2nd Annual THRIVE Conference 

The 2012 2^nd Annual THRIVE Conference will take place on the campus of Portland State University (PSU) from June 25^th-June 29^th. The conference is open to 13-19 year old Native youth across the country.

The conference is being hosted by THRIVE, the suicide prevention program at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, the Life is Sacred Project from the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Healing Feathers, a Native student group at PSU, and the Indian Health Service. 

At the conference, participants will learn about the signs of suicide, the impacts of drug and alcohol abuse, how to be a resource for friends and family, and much more. Sessions will incorporate American Indian/Alaska Native culture, traditional learning strategies, and skill-building activities that educate youth about healthy behaviors. Participants will also learn to positively express their emotions and feelings about these challenging topics through interactive, educational workshop tracks. The four tracks are briefly described below:

• Song Writing and Production: Want To Record A Song For A Music CD? Music Mentor Academies (MMA) will provide recording engineers, producers and musicians during this engaging. Every MMA youth will receive a professionally recorded CD of all the songs created during this week.

• Digital Storytelling: This workshop includes: writing and revising a script; learning to use audio, video, and photo editing software; recording a voiceover; selecting photos and music; putting all the elements together to complete the story; and sharing your story with other participants. Teens will receive a copy of their completed, 3- to 5-minute digital story and gain the skills needed to create additional digital stories on their own.

• Fim Production: Youth will have at least three tracks to choose from within this workshop! Youth can work on It's Your Game videos, a substance abuse prevention public service announcement (PSA), and a track working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) film team to develop a prevention video focused on “Culture is Prevention.”  In addition to working on these various videos, youth will learn about film production and editing from the film crews from the Northwest Film Institute, KAT Communications, and SAMHSA. Important Note: As part of the film production track, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board will be filming video segments for several national media campaigns and health curricula at the THRIVE Conference. The video segments will focus on adolescent relationships, substance abuse prevention, or other health promotion topics, and may include discussions about healthy and unhealthy friendships, keeping personal limits despite peer pressure, the negative consequences of having sex (pregnancy, STD/HIV infection), choosing not to have sex (abstinence), and how to handle high-risk situations where alcohol and drugs are present. The video segments will not include explicit content. If your teen wishes to participate in the filming of these segments, both you and your teen must read and sign the informed consent and release form

• Heath & Arts Education:The Good Road, which is a Native American and Alaska Native youth health and arts education, a program of Native People for Cancer Control at the University of Washington.  Combining traditional wellness practices, health education and art,  The Good Road seeks to ensure that Native American and Alaska Native youth live long, healthy and thriving lives. Participants in The Good Road will have the opportunity to create three art pieces.
  
  1. Multi-Media – Incorporating paper, pop-culture, environment and self-expression to construct a collage that articulates a personal story of wellness.
  2. Northwest Coastal Design - Using pencils, paint, markers, fabric and paper; creating individual pieces that incorporate ovoids, U forms and S forms.
  3. Poetry and Spoken Word – Crafting words, challenging ideas and giving voice to our un-spoken and most important thoughts through the medium of language. 

DON'T FORGET TO BRING:

• Any cultural/traditional regalia, musical instruments, games that you would like to share with your peers during the workshops or at the Cultural Sharing evening on Wednesday June 27th.
• Music, pictures, short videos on a USB drive or CD to possibly be used in your workshop track.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS prior to the conference:

• Signed teen/parent consent and expectations form (if you are 18+, your signature alone is okay).
• Chaperone consent form.
• Optional forms to keep can be downloaded too: Prepare for the conference and a Campus map.
• To download these forms please CLICK HERE! Return the forms by June 18th to Colbie via fax at 503.228.8182 or by email at ccaughlan@npaihb.org. If you need a form faxed, emailed, or mailed to you please contact Colbie Caughlan at ccaughlan@npaihb.org or by phone at 503.416.3284.

The registration is only online as of now but feel free to email me with all of the information from the online form and I can also manually enter information on my end. There are 2 mandatory forms to be signed and returned to me by June 18^th, a chaperone consent form for each chaperone and a teen-parent consent form (2 sided so 2 signatures each) for each teen attending. There are many required fields so please be patient with the form and be sure you have all of the necessary information from each youth before inputting (each youth can register on their own if they have their chaperone’s contact information to input as well). Please remember that the room block at the University Place Hotel closes on May 23^rd. Please also remember that each Tribe/area can only bring 5 youth to the conference since this is open Nationally and we would like representation from all across the U.S. Please do connect with others from your Tribe/area to be sure only 5 youth are registered, if there are more than 5, I will contact both chaperones and we will need to figure out which registrations to cancel.

Lodging options:

University Place Hotel – “THRIVE Conference” room block at $89/night +tax and parking, dbl occupancy rooms. 310 SW Lincoln Street, Portland, OR 97201, Phone: 503.221.0140

Portland State University Summer Housing and Conferencing: Ondine & Broadway (nicer building) dorm rooms, dbl occupancy with private bathrooms $45-$50/night (parking a few blocks away). Website: http://www.pdx.edu/conferences/summer-accommodations, Email: shc@pdx.edu Phone: (503) 725.4336

There are many other hotels near Portland State University as well, please contact Colbie Caughlan if you need assistance identifying them.

**Please note: this system only allows an email address to register ONE time, so if you are registering multiple teens, please use their email address or their parent's instead of trying to use 1 chaperone's email address for all teens being signed up. If the teen does not have an email address it is okay to use a fake email address just to register. Once you get to the participant information page there is a second space required where you will then fill in a "real" email address which can be the chaperones that has already been used on a previous submission. If you ahve questions don't hesitate to contact Colbie Caughlan at ccaughlan@npaihb.org. Thanks for your patience and understanding.