Unalaska, AK – A group from Unalaska was recently accepted into the selective Healthy Native Communities Fellowship program. The fellowship is a year-long grassroots community leadership program that works with people from native communities around the country to promote community wellness. Program director Marita Jones said the program focuses on communication and community ownership.

"One of our basic principles is about putting the community in the driver's seat. So that means that we're teaching skills about listening and dialog because we want to community to decide for themselves what's important and what they want to work on."

Donna Henry and Char Gisvold from the Oonalaska Wellness Center and Jane Bye from KUCB will attend four retreats next year that focus on engaging the community in a dialogue and learning different skills that help communities deal with a wide range of issues, from violence prevention to resource development to general health. Jones said the program about helping the community develop in the ways it wants.

"It's really an invitation to the community to talk about what's important to them and how we can help ourselves to be healthy and well."

Between the four retreats the participants will put their new skills into action and talk with other fellowship teams from around the country and Native American communities about the projects they are working on.

Participant Jane Bye said they applied for the fellowship though the behavioral health center, but the program requires multiple agencies to be involved. She said they hope the training will help continue interagency collaboration.

"There are several of us involved in the interagency council here in town and we're already working collaboratively on a lot issues that have to do with community wellness and community health," Bye said. "And we thought it would be a great opportunity to go and learn new skills and improve upon the skills we already have and learn from lots of people who have already been doing things around the country."

This is the sixth year the fellowship has been offered. Twelve groups from around the country will participate this year; more than 30 groups applied.