Mattering Work: Publications and Toolkits We Love
- AKA
- 14 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 8 minutes ago
AKA Interns Yolanda Ikazoboh and Kesiena Abeke, asked, “How do you measure success at AKA?” After a few moments of silence, my response was, “It's how much people feel loved after working with us. We are not interested in traditional measures of success.”
How do you measure love? It might be in the wordless. AKA Elder Dee BigFoot tells me love is in action; it is our approach to working with communities and doing what we are asked to do.
We continually reflect on our work at AKA, the love we give, and the love we receive. Our goal is to always be in a place and state of being that matters. When we love ourselves we can love others. Our first sharing of the work we love was first published in July 2024, if you missed this, check it out. The actual report or resource is not what we love or even what matters—it is only the product of mattering work and mattering at work.
Here is a list of work that we loved that mattered to us from July 2024 to April 2025.
We partnered with Montana State University and the Fort Peck Tribes to support the development of a toolkit and dissemination of the We Are Here Now multi-level intervention. This intervention highlights the significance of culture and its potential to enhance well-being within individuals, families, communities, and systems. What we love about this toolkit, with illustrations by the legendary artist Jeanne Bowman, is that it is designed with seven separate sections and easy-to-read content. There are PDF documents and downloads that make this easy to access and print anywhere at any time. If the goal is to love and do work that matters, developing this toolkit did just that.
Take a look at We Are Here Now.
Doya Natsu Healing Center and Native PRIDE implemented the Good Road of Life with Wyoming Indian School in January 2025. Why does this matter? More than 95% of students will make positive changes in their lives because of the training. Words and numbers are never enough- our good friend and relative, Marcus Red Thunder attended the GRL and created a video that illustrates the process of walking the Good Road of Life. The video shows people attending the training, as well as some of the impacts documented in the evaluations of this work. In a world full of possibilities and choices, why not choose to walk the Good Road of Life and lean on one another when you need a friend? This is the message we love, that matters.
The Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) is a renowned, tribally led organization that has a significant positive impact on the health of American Indian and Alaska Native people. They reach communities, build capacity, translate community practices into evidence-based wisdom, and provide valuable resources to strengthen the wellbeing of American Indian and Alaska Native communities. AKA worked with NPAIHB to publish the Mind4Health research article. Mind4Health matters because it’s a decolonizing gatekeeper training offered via text message to American Indian and Alaska Native people throughout the US. With over 21,000 text messages sent, the results show that participants are more comfortable discussing mental health with youth and have gained skills to have mental health conversations with them.
Our partnership with Spotted Bull Resource Recovery Center enables us to support community events, workshops, and trainings—all of which create meaningful work and opportunities to heal, transform, and give back. Last month, we attended their 10th annual wellness symposium in Poplar, Montana, at Fort Peck Community College Greet the Dawn Auditorium. We listened to stories, learned about cultural resilience, and created art. This beautiful evaluation report showcases the symposium's impact, the people present, and the words shared. Jay Aguliar worked onsite to take photos and conduct interviews with participants. Linda Donahue created a visual report.
We continue to partner with the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leader’s Council to explore maternal mortality in American Indian women. This partnership has led us down many paths that matter. In Phase 2 of this work, we developed a comprehensive landing page featuring multiple reports and literature reviews on the topic of maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs) in greater detail. We are now in Phase 3 and are conducting interviews with Tribal elders to develop a toolkit focused on grief, loss, trauma, and MMRCs.
Addressing the structural determinants of health matters. Our work with the University of New Mexico's Center for Native American Health has enabled us to examine how structural and institutional inequities contribute to unequal access and differential outcomes. These result in lower life expectancy, increased trauma, and lower quality of life. The structural determinants come into play when considering how to address the domestic violence risk factors and the social determinants of health in American Indian and Alaska Native people. Here, the visible disparities in domestic violence risk factors go beyond the surface and are deeply entrenched in colonization, broken treaties, and genocide. What can we do to create opportunities for health, relationships, and wellbeing? The secret, which is not a secret at all, is to look at conditions. When you look around, what do you see? How does it make you feel? What story do you tell yourself about the experience you are having? The Social Determinants of Health, driven by structural determinants of health, are a key area to explore. What can we do to improve educational access and quality? Healthcare access? Community connections? Healthy family systems? Employment opportunities? Healing spaces? We are on a path to see what we can do, where we can add value, improve conditions, create opportunities, and see generational healing for all. Now is the time. All of this matters.
When you look back on the last six months of your life and work, what matters? What will you remember? These highlights provide a snapshot of the legacy work at AKA that we love… that matters.
Comments