From Legacy to Choice—
Colville Confederated Tribes

Project Results

The From Legacy to Choice workshops are an exceptional promising practice for other Tribes to consider for their people. Moving through the issues of historical trauma, and grief improved communications between community members; increased understanding of community trauma; increased support systems; and empowered the community members to work together to deal with problems in order to prevent continued community trauma passing from generation to generation.

Evaluation of the program was conducted through pre- and post-surveys as well as interviews. Significant outcomes included:

• The top two reasons participants attended the workshop were to increase personal knowledge about the historical trauma and to become a better helper with youth, family, and the community.
• In addition to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, dropping out of school, and violence, 10% of participants voiced these additional problems in the community: hopelessness; and miscommunication or lack of communication.
• When asked, “What would help you continue to heal?” a majority of participants requested additional information about the community trauma, access to support groups, opportunities to release and express emotions, a place to practice and gain confidence with coping skills, working on this with friends and family, and allowing for more time.
• In addition to feelings of fear and shame around historical trauma, participants added a lack of trust as a reason this topic could not be discussed.

Through the program evaluation, participants also conveyed a process in which they engage in self-help, through developing personal coping mechanisms to deal with feeling of fear, shame, and/or guilt, in order to help others (family, friends, community) and through helping others, find affirmation and accept that they themselves can reach out and accept help from others.

Successes

Although there were no dedicated staff assigned to this project, the ability of various community members/leaders to come together and make the project a reality was remarkable. Various members of the suicide Core Team provided staff, financing, and equipment to make this project a success.

Another important success was the positive feedback we received from the people who attended the workshops. Many attendees learned valuable skills to help them cope with the negative impacts of historical trauma.

The community feedback we received will guide future suicide prevention activities. For instance, members of the suicide core team are actively involved in starting natural healing systems within each of the communities. These natural healers are meant to address issues surrounding loss and historical trauma and how they relate to suicide. This approach will involve youth, young adults, and elders working collaboratively to address the complex challenges surrounding suicide prevention.

Obstacles

One primary obstacle to this project was the scarcity of resources (staff, financial and time). There were no assigned staff to oversee this project; therefore, members of the suicide core team dedicated themselves to the project's completion. This presented a serious challenge given that the team members were employed full time, but the project became a reality due to the commitment of key stakeholders.

Another obstacle encountered early in the project was that some members of the community did not understand the relevance and importance of historical trauma. As a result, there was some initial hesitation to proceed with some of these community workshops. In light of these obstacles, it is important for other communities to consider assigning staff to oversee the project.

Another consideration is the importance of providing background information to the community and key stakeholders before the project begins, especially highlighting the relevance of historical trauma to the needs of the local community.