FY23 CNO Project Yakni Atoksvli: Groundwork

Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) has prioritized poverty, crime, education, and mental health as the focus of the planning project’s data collection and analysis. To assess how these intertwined and connected factors impact Tribal youth, CNO proposes Project Yakni Atoksvli: Groundwork. The project will explore the patterns and correlations between poverty, education, mental health, and crime to better understand the successes and barriers facing Tribal youth. This will be accomplished through a 24-month planning project that is focused on creating open lines of communication with parents, youth, and caregivers to gather data that inform how youth programming will take shape in the coming years. Surveys, tailored focus groups, and interviews will be conducted with Tribal youth throughout the CNO Reservation. Data will be collected and analyzed by Yakni Atoksvli’ s project director. She will be assisted in her analysis by the CNO Tribal research team. The data will be critical in designing youth programming for the future. Gathering data from Tribal members ages 12–18 and their caretakers will be the foundation for the project. Goals for Project Yakni Atoksvli include collecting data from children and parents within the reservation to develop a comprehensive plan for future youth programming within the Choctaw Nation and begin planning initiatives for future pilot programs and youth-centered activities.