National Indian Youth Leadership Project

Description of Organization

NIYLP’s mission is to support Indigenous/Native youth to develop healthy lifestyles and positive relationships with the natural world, achieve their full potential, and become leaders in their communities. NIYLP envisions a world in which generations of healthy, capable, caring, resilient Indigenous/Native youth contribute to their groups, families, communities, and nations. NIYLP works to achieve its mission and vision through its flagship program, Project Venture, an evidence-based, culturally guided, outdoor experiential youth program developed over four decades of work with Tribal youth. NIYLP created Project Venture under the guidance of Indigenous elders, who emphasized using traditional culture and programs developed and implemented by Tribal/local people as a way to address contemporary challenges. Indigenous youth experience tremendous socioeconomic/health disparities (poverty, violence, substance use, under-resourced schools, barriers to healthcare, etc.), pressures, and trauma (historical/contemporary), have encountered multiple adverse childhood experiences, and are historically underserved.