Fetal Alcohol Disorder Native Parenting Curriculum Available

Native News Network Staff in Native Health. Discussion »

MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center announces the release of a new, strength-based parenting curriculum focused on supporting American Indian families where fetal alcohol spectrum disorders is suspected.

>Gifts from the Sacred Circle: A Native Traditional Parenting Curriculum for Families Affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

"Gifts from the Sacred Circle: A Native Traditional Parenting Curriculum for Families Affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder" is now available through Hazelden Publishing.

Authored by Rosemary White Shield PhD, Anishinabe/Choctaw, "Gifts from the Sacred Circle" is the result of seven years of collaborative work with tribes, elders, researchers, and organizations dedicated to addressing the role of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in Native communities. The goals of the curriculum are:

To promote cultural health for families and children affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorders,
To develop individual and family success,
To transmit knowledge and skills to participants that increase successful parenting, nurture children's development, prevent future fetal alcohol spectrum disorders births, and build wellbeing for Native people.

The curriculum design is research based, and built upon the Medicine Wheel Tribe Specific Education Model with input from Native families, Elders, caregivers, spiritual leaders, service providers and others. Field tests were conducted on three Reservations and two urban Indian locations, with highly positive outcomes including 100 percent participant sobriety at three of the field test sites.

Culturally based thematic curriculum areas include: Compassion, Support, Boundaries and Expectations, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, and Positive Identity.

The curriculum is designed to be taught in weekly 2 ½ hour sessions for 12 weeks. It can be used in any setting - parenting groups, substance abuse or mental health programs, supportive housing, childcare programs, community educational settings - and can be adapted to tribal specific teachings.

One facilitator who participated in the field tests had this to say about Gifts from the Sacred Circle:

"In Native culture the child was seen as the future and extension of one self; all family members and extended family members placed high value on the child, each member being responsible for molding and shaping the child's life. In modern times this role has changed to a non-native way of thinking where the child is last and adults are at the fore front the most important. Native teachings tell us to always place our children first above all else, treasure them as gifts from the Creator."

This project was made possible by the support of Cummins Power Generation and the Cummins Foundation.

To order a copy, call Hazelden Publishing at 1.800.328.9000.

posted May 30, 2012 7:00 am edt