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The Pine Ridge Reservation covers a vast area of South Dakota with limited cellphone and internet service, making it challenging for organizations that support families affected by opioid use to share expertise and resources. A grant from FORE enabled 16 organizations across the reservation to come together and share the innovative methods they are developing to promote resilience and prevent substance use disorder and overdose in youth.

The multi-sector coalition includes organizations that specialize in substance use prevention and treatment, healthcare, education, housing, and public safety. Each has a unique vantage point and means to engage Indigenous youth, who experience significantly higher rates of adverse childhood experiences that put them at heightened risk of suicide, depression, and substance use.

In a new video released in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, two organizations that are part of the coalition — Project Venture and the Oglala Lakota Children’s Justice Center — describe how coalition members are working to reduce the risk of suicide and substance use by creating opportunities for young people and their families to engage in Lakota ceremony and culture.

“The families who come to us are hurting. We help them to let that emotion out by taking those who want to through ceremony that soothes the spirit,” says Arlana Bettelyoun, Executive Director of the Oglala Lakota Children’s Justice Center, a child advocacy organization. “It is profound to see how they work through things and develop an appreciation for who they are,” she says.

A second video, released in August, showcases how Project Venture engages youth in outdoor adventures, service activities, and leadership training over the course of the school year.

The coalition enabled these and other organizations on the reservation to begin referring young people and families who need additional supports to one another.

“The FORE opportunity has been magical,” says Mac Hall, Project Venture’s founder. “It’s opened a lot of doors and strengthened ties between organizations and people who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to work together,” he says.

Since 2022, 18 organizations have been awarded funding through FORE’s Family- and Community-Based Prevention Program. Many grantees are addressing the upstream determinants of substance use disorder by developing multigenerational, whole-family approaches to prevention and supporting youth and adolescents who are risk of experiencing an opioid use disorder or overdose.