Tlingit and Haida Native Women’s Counseling and Treatment Initiative

Background

The Tlingit and Haida Tribal Family and Youth Services Department (TFYS), working collaboratively with the AWARE program of Juneau, Alaska, and other local/regional partners, is developing a 3-year Native Women’s Counseling and Treatment Initiative to formalize, pilot, evaluate, refine, and export an existing family-focused, culturally based counseling/treatment model for addressing the complex issues of domestic violence, abuse, unresolved grief, historical, and intergenerational and related traumas impacting Native women within Southeast Alaska. The project model has been developed over the past 10 years by the TFYS Counseling program and features three phases: Phase I addresses anger, stress, and communication; Phase II focuses on family of origin issues and past/present relationships; and Phase III provides participants with a talking circle format that focuses on education and support to women around issues involving, but not limited to, surviving childhood sexual abuse, revictimization, and sexual assault.

Goals and Outcomes

1. Develop the model and curricula for the initiative.
2. Pilot test and evaluate the improved model and curricula, focusing on Native women in the Juneau area.
3. Refine the model and curricula based on the results of the pilot testing phase.
4. Make available the completed model and curricula to other Tribes and organizations interested in improving their Child and Family Services programs.

Products

• Yéil Koowú Shaawát Implementation Guide
• Yéil Koowú Shaawát Facilitator's Guide
  • Introduction
  • Phase I: Anger, Stress, and Communication
  • Phase II: Personal and Family Development
  • Phase III: Sexual Abuse Talking Circle
• Yéil Koowú Shaawát Evaluation Report
• Yéil Koowú Shaawát Evaluation Brief