Civic Health Spotlight on NAYA Action Fund

Throughout this calendar year, NWHF will be highlighting our Civic Health Cohort, also known as the C4 Power Program.

“I believe Native Americans, women, and all of us deserve representation, and that we all need to fight with everything we have to make it so.” - Deb Haaland

The Native American Youth and Family Center was founded by parent and Elder volunteers in 1974 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1994. Throughout their history, they’ve sustained diverse Native traditions while expanding and modernizing programs and services to meet the needs of their people. They serve self-identified Native Americans, infant to Elder, across the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. 

NAYA’s mission is to enhance the diverse strengths of their youth and families in partnership with the community through cultural identity and education. NAYA values respect for the environment, places the larger community before the individual and involves Elders. They promote healthy living through positive alternatives to high-risk behaviors, and they promote the values of sobriety, family stability, culture, active lifestyles and education.

As an urban Indian agency, NAYA Family Center impacts the lives of over 10,000 individuals from over 380 tribal backgrounds annually. They hope to deepen their work in Clark County and are hiring a new staff member for that very purpose this month. 

In 2020, NAYA began their 501(c)(4), NAYA Action Fund, believing that political advocacy is the next natural evolution in their organizational work. NAYA started their C4 to address power imbalances. Often, the Native American voice is marginalized or silenced as a result of racist and oppressive laws, as well as systems and structures of government. It is the intention of NAYA Action Fund that those they serve are able to continue changing colonial systems, building and leading, while maintaining the integrity of traditional knowledge, wisdom and expertise. Over time, NAYA AF and their members will revitalize how systems of government work, where funds are being resourced, and how programs are executed in order to best serve the needs of the community. This will be done by expanding their culturally specific advocacy and policy team, providing direct outreach and engagement to communities throughout Oregon and Washington.

A little bit about the two participants in the C4 Power Table:

Paul Lumley (he/him/his) has spent most of his life working with Northwest Tribes and urban Indian communities. He is a citizen of the Yakama Nation and currently in a shared Executive Director role with NAYA Action Fund and Native American Youth and Family Center. Paul started at NAYA in 2016 after serving as Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission since 2009. Prior to that he was the Executive Director of the National American Indian Housing Council in Washington, D.C. and Senior Tribal Liaison with the U.S. Department of Defense, also in D.C. 

William “Will” Miller (he/him/his) (Blackfeet & Cherokee) has been involved with advocacy, policy and systems change since he was 11-years-old. He has an extensive background in outreach, engagement, policy, advocacy and social justice. You can find him lobbying critical issues impacting communities during legislative sessions in Washington, D.C., and in Salem, and for local budgets during city and county budget seasons. During his time at Oregon State University, he was instrumental in changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Corvallis while working at the Native American Longhouse and continues to be a fierce advocate for underrepresented communities. Since, he has assisted in the passage and implementation of several pieces of legislation that provide increased programming, funding and enrichment for all of our communities. He currently serves as a National Political Consultant with the National Urban Indian Family Coalition located in Seattle, WA and serves as the Advocacy Manager at NAYA. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a focus in Law and Politics from Oregon State University and is a Ford Family Foundation Scholar. William believes that our communities must work together in order to be bold, progressive, and make positive impacts for generations to come.

As NAYA Action Fund embarks on the C4 Power Program, they are most eager to learn campaign strategy, C4 best practices, C4 management and fundraising. While working within this cohort, they hope to better understand the needs and priorities of other underprivileged communities, as well as build collective electoral power with these communities. 

When asked for highlights and lessons learned so far in 2021, William shared, “I’d say that there is a continued need for communities of color throughout the nation to rise up and stand together in solidarity. Our communities have faced injustices for far too long, by standing in solidarity with community we can make influential changes at all levels of government.”