Designed to help tribal girls develop good grooming habits, the unit focuses on being natural and on practicing good health habits. Attention is given to such habits as bathing, care of complexion and hair, good posture, and care of the teeth and gums. The use of makeup is deemphasized. To relate the unit to pride in Indianness, bathing customs…

This unit for American Indian girls 15 to 18 years old and for their parents is an attempt to create a better understanding of alcoholism. The narrative section focuses upon the following ideas: (1) what alcoholism is; (2) frequency of alcoholism; (3) physical effects; (4) the effect of alcoholism on the family; (5) causes of alcoholism; (6) signs…

Based on the view that intergenerational friendships between older adults and high school students enrich the lives of both groups, the Grandfriends Project is a program for bringing students and elderly members of the community together. High school students receive "basic training" for visiting a nursing home, are taught listening and…

This unit for American Indian girls focuses upon exploring careers by using a variety of activities. Learning experiences suggested in the unit include field trips to get a social security card and a work permit. There are activities structured for involving young people in making a collage of careers and for making a job mobile. The girls have an…

Because a wise decision maker is better able to bring about the results that she wants and to avoid those that she does not want, the unit on decision making skills is designed to help American Indian girls develop skills that enable them to identify decisions, to set goals, to find and use information, to look at alternatives or choices, and to…

The unit explores several ideas regarding marriage and emphasizes that tribal women need to plan for a career as well as for marriage. The following concepts are to be stressed: (1) roles in marriage have changed; (2) people marry for a variety of reasons; (3) love is not the only consideration in selecting a mate; (4) marriage is really a…

Because teenage girls often have the poorest eating practices of any age group, and because they need more essential nutrients than at any other time of their lives except during pregnancy and lactation, the purpose of the unit, intended for American Indian girls, is to instill in them the rules of good nutrition and good eating habits. The unit…

Focusing on a comparison of actual roles with stereotypical roles of tribal women, this unit emphasizes the fact that roles of Indian women of the past were dependent upon tribal customs and living conditions. The narrative section of the unit examines typical roles in Woodland tribes and describes the false information and stereotypes which…

The purpose of this unit is to provide American Indian girls with the opportunity to make a plan for their whole lives, and thus to learn to project the consequences of their decisions into the future. It might be appropriate to use this unit as the last one in the program. The unit consists of three activities for each girl: filling out the Life…

In response to the September 11th, 2001 terrorists attacks, "Comfort for Kids" was formed as a collaborative effort to provide support and resources to children and families directly affected. This facilitator's guide and student's guide represent one part of the three-pronged approach of the "Comfort for Kids" program. The…

Because a woman's level of living and quality of life are determined to a great degree by the choices she makes while still in her teens, the purpose of the unit is to give American Indian girls some idea of what it costs to live, how to use their resources, and to help them develop skills for managing their resources. The unit includes the…

Because bearing a child as a teenager presents a threat to a young American Indian woman's health, her education, her financial independence, her freedom to choose, and her ability to develop her potential, this unit on sexuality deals with the following: (1) sexuality as it affects one's life; (2) history of birth control; (3) matriarchal…

To help American Indian girls understand some of the many career opportunities which are available to them, this unit provides information on two job clusters; one cluster consists of a group of 15 related jobs, and the other is a group based on school subjects. The unit includes ideas for field trips and guest speakers, and it offers a variety of…

Because knowledge of educational opportunities is one of the most important factors in choosing a career, the objectives of this unit are to provide both the leader and American Indian girls involved in the career development program with general information about educational opportunities and to provide sources when specific information is…

To show a variety of careers and how and why each woman chose her field of study, this unit presents the stories of both historical and contemporary Indian women who have excelled in their professions. Although numerous and conflicting stories have been written on the lives of the historical women, the unit provides only one version of each life.…