Ain Dah Yung Center: Where American Indian Youth and Families Go to Thrive in Safety and Wholeness

Ain Dah Yung Center:

Where American Indian Youth and Families Go to Thrive in Safety and Wholeness

For more than 38 years, Ain Dah Yung Center has provided a healing place within the community for American Indian youth and families to thrive in safety and wholeness. The goal of our work is to move families, children, and young adults beyond crisis-oriented services through culturally-specific programs and interventions. We provide culturally-responsive services to help Indigenous youth in the Twin Cities imagine a hopeful, safe, and independent future. Our staff speak the languages, sing the songs, practice the traditions, and combine this knowledge with case management expertise to create holistic solutions-based approaches that address the whole person, family, and community. ADYC’s services include: • Emergency Shelter–The only Indigenous-centered youth emergency shelter in the Twin Cities, and the only

East Metro shelter open 24/7/365.

Services include emergency and shortterm shelter, crisis intervention, advocacy, referrals, health care, counseling, and case management. • Beverley A. Benjamin Youth

Lodge–A transitional living program for youth ages 16-21 for up to 18 months, emphasizing training, education, and employment goals while creating community and cultural connections. • Mino Oski Ain Dah Yung (“Good

New Home” in Ojibwe) – Permanent Supportive Housing program for youth ages 18-24, providing culturally-responsive housing, case management, education, and workforce supports to at least 42 American

Indian youth. • Zhawenimaa Safe Harbor–Meaning

“They Are Loved Unconditionally” in

Ojibwe, Zhawenimaa provides culturally specific, trauma informed care for Indigenous youth before, during, and after periods of sexual abuse and exploitation. • Ninijanisag (“Our Children” in Ojibwe)–Youth learn leadership, healthy living skills, and Native traditions such as drumming, singing, and cultural teachings. • Street Outreach Program – Case workers meet homeless and runaway youth where they are, providing food, transportation, and referrals. Annually, this program typically reaches 2,500-3,000 youth. • Oyate Nawajin (“Stand with the People” in Lakota)– Supports families through group learning, increasing positive social networks, connection to cultural teachings, case management, referrals, resource acquisition, and general support. • Suicide prevention program–Native youth learn healthy habits, leadership skills, and Native traditions and teachings — all of which provide youth with a solid cultural foundation and a community of support comprised of their peers and ADYC staff.

Impact of Historical Trauma on Homelessness

Homelessness disproportionately affects Indigenous people in Minnesota and the Twin Cities. The most recent Wilder Research Minnesota Homeless Survey (2020) found that 12% of homeless adults and a staggering 22% of homeless youth identify as Indigenous, while the entire population of Indigenous people in Minnesota is only 1.5%. In a 2017 study, 44% of homeless Indigenous adults reported experiencing homelessness as a child, compared to 25% of other homeless adults. Ain Dah Yung Center’s overall approach is informed by an understanding of the historical trauma inflicted on American Indians for generations as the result of forced assimilation, recurring attempts to eradicate tribal culture, and ongoing threats to sovereignty and self-determination. Historical trauma is most easily described as “multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural group”—it is cumulative and collective. In an article entitled “Trauma May Be Woven into DNA of Native Americans” from Indian Country Today, Michelle Sotero offers a threefold definition: “In the initial phase, the dominant culture perpetuates mass trauma on a population in the form of colonialism, slavery, war, or genocide. In the second phase, the affected population shows physical and psychological symptoms in response to the trauma. In the final phase, the initial population passes these responses to trauma to subsequent

Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) Center provides a healing place within the community for American Indian youth and families to thrive in safety and wholeness.

generations, who in turn display similar symptoms.” ADYC recognizes that the only effective way to address these traumas and disparities is to walk alongside youth to create a foundation for reestablishing positive cultural identity, self-esteem, and healing. ADYC achieves this through our holistic, culturally-responsive model. While several agencies serving homeless young people are available in the Twin Cities, agencies incorporating Indigenous cultural practices are absent. ADYC’s culturally-responsive continuum of housing programming and support services therefore stands apart and has proven uniquely successful, helping unsheltered Indigenous youth achieve housing safety, stability, wholeness, and self-sufficiency.

Youth Suicide

The suicide rate among American Indian/ Alaska Natives (AI/AN) has been increasing since 2003, and in 2015, AI/AN suicide rates were more than 3.5 times higher than those among racial/ethnic groups with the lowest rates. Among American Indians, youth are particularly vulnerable to suicidal ideation, precursor/preparatory acts, and suicide attempts; in fact, 36% of AI/AN suicides, from 2003-2014, occurred among youths aged 10-24 years, in contrast to 11% of suicides among whites in the same age group. As noted earlier, the problem in the Twin Cities is exacerbated by the disproportionate levels of homelessness experienced by American Indians. Of this same population, 60% of youth aged 24 and younger were suffering from a serious mental illness and further 16% had a substance use disorder. According to researchers, high rates of suicide, as well as addiction, mental illness, sexual violence, and other issues among Native peoples may be influenced by historical trauma. Because of internalized oppression as the result of historical trauma, traumatized people may begin to internalize the views of the oppressor and perpetuate a cycle of self-hatred that manifests itself in negative behaviors. Emotions such as anger, hatred, and aggression are self-inflicted, as well as inflicted on members of one’s own group. Our elders, teachers, and parents have suffered decades of historical trauma, leading to a generation of youth who have not been taught the beauty of their cultural traditions, losing their positive self-identity. In addition, youth are witnessing and facing the symptoms of this historical trauma and accepting that this must be their future. Ninijanisag challenges these assumptions. Ain Dah Yung Center is fortunate to receive funding from the Minnesota Department of Health’s Suicide Prevention Grant program and SAMSHA to increase training, knowledge, and response to suicide for members of our organization, program participants, and the greater community on suicide prevention and postvention services. Because of the high level of knowledge and expertise of ADYC’s staff, the culturally-specific orientation of our services and our ability to serve families holistically, the Ain Dah Yung Center has maintained a trusted reputation within the community. We understand how to help our youth and families understand the impacts of historical trauma and help them develop healthier ways to respond to stress, and most importantly—heal.

Sheri Riemers (Nindaanisequay), White Earth Nation of Ojibwe, Interim Executive Director, email: sheri.riemers@adycenter.org.

Angela Gauthier, MA, LMFT, Associate Director, ADYC, email: angela.gauthier@ adycenter.org.

Main office: Ain Dah Yung Center, 1089 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104.

References • Leavitt, R. A., Ertl, A., Sheats, K., Petrosky, E.,

Ivey-Stephenson, A., & Fowler, K. A. (2018).

Suicides Among American Indian/Alaska

Natives—National Violent Death Reporting

System, 18 States, 2003–2014. Morbidity and

Mortality Weekly Report, 67(8), 237. • Nelson-Dusek, S., B. Pittman. Et. Al. “Characteristics and Trends among Minnesota’s Homeless

Population.” (May 2019). Wilder Research. • Evans-Campbell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in

American Indian/Native Alaska communities: A multilevel framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Journal of interpersonal violence, 23(3), 316-338. • Pember, M.A. (2016). Intergenerational trauma: Understanding Natives’ inherited pain.

Indian Country Today Media Network. • Brave Heart, M. Y. H., Chase, J., Elkins, J., &

Altschul, D. B. (2011). Historical trauma among indigenous peoples of the Americas: Concepts, research, and clinical considerations. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 43(4), 282-290.