HOPE workshop educates, empowers girls
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PABLO — At first glance, a roomful of teenage girls looks like an arts and crafts party among close friends. Bright wrapping paper, other colorful scraps of paper and markers cover several long tables as the girls wrap cardboard boxes, letting loose an occasional giggle as they work. But the reason the girls are here is actually quite serious.
Over a two-day period, members of the Salish Kootenai College Prevention Task Force are educating teenagers in several areas, including: ethnic and gender pride; anatomy; sexually transmitted diseases and infections; HIV and AIDS; assertiveness and coping skills. It’s all part of the Prevention Task Force’s Native Women HOPE project, which aims to reduce behavior among Native American women that puts them at higher risk for contracting HIV and other STDs. HOPE — Honoring an Opportunity to Prevent and Empower — is about just that: empowering women and giving them the tools they need to make good, healthy decisions, explained SKC Prevention Task Force program coordinator Alana Bahe.
“We’re just trying to give them information … and let them know that they have the power to make that choice (about whether to have sex) for themselves,” Bahe said.
“It’s pretty deep stuff,” Polson High School junior Aspen Many Hides said.
She and 23 other high school girls, mainly from St. Ignatius, Arlee and Polson, attended a HOPE workshop Jan. 16-17, held during the three-day weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The HOPE program usually works with adult women, but at the request of past participants who wanted their daughters to have the same educational opportunity, the Prevention Task Force held a workshop for high school girls last summer.
“That was very well received, and the girls had a lot of fun,” prevention programs director Niki Graham said, so the team organized another workshop during the school year geared for teenagers.
Forty-five girls were signed up for last week’s program, and although only 24 attended, “24 is more than zero,” Graham said.
Her hope is that those 24 girls left the workshop better educated about their value as women, their roles as Native American women and what they can do to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases. The HOPE seminar is a safe place where students can learn, ask questions, and not feel judged, Graham explained.
“Peer pressure is big,” Bahe said. “We talk about how to deal with it in a safe manner.”
Participants are also encouraged that even if they’ve made bad decisions regarding their sexual health in the past, they can move forward in a healthy way. Students in last week’s group came from all experience levels, Graham noted, with two teen mothers among the group. Whatever their situation, the girls were encouraged to focus on the positive influences in their lives and to learn to recognize the negatives for what they are. Their “homework” assignment for Sunday evening was to write a letter to someone — preferably a female — who they look up to.
“It’s just an opportunity for them to thank their role models,” Bahe said.
The girls are also given the option of being tested for HIV and other STDs during the workshop, or they can come back later for testing at the SKC Prevention Task Force headquarters. According to Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services numbers, there are nine HIV-positive individuals in Lake County, but that figure may not be accurate, since people can live in Lake County but still have an address elsewhere, Graham explained.
“It’s hard to know too, because people don’t get tested,” Bahe added.
Of course, HIV isn’t all the HOPE program is battling. Local chlamydia rates are very high, Graham said, “and the same behaviors cause both (HIV and chlamydia).”
While women are more often affected with STDs and sexually transmitted infections than men, such diseases are still a problem among men, and Graham hopes that in the future the Prevention Task Force will be able to offer more services for men. The group held seven HOPE workshops last year and seeks to increase that number to 12 - offering a workshop once a month.
“It’s sporadic, but we do take people on waiting lists,” Graham said.
Parents and anyone interested in the HOPE program are encouraged to call (406) 275-4920 for more information.
“We’re very open,” Graham said.
