In January 2021, Emily Haozous submitted her fifth project summary to collaborators at the Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation, an analysis of evaluation data on their Native Youth on the Move program. (Read the full report here.) The NB3 Foundation is a Native American-led non-profit organization in New Mexico dedicated to improving children’s health. Their work focuses on funding and supporting other Native American driven programs that focus on their four core areas: healthy nutrition, physical activity, youth development, and cultural connections. Emily started working with them by analyzing evaluation data from their Water First! program, a nation-wide campaign that promoted healthy beverage consumption and the elimination of sugar-sweetened beverages from the diets of Native American children. Since then, she has completed four other projects with their team, and is in the process of helping their internal evaluation team revise their evaluation plan for their flagship program, NB3Fit.
Throughout these projects, the collaboration’s strength has been the connection to Indigenous evaluation methods. Emily brought her experience as an Indigenous researcher and methodologist and has worked closely with their team to highlight their existing Indigenous Health Model. In the current project revising the evaluation plan for NB3Fit, they have focused much of the work on aligning their evaluation with their theoretical model. With this alignment, they will have an evaluation plan that will guide curriculum development and evaluation into the next decade.
Emily has enjoyed working with the team at NB3. The work they do with Native American children is inspiring, and their dedication to serving Indigenous communities nationwide is very much compatible with Emily’s goals.
