Meet our Collaborative
About our Team
Our interdisciplinary team brings a broad range of experience. We equip teachers, counselors and other professionals who work with rural youth free professional development opportunities and resources. Our passion for serving rural communities for a healthier tomorrow drives everything we do.
Who We Are | Video Series
Our Team
Meet the talented interdisciplinary team that forms Strengthening the Heartland.
Our Projects
See an overview of our projects, and how our dreams for serving rural communities become a reality through the work we do.
Program Highlights
See an overview of our program’s highlights and the projects we’re most proud of.
How We’ve Grown
See how we’ve grown as collaborative and our dreams for the future.
Program Highlights
Speaker Series
Support for practitioners and human service professionals experiencing burnout has always been an important topic, but even more so during and following the pandemic. A high-profile speaker series including presentations by New York Times Bestselling authors Anne Lamott, Nora McInerny and David Sheff, among others, provided professionals with strategies for cultivating resiliency and self-care. 857 participants attended live, while recordings have received over 20,000 views.
Webinar Series
High quality, on-demand, virtual professional development opportunities are often limited. To increase accessibility, two webinar series were implemented focused on positive youth development and substance misuse. Twenty-eight sessions of one hour- long webinars were facilitated by national experts. Webinars have reached 1,900 live participants, with recordings viewed 37,023 times.
In Person Adult and Youth Programming
33 professionals were trained to facilitate a one-hour, one-touch opioid misuse prevention program. This is (NOT) About Drugs, aimed at youth, and The Opioid Public Health Health Crisis, for adults, address opioid misuse, risk factors, and suggested prevention methods.
“Your organization is doing some amazing things that I hope to bring to our reservation communities!”
- OPHC PRESENTATION ATTENDEE
Educational Resources
Our team created and distributed highly requested print resources to hundreds of schools across the Dakotas.
Popular resources included:
- Coping Skills Pocket Guide: A 3 inch x 3 inch guide containing practical tips for managing stress.
- Self-care Hacks Bookmark: A bookmark offering healthy tips for handling stressful situations.
Want to keep updated on our programming?