Helping Hands
Native youth project helps kids stay out of trouble

Pupils from Wingate and Tohatchi schools perform service learning projects as part of National Indian Youth Leadership Project programs during Zoo Fest at the Navajo Nation Zoo in Window Rock. [courtesy photos]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — When McClellan Hall read a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation a few weeks ago at a conference, the first thing mentioned was some modern approaches to youth development may be counterproductive.
However, Hall already knew that from years of listening to Native elders in developing a program for Native American children that keeps them away from risky behavior and teaches them leadership skills.

The program — Project Venture — that Hall has been developing for decades has been so successful in the local area that it is being replicated in 18 states and plans are in place to expand throughout the state.

Project Venture was developed by talking to the elders, Hall said.

“The elders know what they’re talking about,” he said.

“We have always spent a lot of time talking to elders to do this work and they really influenced our program,” Hall said. “Everything about how it’s been developed has been in consultation with the elders.”

What the elders told him is to concentrate on the positive and steer away from the negative, such as telling children “Don’t do that.”

Project Venture helps children stay out of trouble during the school year with outdoor adventure activities. Now that summer is here, they get to participate in even more fun activities which will also help them develop leadership skills, including leadership camp in July and adventure trips. The leadership camp is now in its 26th year. This year the focus will be on local pupils — taking them to the largest outdoor ropes course in the state at the Project Venture camp on Mount Taylor.

Project Venture in McKinley County is run by the National Indian Youth Leadership Project, which was founded by Hall and is based in Gallup.

The National Indian Youth Leadership Project recently announced two major grants that will help it with its goal to expand Project Venture throughout the entire state of New Mexico.

The Atlantic Philanthropies granted the NIYLP $1.5 million over two years to help implement the 10-year business plan that was completed in January.

The second grant comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which will provide a two-year grant of $250,000 to support national promotion of the award-winning Project Venture.
Hall said that getting the two prestigious grants is validation for the program.

Both grants will help to support Project Venture. Part of the business plan, which was developed with the Bridgespan Group consulting firm, is to expand the project into schools across the state with significant Native American middle school populations. The grant will provide for the infrastructure necessary for the expansion.

Right now, more than 350 children participate in Project Venture through in-school, after-school, weekend and summer activities, according to the NIYLP. The project is currently available at elementary and middle schools in Tohatchi and Wingate and at Laguna Middle School.

“It’s really about helping kids develop their own self confidence and skill levels, developing a real positive perception of themselves,” Hall said.

Neal Ferris said there are four essential elements to Project Venture, including the positive approach, experiential learning through outdoor adventures, service learning and Native culture-based leadership.

Ferris, originally from Wyoming , said that the program allows for him to work with kids on activities he did as a child with his uncles. It also allows for children to experience activities such as rock climbing and skiing that are usually done by people with the money to do them.

For Ferris, he said that “the magic happens when you’re out in the field with the kids.”

He added, “When you can connect them back to nature and to be that positive role model and allow them to be positive role models, a lot of things just fall into place and the magic sparkles in their eyes.”

Ferris also said that he sees a big change in the kids who go though the program.

Matt Baker is an experiential coordinator for NIYLP. He said that the Project Venture program benefits almost all the children who are a part of it.

“Actually accomplishing a backpacking trip or a rafting trip or a fire making activity, it brings confidence to them,” Baker said. “It encourages them to see what else we can do for them, other places they can explore.”

For Baker himself, NIYLP is an opportunity to contribute to the middle school children, especially because such program were not available for him when he was young.
“It’s something I want to give back to them because I never got to experience outdoor adventures,” he said.

The NIYLP is also involved in several other youth development programs such as the Walk In Beauty program for young girls at Wingate. The project recently received funds from Value Option to make a similar program for boys at the school.

Information: www.niylp.org