Empowering Youth through the Ways of Our Ancestors (EYWOA)

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT) is a federally recognized Tribe in Clallam County, Washington. LEKT will implement CTAS Purpose Area 9 Category 2 funds to address the ongoing epidemic of drug and alcohol use within the community by employing prevention education for the Tribal youth through the Empowering Youth through the Ways of Our Ancestors (EYWOA) program. The program is based on evidence- and community-based participatory research that was conducted and implemented in partnership with the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, the Suquamish, and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribes. The EYWOA program will implement prevention, coping, and healing skills through education of the Lower Elwha culture to the youth of the Tribe. The participants' mental, physical, and emotional health will be improved through learning the culture and traditions of the Klallam people and understanding the impacts of historical trauma and cultural disconnect. The program will (1) reduce youth delinquency and truancy through evidence-based cultural preventative programming and (2) strengthen the juvenile justice system through leadership education and community engagement by creating spiritually and mentally resilient youth. This program will develop the Tribal youth and prepare them to face the risk factors that many Native children fall victim to, and increase the longevity of the Klallam culture and community.