Can a 90-minute program once a week and some tutoring sessions make a big difference in the success of early-adolescent reservation kids? A pilot program on the Menominee tribe’s reservation say the answer is yes.
The program called the Menominee Youth Empowerment Program (MYEP) was based in 2012 at the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) in Keshena, Wisconsin. CMN is an accredited tribal college located in an economically depressed rural area just west of Green Bay. It enrolls a few hundred students in academic degree and technical programs.
Between 2012 and 2016, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant helped increase the campus population by several dozen boys and girls from the Menominee Indian School District and Menominee Tribal School in a project called the Menominee Youth Empowerment Program – MYEP for short.
Our goal with the project was to create a cohort of at-risk Indian youth who would stay in school and avoid the kind of risky behavior that leads to low achievement and dropping out.While the project has ended, we are still tracking the cohort.
The program started with 62 children aged 11 to 14. In 2016 when the project ended, 53 of them were still active in MYEP and doing well in school. We were happy to see an 85% success rate. A year later, we’re still feeling happy, as well as hopeful. As fall semester 2017 ended, 23 of the MYEP participants had graduated from high school. Thirteen of the graduates are now attending college, two have joined the military, and four are employed. Of the 20 who are now juniors or seniors in high school, all are academically on track to graduate.
Our program’s objectives took on the challenges faced by many adolescents and teens, and by almost all American Indian youth: Academic achievement, cultural identity, life skills, career and personal development, unintentional injury, diabetes, substance abuse, and teen dating and violence.
We tried to make every cohort meeting fun as well as purposeful. Some involved community service or learning a skill; all stressed the value of teamwork. Incentives for participation were tied to the kind of behavior that’s needed for success in school and at work. Those who showed up, came prepared and participated, earned a small monthly stipend. Earning stipends gave first-hand experience with the work-reward system and personal meaning to sessions on money management.
We did weekly planned programs on campus. Frequent field trips broaden horizons. Adult presenters demonstrated the skills of professionalism, such as making presentations and putting together a resume. Menominee language classes and tribal events built pride in cultural identity. In addition, focused tutoring by Native College students helped improve academic skills but also gave the MYEP students high-achieving role models who came from where they live.
Our MYEP cohort gained its own proverbial village. Now they are the role models for classmates and younger family members, spreading the benefits of what they experienced further. If you’re looking for a change agent, the youth empowerment village is worth replicating.
Brandon Frechette, Coordinator Menominee Youth Empowerment Program, an HHS OMH Youth Empowerment Program Grantee