Prevention Resource Basket

These resources can help improve the conditions that cause people to feel unsafe at home, another potential source of missing person cases. Communities can use these violence prevention resources to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors in order to prevent many forms of violence – including missing and murdered indigenous people.

For Families & Individuals

General Resources

• The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention page serves as a hub for violence prevention resources.
• The CDC Star Collection is a series of books for young American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) readers that features and celebrates feeling connected to culture and community and having positive relationships with others that are safe, stable and nurturing.

Child Abduction

• The Abduction Prevention Resources for Parents from the National Criminal Justice Training Center includes tipsheets on protecting Tribal youth from going missing or being abducted and tipsheets on internet safety.
• KidSmartz is a child safety program from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that educates families about preventing abduction and empowers kids in grades K-5 to practice safe behaviors. This program offers resources to help parents, caregivers and teachers protect kids by teaching and practicing skills via classroom lessons, at-home lessons, parent tips and printable activities.

Runaway Prevention 

• The National Runaway Safeline is an organization, website and hotline that provides 24-hour services, expertise in all youth-related issues and an information clearinghouse of youth services, funded through the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Human Trafficking

• Combatting Trafficking: Native Youth Toolkit on Human Trafficking is a toolkit from HHS, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Native Americans that contains information about human trafficking, tips on protecting yourself and ways you can fight trafficking in your community. 
• The National Human Trafficking Hotline serves victims and survivors of human trafficking and the anti-trafficking community in the U.S. The toll-free hotline, funded by ACF, is available 24/7, nationwide, in more than 200 languages. Call 888-373-7888, contact by TTY at 711, or text 233733.

Community & Service Provider Resources

General Resources

• The Violence Reduction Response Center (VRRC) resource from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance provides free, direct access to expert staff who can connect users to relevant violent crime reduction training and technical assistance. Violence reduction professionals, law enforcement agencies, victims’ groups and other practitioners in the field can use the VRRC as a one-stop shop to connect to resources that fit their unique needs.
• Veto Violence is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project that provides tools, trainings and resources on violence prevention meant to empower individuals to improve community safety.
  • Violence Prevention Fundamentals outlines the Public Health Approach, Social-Ecological Model and Timing of Prevention Efforts.
• CDC Violence Prevention Technical Packages contain strategies, approaches and evidence that can be used to prevent violence in communities, including child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, youth violence and adverse childhood experiences.
• The National Indian Country Clearinghouse on Sexual Assault strives to provide a one-stop, comprehensive source for information on sexual violence in Indian Country. Visit the site to find important federal legislation, tribal codes, articles by Indian Country experts, monthly practice tips and funding opportunities. 
• Changing Directions: Protecting Communities and Preventing Violence is a CDC-hosted panel discussion featuring government and community leaders, scientists and service provider speaking to the historical and contemporary factors that increase the risk of violence against AI/AN peoples and current challenges in data collection and analysis related to missing and murdered indigenous persons. (Nov. 13, 2020)
• CDC TRAIN: Working with Tribal Nations is an online training course from the CDC that educates state and federal government officials on effective engagement with AI/AN Tribes.

Runaway Prevention

• The Runaway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Violence Toolkit, funded by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), provides guidance for practitioners, including information, resources, tips and tools drawn from the lessons learned from collaborative projects with domestic violence programs and runaway and homeless youth agencies.
• The Runaway and Homeless Youth Training & Technical Assistance Center, funded by ACF, provides technical assistance for all federally funded runaway and homeless youth grantees.

Human Trafficking

• This list of U.S. government agencies and offices details the organizations that work on human trafficking issues in AI/AN communities and their priority areas. The list includes offices in the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice and Labor.
• The Runaway and Homeless Youth Training & Technical Assistance Center, funded by ACF, has specific resources and trainings to help prevent and address human trafficking.
• The Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime offers training and technical assistance to anti-trafficking professionals through its Training and Technical Assistance Center. Learn more about these and other training opportunities on the OVC Human Trafficking: Training page.
• The Tribal Law and Policy Institute developed the Sex Trafficking in Indian Country: Advocacy Curriculum (Curriculum) is designed to introduce information on sex trafficking of Native people, covering topics such as the definition of sex trafficking, red flags, trafficker tactics, screening for sex trafficking, and advocacy roles and responsibilities.
• The Blue Campaign, by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, is a national public awareness campaign, designed to educate the public, law enforcement and other industry partners to recognize the indicators of human trafficking, and how to appropriately respond to possible cases. The Blue Campaign has general awareness training and materials for service providers and law enforcement to increase detection of human trafficking and identify victims.
• CDC TRAIN provides access to more than 1,000 courses developed by CDC programs. Many of these courses and trainings specifically address AI/AN communities and populations.
  • The Impact of Human Trafficking in Native and Tribal Communities is a webinar featuring culturally appropriate resources available to better serve victims and approaches for non-AI/AN responders and service providers to identify and conduct outreach to AI/AN survivors of human trafficking.

Caring for mental health and substance use conditions is critical to overall health. It impacts how individuals think, feel, act and respond to stress. And it’s important at every stage of life. Resources are available to find accessible and effective treatment in your area.

Finding Mental Health Treatment

• Early Serious Mental Illness Treatment Locator, from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), offers confidential and anonymous information for persons and their family members who are seeking treatment for a recent onset of serious mental illness. Find evidence-based programs that will provide medication, therapy, family and peer support and assistance.
• SMI Advisor: Clinical Support System for Serious Mental Illness is an SAMSHA initiative that offers information on screening and treating serious mental illness. Resources are provided for both clinicians/providers and individuals/families.

Suicide Prevention

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free, confidential emotional support, 24/7, to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Visit the Native Americans & Alaska Natives page or call 800-273-TALK (8255).
• The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) is a virtual learning lab designed to help state- and community-level partnerships build and improve more effective prevention efforts, funded by SAMHSA. Visit SPRC’s American Indian/Alaska Native page.
  • Suicide Safe is a free suicide prevention mobile app from SAMHSA that helps providers use suicide prevention strategies and address suicide risk among their patients.
  • Service providers can also use SAMHSA’s Suicide Assessment 5-step evaluation and triage guide to walk through the steps of a suicide assessment.

Finding Substance Use Disorder Treatment

• SAMHSA has a National Helpline that offers free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. Call 800-662-HELP (4357). (English and Spanish.)
• The Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator from SAMHSA is a confidential tool to find help for substance use/addiction and mental health conditions.
• The Opioid Treatment Program Directory from SAMHSA lists opioid treatment programs in each state.
• SAMHSA has informative pages on adult drug use and methamphetamine use.

Youth Substance Use Prevention

• “Talk. They Hear You.” is a substance use prevention campaign from SAMHSA that has information for parents and community prevention partners on how to talk to children and teens about underage drinking and substance misuse.
• The After High School: Talking with Your Young Adult About Underage Drinking fact sheet from SAMHSA offers help for parents in talking to youth about underage drinking.

Service Provider Resources

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), committed to improving the health and safety of American Indians and Alaska Natives, is working to understand and address the issue of missing or murdered indigenous people by sharing data and violence prevention efforts. For public health resources for Tribes and more information, visit the CDC’s Tribal Health webpage.
• The Center for Native Children and Family Resilience, sponsored by HHS’s Office of the Administration for Children and Families, provides resources for Tribal communities for the development, implementation and sustainability of culturally based and resilience enhancing programs, including implementation and sustainability tool kits for programs in Native communities.
• The Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Tribes, funded by the HHS’s Children's Bureau, offers an array of services, such as products and tools, peer networking activities, and individualized expert consultation. Services are available at no cost to assist Tribal organizations with improving child welfare practice and performance.
• The Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center from SAMHSA offers training and technical assistance on mental and substance use disorders, suicide prevention and mental health promotion using the a culturally informed framework.
• SAMHSA’s Prevention of Substance Use and Mental Disorders page discusses how prevention and early intervention strategies can reduce the impact of substance use and mental disorders in America’s communities.
• SAMHSA’s GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation focuses on expanding access to services for people with mental and/or substance use disorders who come into contact with the adult criminal justice system. The center offers training on trauma-informed responses for criminal justice professionals; find a trainer who teaches this course in your area.
• The Tribal Opioid Response Resource Toolkit, developed by the National Indian Health Board, provides an array of materials, tools, resources and links to support Tribes as they work to combat opioid use disorder in their communities.
• Youth.gov (formerly FindYouthInfo.gov) was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, composed of representatives from 22 federal agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth such as trafficking prevention, suicide prevention and violence prevention.
• Advisory: The Importance of Family Therapy in Substance Use Disorder Treatment, published by SAMHSA, presents information, strategies and cultural considerations for family-related therapy approaches.
• CDC TRAIN: American Indian and Alaska Native Behavioral Health Webinar Series: Project Venture describes an evidence-based intervention that combines traditional Native wisdom with positive youth development, social emotional learning, outdoor adventure and service learning.
• SAMHSA’s Implementing Behavioral Health Crisis Care page features the National Guidelines for Mental Health Crisis Care: A Best Practices Toolkit.
• SAMHSA provides Treatment Improvement Protocols for service providers, including TIP 61: Behavioral Health Services for American Indians and Alaska Natives and TIP 33: Treatment for Stimulant Use Disorders.

Domestic Violence

To address the ongoing crisis of violence against Native Americans, these PSAs were tailored specifically for Native communities to provide survivors with access to resources, improve bystanders’ ability to safely intervene, and increase prevention efforts at both the individual and community level. This campaign includes six PSAs, including two videos and six audio clips, that can be shared:

• Warning Signs and Prevention Skills (WAV — 13,008.22 KB) (Transcript (DOCX) (DOCX — 12.93 KB))
• Seeking Services for Survivors (Youth Focused)  Visit disclaimer page
• Seeking Services for Survivors (Male Focused) (WAV — 11,269.01 KB) (Transcript (DOCX) (DOCX — 12.63 KB))
• Seeking Services for Survivors (Female Focused) (WAV — 12,176.48 KB) (Transcript (DOCX) (DOCX — 13.55 KB))
• Supporting Survivors and Responding to Domestic Violence (WAV — 11,694.74 KB) (Transcript (DOCX) (DOCX — 12.13 KB))
• Increasing Community Safety Visit disclaimer page