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Native Artists Helping Our People Endure (Hope): A Social Capital Analysis Of A Grassroots Art Initiative To Address Youth Suicide In An Indigenous Community, Nathania Tsosie

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This study identifies and examines the components of social capital related to a grassroots initiative to address Indigenous youth suicide through art. The Native Artists for HOPE’s Thoreau Youth Art Project was organized by a small group of professional Native American artists in response to a sudden increase of youth suicide in a community on the Navajo Nation. Built on cultural core values identified by the artists themselves, the day long workshop encourages self-expression and creativity as an alternative to risky behaviors believed by community members to be related to suicide. A brief literature review of social capital including its …