“I have friends that are emotionally unstable and they don’t know where to take that out on,” she told us. “They don’t know how to cope with these feelings other than harming themselves.”

“When I tell them about my story about how I use art to cope they started to find their own methods to cope. This program has really given me the confidence to talk with anyone about their feelings and to give them some art supplies to work with.”

She noted that a friend of hers became inspired by her Dreamstarter program and has started making art of her own and writing about her feelings as a coping strategy “instead of self-harming.”

After attending the Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Academy where she met Running Strong national spokesman and Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills, along with her nine fellow Dreamstarters, Hope said her life has been transformed.

“I was a little scared to talk in front of anyone but as I kept talking, I got used to it,” she said. “So now I can talk to anyone.”