Navajo Peacemaking
About the Project
Navajo Peacemaking
Our grant is designed to reduce violence and truancy in the schools (STAR School, Shonto Prep High School, Chilchinbito Community School, Little Singer Community School and Borrego Pass Community School) through Navajo Peacemaking, a character building reading program and healthy activities that build character relationships among our students.
The overall goal of the Navajo Peacemaking and Safe Schools Project is to establish a consortium of school communities which will develop and implement practices that provide safe, supportive, respectful, and drug free educational and social environments for all students and families through place-based and culturally appropriate programs and services. To achieve this overarching goal, we have identified a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive continuum of services and programs to enhance our student’s prevention and peacemaking skills through traditional Navajo programs and research-based best practices and curricula informed by current research in the fields of social and emotional learning and risk prevention.
Navajo Peacemaking, a traditional conflict resolution program that has grown from K’e. K’e which involves deeply-held family and community bonds. Peacemaking is being implemented in a school setting broadly for the first time as a way of bringing an effective, culturally competent peacemaking to Navajo schools. By more closely connecting Peacemaking to the schools, we can insure a deepening involvement of families and the community.
We are implementing a research-based social and emotional learning program, Voices, that develops students’ social skills and literacy skills through reading and discussing high quality multicultural literature. Our family and community outreach component is centered on the reading and discussing of Navajo literature at home and development of community events highlighting the six central themes of our social and emotional learning curriculum .
We are also implementing the “40 Developmental Assets,” “4-Rs” and intensifying our “Peer Leadership” programs. Our tribal Law enforcement, juvenile justice, and mental health community partners provide additional student counseling/mental health services and relationships in our schools.
In closing, our Navajo Peacemaking/Safe Schools Project is made possible by a grant through the Federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, a unique funding collaboration of the U.S. Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice.
The Federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative has funded more than 365 urban, suburban, rural, and tribal areas nationwide since 1999. This grant is the result of a unique collaboration among the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice and was created in response to rising concerns about youth violence, substance abuse, and school safety. Each grant site determines how funds can best be used within the community to link new and existing services. Partnership between schools and communities creates a coordinated, cooperative effort that recognizes the complexity of these issues and their root causes. Using programs and services that have a proven track record of success, as well as strategies for both prevention and intervention, the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative helps reduce the risk factors that come between children of all ages and their ability to learn—and to stay safe and healthy.
