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Nation Building for Native Youth (NBNY) is a life-changing empowerment program for Native youth grades 10 - 12 and their adult advisors. NBNY programs represent 25 tribes from Northern Plains, Great Lakes, Southeast, Southern Plains, New Mexico and Arizona.

NBNY is the foremost program of The Nick Lowery Youth Foundation (NLYF), a 501 (c)(3) Arizona nonprofit organization. Since 2003, 150 Native Youth and 37 adult advisors have participated in NBNY Summer Institutes. An additional 1,000 youth have been reached through the materials, workshops and the work of the adult advisors in their home communities. With a grant from the UPS Foundation, NBNY is expanding its reach and strategies in 2009.

NBNY Consists Of:

Leadership Institutes (two to three 3-5 day programs annually)
Advisor training and materials
On-going mentoring and technical assistance
Workshops & presentations with organizations, businesses and tribes.

NBNY Goals & Outcomes

The long-term goals of the program are to enable Native youth to lead positive, successful lives and ultimately serve and lead their communities into a new era of not only sovereignty, but also robust economic, social and political health. Youth learn about:

How their personality and style can be most effective within the group
How this self knowledge leads to confidence and better leadership through public speaking skills
Effective ways to operate in the greater society while remaining true to their culture
Ways to mobilize community resources to make a difference.
The inner workings of tribal governments

As a result of this program, Native youth return home emboldened to solve critical community problems and needs. They are able to put important new skills to work to change their own lives while improving the lives of others. What is more, Native communities gain services from the youth and their advisors. The adult advisors receive training and materials that help them in their future work in their community, and the community gains an opportunity to view youth in new ways as partners they can trust and respect.

NBNY Institutes Create A Virtual Community. . .

Both youth who are "natural" leaders and those with "potential" work in teams or clans. The focus is on increasing self-awareness and working more effectively in groups. No two members of one tribe are in the same clan.

NBNY Interweaves. . .

Subject matter content dealing with tribal government and leadership development with. . . - Harvard Model + Youth for Tribal Government curricula - Carefully crafted leadership messages and skills practice (individual, group, community) - The Search Institutes 40 Developmental Assets™ and the DiSC™ Behavioral Styles Inventory

NBNY Achieves Results Through. . .

Hands-on team building and problem-solving
Adult and peer mentoring
Inspirational speakers (tribal elected leaders and staff, athletes)
Service learning projects
Group projects and presentations dealing with current-day tribal issues
Continual reflection, feedback and affirmation
Daily reflection activities
Awards & celebration

NBNY Develops. . .

Self-awareness & personal empowerment
Understanding of others (team empowerment)
Coping skills
Dealing with feeling "SHY" "UNCOMFORTABLE" "DIFFERENT" or "SEPARATE"
Communication skills
Future goals, including education & vocational
Future tribal/community leaders

Through a best-practices framework that is spiritually and culturally relevant, NBNY participants are given permission to step into a new place and realize that they are the future of Indian Country! A remarkable amount of NBNY graduates discover a profound confidence and self assurance to step into pro active roles of real impact and influence.

How NBNY Stands Out

NBNY regularly receives a high 9.5+ out of ten from adult advisors and youth. It distinguishes itself from other Native youth programs as follows:

Statistically significant positive change on the Search Institute′s Developmental Assets Profile™
Small size, high ratio of mentors to students
High quality resource materials that can be used in the community
Focus on leadership for nation building and community development
High quality, carefully blended, multi-faceted curriculum designed and presented by professionals who are leaders in their fields PLUS participants receive continual feedback and can sense their progress and growth throughout the Institute!
NBNY institutes are the only program that provide training for adult advisors along side the youth.

In an open-ended question about personal goals, 70% of NBNY youth comment that they now understand the importance of education. 67% say they are committed to pursuing higher education.