Fort Belknap Indian Community

The Fort Belknap Indian Community Council's Aaniiih Nakoda College Library (ANCL), which serves as the public library for the Fort Belknap reservation and the academic library for Aaniiih Nakoda College, in collaboration with community partners and the Fort Belknap Substance Abuse Community Coalition, will address Fort Belknap's substance abuse crisis. ANCL will provide information resources, educational programming, and outreach activities to build awareness, knowledge, and self-efficacy among community members in the areas of substance abuse prevention and treatment. The two-year project will alternate monthly events with local speakers addressing specific aspects of substance abuse, prevention and/or treatment, and hands-on teaching/learning activities focused on Aaniiih and Nakoda language and lifeways. Outreach for all three reservation communities, Fort Belknap Agency, Hays and Lodgepole, will have special emphasis placed on youth. Outcomes include increased community awareness of, and participation in, library-sponsored programming and program-specific subject matter related to substance abuse and Aaniiih and Nakoda culture as well as increased use of library resources and sense of self-efficacy among reservation youth.