Project Trust: a Report and Recommendations for Enhancing the Well-being of Native American Youth, Families and Communities

Native American youth represent the resiliency and continued survival of many nations and tribes. They symbolize the hope, dreams, and cultural continuity for future generations to come. It is with this understanding that project trust members embarked on an effort to examine those things that have influenced both positive and negative challenges to providing behavioral health care for Native American adolescents. A key concept in facilitating this examination was approaching the “experts” – our community- and asking them why they thought the aftermath of colonialism, including historical trauma and current institutional inequalities, has resulted in numerous health disparities for native American youth.