NAYA’s Many Nations Academy offers support to students affected by homelessness, violence and other barriers to traditional education
Walking through NAYA’s long halls at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday made it pretty clear that the space doubled as a high school. Adolescents mingled and lingered outside of classrooms, laughing and talking before class and on their way to grab breakfast in the cafetorium (the cafeteria serves double duty as the auditorium). This is Many Nations Academy, the alternative high school housed within the Native American Youth and Family Center, commonly known as NAYA.
NAYA has been serving Portland’s Native American community since 1974 when it was founded by parent and Elder volunteers. According to its mission, it endeavors “to enhance the diverse strengths of our youth and families in partnership with the community through cultural identity and education.” Annually, it affects the lives of over 10,000 individuals in the Portland metro area from over 380 tribal backgrounds.
The nonprofit organization prides itself in offering wrap-around services; it provides holistic support to address needs including Elder services, affordable-housing projects, and college and career services. Many Nations Academy is one of many initiatives it has launched to serve all members of the American Indian community throughout all life stages.
MNA was originally founded as the Early College Academy, but it underwent a name change this past summer.
“The name wasn’t as encouraging as we’d like,” said Paul Lumley, NAYA’s executive director. “Although a lot of our kids end up going to college, and even end up graduating on time, they don’t think that they can. They aren’t ready to commit to college, which is what the name suggested. So we asked the student body to help us with the name change, and this is what they selected.”
Originating from a school project about designing a school of the future, Many Nations Academy resonated with the students and board of directors because it represents the vast diversity within Portland’s Native American community.
This diversity is reflected in more than tribal affiliation.
“We accept anybody who comes through here and wants to use our services,” Lumley said.
Most students at the high school are Native American, but MNA also serves students who are African American, Latino and Caucasian. At this point, 92% of its student body comes from communities of color. And most of the 51 students attending the school this year come from challenging backgrounds.
“Many of our students have or had involvement with drugs and alcohol; they are involved with gangs; they come from unstable families where there may be domestic violence; they’re foster kids; or they’re homeless,” Lumley said. In fact, at any given point, 40% to 50% of the students at MNA are experiencing homelessness.
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This statistic is staggering, considering that only 3% of the student population nationwide experiences homelessness at any given time. Native populations across the United States suffer from disproportionate percentages of homelessness. Lumley, who himself experienced homelessness as a teenager, noticed this when he moved to Portland in the 1980s. He was taken aback by the number of homeless people in general, but specifically was astonished by the number of homeless Native people he saw downtown.
“The way our youth fit into this population is very real,” he said about homelessness.
“People don’t understand what homelessness looks like for students,” said Lisa Otero, MNA’s principal. She described students who live with friends or extended family for years at a time, students who stay in motels long term, or live in a van with their family. “We even had a student who packed up his tent and brought it to school every day. Homelessness looks like all of this.”
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The effects of this housing insecurity are tangible not only within the local Native American community but also nationally. As an example, a 2019 study published by the Brookings Institution on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Education demonstrates that there is a substantial achievement gap between non-economically disadvantaged students who experience no housing insecurity and students who experience any form of homelessness. Performance on state assessments in math and English language arts shows considerable distinction: 66% of students who are not economically disadvantaged show “mastery” or above on English language arts while only 26% of homeless students show “mastery.” That number is also significantly less than economically disadvantaged students who are not homeless, as that group performed at 34% mastery.
And these statistics are not unique to Louisiana. Published reports from other states, including Washington, are broadly consistent.
Otero and Lumley see this achievement gap anecdotally every day. The traumatic affects of housing insecurity can manifest in outbursts of anger, fighting, slamming doors and throwing fits.
“There is no emotional regulation because there is no sense of security and stability,” Otero said. And this translates into less academic success. “How can you focus on your education when you don’t have a place to sleep?”
The wrap-around services that NAYA provides directly address this primary concern. Through NAYA, students can access homeless youth services, a clothing closet and a food pantry. The agency offers services like summer school and camps over breaks so that students’ sense of belonging does not lapse when school is not in session. (During the closure amid the coronavirus outbreak, MNA students may access meals at local public-school distribution sites.)
Additionally, NAYA is developing six affordable-housing projects throughout the city, many of which are situated close to the agency with the hope that students and their families might eventually be able to call them home.
And perhaps most importantly, the staff at NAYA addresses the affects of prolonged housing insecurity and familial instability by doing what Otero calls “activating wellness.”
“Instead of starting off their day at school with ‘you’re behind’ and ‘why have you been absent so much’ — which translates to ‘you’re bad’ — we start the day with ‘it’s good to see you’ and ‘how are you doing?’” The staff at MNA gives students the time and patience they need to feel safe at school, which eventually translates into academic success.
Many of the students who graduate from NAYA — students who often previously performed at very low rates and had severe attendance issues at traditional high schools — go on to graduate from four-year colleges and universities. They have students who graduate from Portland State University, Western Oregon University, and Portland Community College, and, Otero points out, “that’s because we have a good college and career program that offers scholarships. They teach kids how to get into school without going into debt.”
The success of MNA’s holistic model also manifests within NAYA’s four walls. Attendance improves, grades increase, and behavior changes. Otero shared the story of a young woman who joined MNA as a freshman. At the time, she was living with her mother and four siblings in a van.
“They drove up in that van and registered for school,” Otero said. During her first two years, this woman struggled with regulating her emotions; she had outbursts, called the teachers names and got in fights. But rather than punishing her for her behavior, the staff at MNA, which uses a trauma-informed model, gave her space and allowed her time to collect herself and move out of that emotional state. And after two years, Otero had a breakthrough.
“She had just had an outburst but then broke down in tears. She said, ‘I get so mad at myself because I get so mad.’ That was so important because from there, we can talk about what to do when you feel that way. Getting to that point took time, practice and action — something she wasn’t given in previous educational experiences. She graduated last year, and she was so proud. It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had, and I’ve been in education for over 25 years.”
The success of alternative high schools in working with Native American youths and addressing homelessness is visible nationwide. In 2017, the National Urban Indian Family Coalition published a report that identifies six alternative high schools across the nation that serve American Indian populations. NAYA’s MNA (which was the Early College Academy at the time) was included in the list. The other schools identified in the report were in Denver; Seattle; Albuquerque, N.M.; Minneapolis; and Los Angeles.
All six of these schools serve urban Native American communities by providing an alternative educational setting that also incorporates traditional Indigenous culture. The need for such programs, according to NUIFC, is borne out of a traumatic and fraught history between the United States’ formal education system and the sovereignty of Native American communities.
Beginning in the mid-1800s, the U.S. government began to create Native American boarding schools, institutions that forced assimilation to U.S. mainstream culture by means of destruction of Native American culture. Attendance was typically mandatory, and many students were abducted from their homes and brought hundreds of miles away, far from their families. They were forced to speak English and cut their hair, and they were forbidden from engaging in any of their traditional cultural practices. The result of these schools was massive loss of culture, language and generational knowledge. NUIFC also said that in the long term, this history of violence in the school system “translates into poor attendance and poor academic performance.”
The formation of these six alternative high schools addresses this gap between the formal U.S. education system and the specific needs of Native American communities that have been historically marginalized by that very system. These schools offer services that echo the wrap-around nature of NAYA’s structure, such as: the provision of services in local Indigenous languages, free school supplies, professional development to train educators in indigenous history and customs, experiential learning opportunities, free transportation, onsite medical and dental care, among many others. The goal at all of these schools is to make education more accessible to the Native American population by addressing the specific barriers that this community typically faces, as well as by incorporating a curriculum that is inclusive of the Native American experience.
The success of these schools is clear. All of these schools boast high retention rates (averaging over 70% across all six institutions) as well as impressive four-year graduation rates (falling between 70% and 90% depending on the school). Student attendance increased across the board from previous schools, with daily attendance increasing by as much as 30% at Takoda Prep in Minneapolis and 20% at MNA.
The statistics are revealing, but Otero said that “when you deal in providing services for human beings, the most powerful way to measure success is by stories.” And the stories tell the same narrative: Students who struggled to succeed in traditional academic environments find success through support, belonging and community in these alternative schools.
As for NAYA, it is not done envisioning ways to create a safe and accessible educational experience for all students.
“Because so many of our students are in foster care or are experiencing homelessness,” Otero said, “our dream is to create a dormitory on campus.”
This wouldn’t be unprecedented. Located on the Lummi Reservation close to Bellingham, Wash., sits the Lummi Youth Academy, a 40-bed residence that’s connected to the reservation’s school. The students in this community face similar barriers to housing security: They are in foster care, have lost one or both parents or, for a number of reasons, lack stable homes. Since its opening is 2008, the Youth Academy has been a lifeline for teens by providing them with much needed stability. Students receive homework help, structure and square meals each day. Attendance has increased and academic performance has approved across the board.
For NAYA, there will be some financial and logistical barriers to get to this point, but Lumley and Otero know the challenges will be worth it.
“The students are asking for it, and I think we need to respond to that,” Lumley said. “It could transform so many young people’s lives.”
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