Center for
Native Child
and Family Resilience
Prevention. Intervention. Respect.
Tipis in a field

Family Wellness Warriors

Summary

The Family Wellness Warriors is a prevention program for addressing issues around domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child abuse/neglect in the Alaska Native community. The model uses a peer leadership-based process of training programs, learning circles, and therapeutic communities.

The program is operated by Southcentral Foundation (SCF), an Alaska Native 501(c) (3) non-profit healthcare organization established to improve the health and social conditions of Alaska Native people and build a customer-responsive, -owned, and -driven healthcare system. Emphasizing resilience and the strengths of Alaska Native culture and spirituality, Family Wellness Warriors (FWW) provides a number of training programs designed to heal trauma and support those impacted by violence by helping participants understand their story, the root causes of abuse, and how to stop the cycle. The program uses a formal multi-year implementation framework, involving steps of evidence-based community engagement, relationship building, and the extension of an invitation for FWW to come to the community.
Contact

Family Wellness Warriors 4085 Tudor Centre Drive Anchorage, AK 99508 (907) 729-5440 https://www.southcentralfoundation.com/family-wellness-warriors-nuiju/
Details

The program has been implemented in many communities across Alaska and demonstrated positive outcomes for participants in health care utilization and health outcomes, specifically evidenced by reductions in emergency department visits, substance use visits, unhealthy substance use, trauma symptomology, depression, and anxiety.
Tribally created
  • Child
  • Family
  • Exposure to conflict or violence (family or otherwise)
  • Exposure to stress
  • History of child abuse and neglect/Use of corporal punishment
  • Justice system involvement
  • Lack of access to prenatal support/Lack of social or parental pregnancy support
  • Low self esteem
  • Parent and/or child substance abuse
  • Parent/caregiver mental health concerns
  • Parental temperament
  • Social isolation
  • Suicidal ideation – both parent/caregiver and/or child
  • Access to health and social services
  • Build trust and confidence in community
  • Community support when faced with challenges
  • Family functioning
  • Knowledge of parenting and child development
  • Parental resilience
  • Parental self-esteem
  • Positive social connection and support
  • Safe community focus
  • Self-efficacy
  • Social and emotional competence
  • Access to services
  • Balance
  • Community involvement/participation/contribution
  • Connecting with cultural resources
  • Cultural identity/sense of belonging to cultural group
  • Cultural teachings
  • Ethnic pride/self-esteem
  • Family commitment, safe and healthy relationships
  • Historical trauma resilience
  • Hope/looking forward/optimism
  • Increasing coping skills
  • Kinship/elders/community connection/ties
  • Life cycle events/traditional activities/practices
  • Personal capacities
  • Spiritual practice/knowledge/ceremony
  • Spiritual values/well-being
  • Support (family, friends, community)/interdependence
  • Agent
  • Resource

Family Wellness Warriors Initiative on Rural Health Information Hub: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/project-examples/1035

Lily, R., Outten, B., Andrews, P., & Gottlieb, K. (2018). Disrupting the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Alaska Native people: A conceptual model for the Family Wellness Warriors Initiative. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 12(2). https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol12/iss2/3/

Southcentral Foundation, Trauma-Informed Care: https://scfnuka.com/consulting/trauma-informed-care/