation for Hopi youth in secondary education;
- Explore future workforce opportunities for Hopi graduates of post-secondary education;
- Address the issue of educational disengagement of students in all levels of education; and
- Examine all possible avenues of expanding services and facilities on the Hopi reservation.
It must be stressed that these outcomes must be framed within a data context, that is, what data and data support (e.g. technical assistance) do we need to achieve these outcomes? As we move forward, other project and initiatives may come to light.
Financial Sustainability
With all of our recent transition, HOYI continues to work hard toward a fundraising plan to sustain the work we are doing. We have currently phased out of our initial funder, The Aspen Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund, as well as Partnerships with Native Americans, however, HOYI remains hopeful and motivated to continue in grant seeking.
We participated in the annual AZ Gives Day 2018, that occurred April 3, 2018. AZ Gives Day is a state-wide online giving campaign that supports all Arizona non-profits. As a project of The Hopi Foundation, HOYI along with the other programs under The Hopi Foundation, has helped to raise a total of $11,575.35 with 62 exclusive donors. As an organization, we also won a 3rd place prize, which was an additional $1,500 for “AZ Gives Day Leader” for the rural category.
ASKWALI/KWAH-KWAY TO OUR DONORS!
Cultural Well-being
This quarter the HOYI team focused on assisting HOYI consultant, Mrs. Samantha Antone, in developing a Youth Leadership Curriculum that is similar to the Hopi Foundation’s Hopi Leadership Program Curriculum. As the planning for the Hopi Youth Leadership Curriculum is underway, the pathways of HOYI will be topics of discussion and serve as guide as we continue planning the activities within each topic area. As we’ve hosted meetings to bring in community members and youth to assist in the planning stages, the diversity of our group has helped to bridge the generation gap of communication and understanding amongst one the group.
This quarter the HOYI team focused on assisting HOYI consultant, Mrs. Samantha Antone, in developing a Youth Leadership Curriculum that is similar to the Hopi Foundation’s Hopi Leadership Program Curriculum. As the planning for the Hopi Youth Leadership Curriculum is underway, the pathways of HOYI will be topics of discussion and serve as guide as we continue planning the activities within each topic area. As we’ve hosted meetings to bring in community members and youth to assist in the planning stages, the diversity of our group has helped to bridge the generation gap of communication and understanding amongst one the group.
Advisory Boards
Community Advisory Board
HOYI would like to welcome and thank CAB members for becoming apart of the team. CAB members will be able to provide community insight and input into HOYI's projects.
Please help us in welcoming,
D. Pongyesva,
C. Dukepoo,
D. Naha,
M. Navenma,
and C. Honyouti!
If you're interested in becoming a CAB member, stop by the Hopi Foundation office to pick up an application!
Youth Advisory Board
collaborative efforts
HOYI continues to create collaborative partnership among our local programs, community and youth to bring awareness of issues that youth face. This quarter we’ve partnered with the Hopi and Tewa community Movement in their Villages Against Meth town-hall Meetings. VAM is a grassroots group that is working to bring awareness to Meth use on Hopi. Their first town-hall meeting took place on December 20, 2018 with over 100 community members in attendance. Their next meeting will be on March 4, 2019 at the Hopi Health Care Center starting at 5 pm with dinner and the action planning will begin at 5:30 pm. We hope to see great solutions come from our community members! The HOYI team will be there to help facilitate and volunteer where needed.
Another great partnership has been with Hopi Behavioral Health. We have been collaborating with this group along with other partners in planning the I'm for Life event. I'm for Life will be a youth and adult empowerment day with various workshops like fitness, social media bullying, storytelling, parenting skills, stress management and more! We hope to see you there!