Mission

White Bison is an American Indian nonprofit organization with the goal of bringing 100 Indian communities into healing by 2010. Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it operates throughout Indian Country, spreading its philosophy of "wellbriety," which means being both sober and well. Its RCSP project, Circles of Recovery III, aims to develop an infrastructure of recovery support services in 15 local communities to help prevent relapse, promote holistic health, and reframe community norms about recovery.

Recovery Services Coaches/Firestarters

Through leadership development and training, Circles of Recovery III develops Firestarters, also known as recovery services coaches men and women in recovery with the facilitative and leadership skills to coordinate and deliver a range of culturally appropriate social supports for recovery in their home communities.

Wellness Coalitions

Circles of Recovery III is helping local Native American communities reframe traditional clan knowledge into strategies for building productive coalitions for recovery and holistic health in individuals, families, and communities.

Seven Trainings

White Bison’s Seven Trainings are having an impact and being used to develop additional programs. The seven trainings are based on the Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps, each specially targeted to men, women, adult children of alcoholics, Native American children of alcoholics, families, daughters, or sons. Firestarters are trained to facilitate these curricula.

Web site

The White Bison website, which is used to communicate instantly with Firestarters across the country, is getting one million hits a month, and hits seem to be increasing by 100,000 per week. Sharing “how we did it” information in discussion groups hosted on the website have increased the quality of peer learning and supervision among the Firestarters.

Warrior Down

Based on the cultural tradition of never leaving a warrior on the battlefield, Circles of Recovery III is using the Firestarters to help people coming out of treatment or prison. In Idaho, a Firestarter is considered as an Elder and paired with individuals newly released from prison or treatment to help them with issues and provide support. Assistance can take the form, for example, of helping the person obtain a driver’s license or find a job. In 6 months since the program started, not one of the 36 people in the program has relapsed or been returned to an institution. This peer-to-peer program will be repeated at the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.