Sooh Shinali Sister Project

Education Services: included the development of our Honoring Indigenous Health cohort that was dedicated to reducing health disparities among AI/AN community members in LA County through providing education, prevention, and management programming for community members that have or are caregivers to those with type 2 diabetes. Our community was able to engage in learning more about type 2 diabetes while being a part of cultural teachings to promote wellness and empower our community to live a healthier life. We developed new educational training on social justice in education and supporting Indigenous higher education students. In addition, we initiated a community engagement campaign including five videos designed to center the strengths of our community through contemporary visibility and accurate representation. These videos also uplift underserved subpopulations within our community, including: Indigenous elders, Two-Spirit. In total 4,861 people were served.

Leadership Services: We provided professional development training for our staff on Leadership as people of color, Wellness and Adult Leadership, Embodied Resilience, Financial Budgeting for nonprofits, and attendance of the Unity Conference. With these collective trainings we have prepared our team with the opportunities to grow their leadership skills as some transitioned into leadership roles while also providing them with the skills to interact with community. Additionally, were having our team learn about the importance of financial planning of their budgets to ensure that they are supportive and knowledgeable about the growth of the nonprofit overall. A total of 425 people were served.

Wellnes Services: We finished hosting a series of Indigenous Arts Gatherings that extend our organizations work intersecting holistic wellness services with community-driven, culturally-rooted programming. We also engaged our community members through a second series, Traditional Wellness Gatherings that were geared toward utilizing traditional methods of healing (language, spirituality, history, beading, music, food, plant medicines, movement) with the goal of building connections, reclaiming traditions, and improving overall health outcomes. In addition, we provided wellness training to local/national organizations and colleges. We also facilitated cultural wellness sessions such as beading and belonging.In total 502 community members were served.