Barbara Crowell Roy, president of Eve’s Fund, will be a guest speaker at the National Conference on American Indian/Alaska Native Injury and Violence Prevention, “Bridging Science, Practice, and Culture,” in Denver, Colorado, July 23- 25, 2019.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Indian Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 250 tribal, federal, and state injury prevention practitioners, injury researchers, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders will come together to share information and learn ways to reduce the disproportionately large number of injuries among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Roy will share the challenges and successes of ThinkFirst Navajo, the Eve’s Fund-sponsored injury prevention program, which she oversees. ThinkFirst Navajo educates students and young adults across the Navajo Nation on how to avoid behaviors that can lead to disabling or fatal injuries. The Navajo Nation is the large and rural Native American area occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico.
Joining Barbara Roy at the conference will be Debby Gerhardstein, Executive Director of ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation. Gerhardstein will provide the training and tools necessary for conference attendees to be able to conduct classes and presentations using the ThinkFirst evidence-based curriculum. She will also outline the steps required to initiate a new chapter of ThinkFirst in their own communities.
Here is the full conference schedule with bios of the presenters:
Conference Agenda and list of presentations
About ThinkFirst Navajo
ThinkFirst Navajo is a chapter of ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation and is one of the most active in the country. ThinkFirst Navajo is the only chapter which operates exclusively on a federally recognized Native American Indian reservation, The Navajo Nation, an area in which injury rates are three to four times the national average.
In 2015, ThinkFirst Navajo program was named “Chapter of the Year” by the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation.
“ThinkFirst Navajo was selected to receive the Chapter of the Year award because its programs meet each of the three core elements of the ThinkFirst mission: education, research, and advocacy,” said TFNIPF 2015 Awards Committee Co-Chair Michelle Gibler, Ph.D. “Members of the ThinkFirst Navajo team travel thousands of miles across three states to deliver injury prevention education to the people of the Navajo Nation,” added Gibler.
Since the program was started by Eve’s Fund in late 2005, ThinkFirst Navajo’s “Voices for Injury Prevention” (VIP) speakers — all adult Navajos with paraplegia — have educated more than 56,000 Navajo school children about injury prevention and have distributed thousands of safety helmets.
In addition to providing culturally sensitive and free education to schools and youth programs on the Navajo Nation, ThinkFirst Navajo also provides peer mentoring, support, and training to the program’s VIP speakers.
Buckle Up Navajo Newborns
Recently, ThinkFirst Navajo kicked off another injury prevention initiative, “Buckle Up Navajo Newborns.” Thanks to the generosity of donors and through a collaborative partnership with Navajo Highway Safety division, the organization was able to provide 50 top-quality car seats to be distributed to expectant Navajo mothers. You can read more about it here.
Contact Us
If you live on our near the Navajo Nation and are interested in scheduling a free injury prevention presentation at a school, youth conference or other venue, please contact us through our website at: https://evecrowellsfund.org/contact-us/.
Support our Work
Your generous donation in any amount will help fund our lifesaving and injury-prevention programs across the Navajo Nation! A gift of $75 could buckle a Navajo child safely into a car seat and save a young life. One hundred percent of your donation goes directly to our programs.
Eve’s Fund is an IRS-recognized, 501c3 non-profit established in 2005. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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