The Denan Project, a Connecticut-based nonprofit, has begun training more than 20 Native American medical community health nurses, paraprofessionals, and health technicians to support young parents and their families. Home-based lessons will be given to expectant and young mothers from pregnancy to 3 years postpartum. By the end of the year the program will support 150 at-risk families.
The Denan Project is an all-volunteer community-based organization that provides health and development assistance to underserved people in remote areas. It is committing financial resources for more than 2 years to support the Family Spirit program of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. Family Spirit is an evidence-based and culturally tailored home-visiting program delivered by Native American paraprofessionals. It operates in 59 reservation and urban Native American communities in 14 states. After 12 years of operation in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the Denan Project launches its first US-based program with training in the Navajo communities of Chinle, Pinon, and Tsaile, in Arizona.
With a mission to provide help to people living in the most remote and poorest places in the world, Dick Young, president and founder said, “we felt it was right to work closer to home and identified the Family Spirit initiative as an excellent partner.”