As a community, we share our strengths and experiences about how to uplift and support Native youth.
The Healthy Native Youth website contains health promotion curricula and resources for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. The curricula housed on the site promote positive youth development, embrace cultural teachings, and demonstrate evidence of effectiveness.
The Healthy Native Youth project was born in 2016, in collaboration with a collective of AI/AN partners to support Tribes and tribal health advocates as they select and deliver effective, AI/AN adolescent health curricula – covering a wide range of age-groups and health topics – for Native youth, parents, and tribal communities. Healthy Native Youth is a project of the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) housed in the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (NW-TEC).
The website contains 18 curricula, an implementation toolbox with ready-to-use templates, a community of practice for tribal educators, and resources for caring adults.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Healthy Native Youth is supported in part with funds from the Indian Health Service and the Minority AIDS Initiative Fund.
Our Story
In keeping with the mission of the NPAIHB, the Adolescent Health Tribal Action Plan was first designed in 2014 to guide the development of programs and services to improve adolescent health within the 43 Federally recognized Tribes in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The Action Plan can be used by key tribal stakeholders, including tribal leaders, policymakers, program managers, and public health professionals, as they set the agenda for improving their community’s health.
To request a copy, contact us at native@npaihb.org
In 2016, the NPAIHB formed a strategic adolescent health initiative – HNY Collective (see on the left) – that brought together experts in public health, education, research, and the AI/AN communities.
Working together, the partners designed an online portal – Healthy Native Youth – that could hold curricula, lesson plans, delivery tools, and resources for educators to deliver effective, age-appropriate AI/AN adolescent health programs.
The resources include touch points for health advocates, educators, parents, relatives, and other caring adults who are involved in raising Healthy Native Youth.
The Healthy Native Youth team designs and disseminates adolescent health resources for Northwest member Tribes in collaboration with:
- American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) teens and young adults.
- The community partners and caring adults who support them.
- Stakeholders from the AI/AN, public health, education and research communities.
The Project aims are:
- To improve the organizational capacity of Northwest member Tribes and AI/AN communities to design and disseminate well-rounded health resources in their local communities.
- To mobilize and engage AI/AN teens and young adults in the design and dissemination of youth-friendly health resources in coordination with We R Native and HNY collective.
- To mobilize and engage community partners in their use of adolescent health resources.
- Our work is guided by the Socio-ecologic Model’s multi-level “circle of support’ – knowing it is necessary to holistically support knowledge, skill, and behavior change for AI/AN youth, families, and communities.
- While Native youth are central to the effort, building protective factors at every level (including parents and caring adults, safe schools, community involvement & support) is essential to positive youth development.
- Educational efforts at home and at school must include a well-rounded, locally-tailored community of support.
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From 2023 through 2025, the HNY website reached 34,340 unique users across all 50 States, with a total of 170,592 pageviews.
We measure the reach and impact of a broad range of HNY activities, including training and TA, material dissemination and outreach, the reach of our social media channels, and the download and use of HNY Curricula and tools by Tribes and community partners.
Healthy Native Youth: Improving Access to Effective, Culturally-Relevant Sexual Health Curricula [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00225/full]
Designing the Healthy Native Youth Implementation Toolbox [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.889924/full]
Using the Healthy Native Youth Implementation Toolbox to Provide Web-Based Adolescent Health Promotion Support to American Indian and Alaska Native Communities [https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e67885]
Contact Us
Hearing and sharing stories from Tribal health educators who have accessed and used Healthy Native Youth (HNY) resources helps support and encourage others to give it a try.
We actively collect feedback from those who attend our trainings and workshops, to make ongoing improvements to the HNY website, focusing on topics and tools requested by the NW Tribes.
Contact us at native@npaihb.org to request training or technical assistance.
