Hopi Opportunity Youth Initiative

About the Initiative

Established as a project of the Hopi Foundation in 2013, The Hopi Opportunity Youth Initiative focuses on our community’s most at-risk youth between the ages of 14 to 26 who are not actively engaged in school or in the workforce. The goal of the Initiative is to bring together community members and organizations that will promote positive change and explore opportunities to help strengthen support for Hopi and Tewa youth living on and off the reservation. The Initiative goals are to Build a safe and supportive platform for Youth to share their stories and include their insight and voice in the process of exploring new pathways and expanding existing programs for their success, and to develop a shared vision and path for community to build a common understanding of the needs of our youth today and work together to develop supportive partnerships, programs and resources.

HOYI GOALS

Collaborating or Impact

HOYI's primary goal is to formally establish a community-wide collaboration that will develop common Hopi Vision of how disengaged youth can gain the vocational or professional skills needed to contribute to our community and identify steps we can take to continue to build a local economy which will serve both our youth and Hopii cultural values.

Use Data to Guide Decision-Making

The Initiative will help to launch the development of tools and methodology needed to regularly gather necessary data, including detailed risk behavior data and culturally relevant information about Hopi Opportunity Youth over the next 6-12 years.

Build Effective Programs and Pathways

The Initiative will also help to establish collaborator Task Teams and Youth to facilitate the community conversations needed to identify candidate strategies (or pathways) for intervening and re-engaging Hopi Opportunity Youth so that they can become contributing members of Hopi Society.

Developing Supportive Policies

The long-term vision of the Initiative is to help leverage community voice to impact or develop policy needed to positively support community engagement in yourh education and the workforce.

For more information, visit our website at

www.hopifoundation.org