The local group Visioning B.E.A.R. Circle Intertribal Coalition will expand its prevention work to keep children safe using an indigenous circle process with a $50,000 grant it recently received from RALIANCE, a national partnership dedicated to ending sexual violence in one generation.

Irene “Strong Oak” Lefebvre said Visioning Bear’s goals include establishing highly visible and viable approaches to interpersonal violence prevention throughout intertribal communities, promoting open conversations about gender-based violence, preventing violence against the earth, establishing a restorative justice approach to ensure accountability for behavior by intertribal members and returning to a pre-colonization traditional value system.

“We typically work tribes here in this area and throughout the Northeast, but we’re going to take our program to Wyoming this time and work in Wind River,” said Lefebvre. “Then we’ll bring back what we learn and use it here, so some of the grant will be used in this area.”