Adaptations

Program Fidelity

One of the most empowering aspects of Sources of Strength is the process of drawing out individual stories of strength and spreading these messages through schools, communities, and friendship groups. These stories and messages come from within the local group rather than from an outside source, this empowerment process translates across a diversity of cultures, generations, and backgrounds. Sources of Strength emphasizes a holistic wellness message of building multiple strengths (based on eight core strengths), increasing youth-adult relationships and trust while also reducing isolation and codes of silence. For effectiveness of the program, Sources of Strength schools, faith, and community programs follow some core benchmarks…

Obtaining strong buy-in from key agencies, schools, and administrators help sustain the program for several years, which is essential in achieving broad change in community norms and behaviors.

Helping clarify protocols so distressed and suicidal individuals are being addressed in a helpful, timely manner that connects them to medical/mental health services AND community-based supports.

Having skilled, caring and committed adult advisors who can commit their time over several months working with peer leaders.

Recruiting and training a group of peer leaders that has both the size and the diversity to reach a wide range of cliques and friendship groups.

The focus on "Hope, Help, Strength" messages (not sad-shock-trauma messages) in a wide range of creative and clever ways using one-on-one conversations, peer presentations, local faces and voices in posters, audio, and video messages, as well as use of texting, web, and social network sites.

We believe these honest stories of resiliency, hope, strength and help told by local leaders are messages that every school, every community and every person needs to hear. Keeping in mind the core elements and program fidelity, local groups and Sources of Strength are working on several adaptations that appear promising.

Click on an adaptation title below to read more about it.

Colleges/Universities

Several colleges are using Sources of Strength with a variety of targeted groups. For college students the challenge is often redeveloping or reengaging some of their sources of strength as they move from their home communities to the college campus.
Training resident advisors to implement some of the Sources of Strength activities during monthly dorm activities.
Using Sources of Strength during Freshman Orientation.
Student Life centers incorporating Sources of Strength into their outreach programs and developing teams with Hope-Help-Strength messages.
Cankdeska Cinkana Community College has offered Sources of Strength as a 3 credit class over the past two summers on the Spirit Lake Nation. Ft. Berthold Community College has piloted a similar Sources of Strength class on the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Cultural

• CETPA is a Latino-based community outreach program in Georgia implementing Sources of Strength into their after-school programs and using their trained peer leaders to impact their summer camps with peer leaders sharing stories of Hope-Help-Strength.

• Tribal communities, especially in the northern plains have been long-term partners of Sources of Strength. There have been a wide range of adaptations of Sources of Strength blended with local tribal traditions of wellness and strength.

o School-based programs developing peer leaders mixed with traditional stories from elders, teaching of traditional language, art, crafts, etc. In one training Sources of Strength blended with an elder teaching the use of four sacred plants (cedar, sweetgrass, tobacco, and sage) that are traditional gifts of healing and strength.

o Mixing Sources of Strength into Boys and Girls club programs, Culture Camps, Young Life, and other cultural, community, and faith-based groups.

o The National Native American Mentoring Project via Boys and Girls Club has used Sources of Strength in their annual training of mentoring coordinators.

LGTBQ

The Youth Pride Center/Rainbow Project in Atlanta, GA has trained a team of LGBTQ teens and young adults in Sources of Strength and is working on a project of reaching their friendship networks, as well as rural LGBTQ teens/young adults in Georgia via web and social networking messages.

Hospitals/Medical

• Several nursing and medical schools have used Sources of Strength training for their students and in one case Sources of Strength has been used to link medical students and middle school students together in a mentoring program.

• St. Aloisius Medical Center has adopted Sources of Strength as one of their core outreach programs and posters of the Sources of Strength circle can be seen in the hallways of the local hospital. All staff are trained in Sources of Strength and they sponsor a weekly wellness radio show in which an element of Sources of Strength is often the focus of topic for that weeks show.

Military

The Georgia National Guard trained their family service providers in Sources of Strength as they assist a wide range of military personnel and their families. They plan to train peer leaders with deployed parents to help spread Hope, Help, Strength messages to other teens in military families.

Justice/Detention

Sources of Strength is presently developing a pilot with a couple of detention centers and chaplains on using Sources of Strength and a guided journal to help inmates focus and develop strengths while in jail.

Community

•   Many communities incorporate Sources of Strength concepts into their gatekeeper training programs targeting adult groups. QPR and ASSIST trainers are common partners in this effort.

•   Several communities have used the Sources of Strength wheel as core vision for their community’s strategic prevention plan targeting out the eight areas of strength as a focus of their prevention efforts.

•   A Sources of Strength “Amazing Race” was developed by the Harvey, ND community for family groups and each clue was based on one of the sources of strength .

•   A community picnic attended by almost 400 engaged Sources of Strength activities and games blending parents, youth and mentors in activities designed to highlight strengths and connectedness.

•   Nothing is quite as effective as a continuity of services and messages. We are excited about the possibility of training Sources of Strength Communities. From the schools to the hospitals to the police force to the YMCA, an entire community trained in Holistic Wellness and Strength Based prevention!

Parents

Training parents to understand the importance of building multiple strengths in their child’s life as well as developing healthy connections with adults could be one of the most protective factors out there. Parents currently receive information and presentation from their children who are peer leaders. However, Sources of Strength is working on developing a model to train large numbers of parents about the importance of multiple strengths and connectedness, as well as helping them hear teens thoughts on parenting. Initiating this conversation is something we are very excited about.

Elderly

We have some communities piloting the use of the Sources of Strength wheel with elderly groups. The one adaptation to the wheel is changing the “mentoring” strength to “access to children” as an inter-generational protective factor.

Treatment Centers/Mental Health Clinics

One of our core messages at Sources of Strength is that if someone is suicidal you start with mental health but you don’t stop there. We believe that when a person gets help from a mental health center they should also being encouraged and referred to places where they can develop and cultivate multiple supports in their lives.

Offices and Work Places

We want to assist offices and work places to help their employees develop strengths in their lives. One avenue is to ensure workplaces have proper referral and employee assistance protocols in place.