NICWA News | Fall 2017

NICWA NEWS Quarterly Newsletter • Fall 2017

LATEST

The

Technical Assistance pop quiz, learning from Qualified Expert Witnesses & more inside!

INSIDE

Celebrating 35 years with 35 ways to keep learning!

National Indian Child Welfare Association 5100 SW Macadam Avenue, Suite 300 Portland, Oregon 97239 P (503) 222-4044 F (503) 222-4007 www.nicwa.org

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) is a private nonprofit, membership-based organization dedicated to the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, NICWA serves tribes, individuals, and private organizations throughout the United States and Canada by serving as the most comprehensive source of information on American Indian child welfare and acting as the only national Native organization focused on building tribal capacity to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Our Mission

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) is dedicated to the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families.

Board of Directors

President Gil Vigil (Tesuque Pueblo) Vice President Rochelle Ettawageshik (Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians) Secretary W. Alex Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) Treasurer Gary Peterson, MSW (Skokomish) Members Teressa Baldwin (Inupiaq) Luke Madrigal (Cahuilla Band of Indians) Patricia Carter-Goodheart (Nez Perce) Angela Connor (Choctaw) Aurene Martin (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) Cassondra Church (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) Robert McGhee (Poarch Band of Creek Indians) Theodore Nelson, Sr. (Seminole Tribe of Florida) Paul Day (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) Mary Tenorio, PhD, RN (Santo Domingo) Jocelyn Formsma (Swampy Cree) Derek Valdo (Acoma Pueblo) Debra Foxcroft (Tseshaht)

Board of Trustees

John Shagonaby (Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians) Brad Earl (Nez Perce descent) Sherry Salway Black (Oglala Lakota) Allard Teeple (Bay Mills Indian Community) Victor Rocha (Pechanga Band of LuiseĂąo Indians)

Founder and Senior Advisor Terry Cross (Seneca)

Executive Director

Sarah Kastelic (Alutiiq)

NICWA News is the quarterly newsletter for members and donors of the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

Membership is available in multiple levels starting at $35.

For reprint requests, additional copies, or other information, contact us at info@nicwa.org

Tribal Canoe Journney send off at Cathedral Park in Portland, Oregon

Message from the Executive Director Dear NICWA Members, Sponsors, Donors, and Friends, It’s back to school time, one of my favorite times of year. I love the cooler weather, fall leaves and fruit, football season, and new school supplies. I’ve been out of school for nearly ten years now, and I still feel the urge to buy a few office supplies this time of year! I think it’s the excitement of the promise of learning new things. As my grandma used to say, “We’re all a work in progress.”

With the launch of NICWA’s new website, we’re thinking about the opportunities to learn new things—to link our members, donors, and partners to the myriad of resources that support lifelong learning and the capacity the Creator gifted each one of us with—to learn from the world and people around us, to think about the work we do, and to reflect on how we can continue to better serve Native children and families.

NICWA does a variety of different kinds of work for the benefit of Native children and families. You are probably familiar with the way we talk about our “buckets” or different types of program work: information and training; community development for child welfare; community development for children’s mental health and youth engagement; government affairs and public policy; and research.

Another way that we talk about our work is to explain all of our efforts to help tribes address child safety through strengthening the well-being of Native children, families, and communities. Child maltreatment can happen anywhere and impacts everyone. To avoid maltreatment, NICWA works to build the capacity of tribes to prevent child abuse and neglect by addressing the underlying factors. Many of these factors are related to structural risk: poverty, parental/caregiver substance abuse, and untreated mental health issues. Other factors include historical trauma and the loss of positive parenting traditions. Reducing these factors helps prevent maltreatment. Unfortunately, maltreatment does occur, so NICWA also provides support to the tribal systems that are there to help children and families: child welfare, family support and social services, substance abuse treatment, law enforcement, and courts. Additionally, NICWA helps tribes deal with the negative consequences of child maltreatment: trauma, loss, and family disruption. In Indian Country, every family matters, so our approach to child welfare seeks to ensure child safety through fostering safe families and supportive communities by building on family strengths. The correct implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act is also key to reducing the trauma that children and families experience when systems intervene in their lives. When well-meaning helping systems do damage to families, NICWA provides resources and support to tribes to help families heal from their negative or unwarranted interaction with the system.

In this issue of NICWA News, we provide articles and resources to support you in your lifelong-learning journey across topics that span the continuum of how NICWA interacts with child maltreatment. Please enjoy this issue and visit our new website (www.nicwa.org), with lots more content and tools. Also, please consider submitting a workshop proposal for NICWA’s 35th annual conference to share your knowledge and experience with other tribal communities. We’ll be in Anchorage, Alaska, from April 15–18, so make plans to join us for Indian Country’s premier child welfare training and professional development experience.

Happy learning!

Sarah Kastelic

CONTENTS

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

Message from the Executive Director 3.

Policy Updates 4.

How We Can Learn from QEWs 4.

Meet Rosalee, New NICWA Baby 5.

Where We’ve Been 5.

35 Ways to Keep Learning 6.

Host a House Party 8.

Relational Worldview Quiz Answers 9.

NICWA Member Melissa Yazzie 10.

2017 | 3Members 11.

New &Fall Renewing

Policy

No movement for social change can afford to be static, and this applies to the advocates of ICWA too. After almost 40 years of implementation, ICWA advocates agree on one thing: ongoing education and positive relationships work.

NICWA has been a leader in encouraging new advocates to join the movement to protect and improve ICWA. We operate from a philosophy that we will work with anyone who wants to improve services and outcomes for Native children and families. This has motivated us to reach out to many leading child advocacy organizations located outside of Indian Country.

Updates

When Tribes and States Work Together, Everyone Benefits In 1978, the Congress passed landmark legislation, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which provided much needed protections for Native children and families that were in state child welfare systems. Congress was clear in their message that biased practices with Native families in public and private child welfare agencies must end. This began a long journey for states and tribes as state and private agencies sought to change historic practices which led to unnecessary mass removals of Native children from their families and generations of culturally disconnected and traumatized Native people. The process of healing and rebuilding from that history has been challenging to say the least, but there is strong evidence that ICWA is achieving the purposes for which it was established when the law is followed.

One important change has been in the relationships between states and tribes. Approximately 22 states have intergovernmental agreements with tribes that spell out procedures for implementing ICWA and principles for establishing effective relationships that can improve services to Native children and families. These agreements were often the impetus for new innovations in child welfare related to the development and delivery of services and supports for Native children and families (1). Prior to ICWA’s passage, almost no states or tribes had child welfare agreements with one another. This left many states without the critical information and resources tribes have and left tribes without a partner who could assist them in helping rehabilitate families and support children in care. With the release of the 2016 regulations and revised guidelines, we now see states and tribes building upon their relationships to develop new training and policies to improve ICWA implementation even more. State courts are also engaged with tribal courts as partners in this work, and we now count numerous tribal-state court improvement projects happening around the country (2, 3). Improving education and information sharing between tribes and states are core functions of tribal-state relations in the implementation of ICWA, and the benefits from these efforts, in terms of better services to families, are increasing in almost every state where tribes and states are working together.

For More Reading 1. Improving the Well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families through Statelevel Efforts to Improve Indian Child Welfare Act Compliance (visit goo.gl/QVeYWT) 2. Meaningful and Ongoing Engagement of Tribes and State Courts in Child Protection (visit goo.gl/ EsGnFS) 3. “Improving Outcomes in Indian Child Welfare Cases: Strategies for State-Tribal Collaboration” in American Bar Association’s Child Law Practice, Vol. 36, No. 1 4. Visit www.firstkids1st.org to learn more about First Kids 1st – Every Child is Sacred initiave

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

As part of the First Kids 1st Initiative (4), NICWA has established a group of child welfare partners consisting of several mainstream child advocacy organizations, like Child Welfare League of America and Children’s Defense Fund; they now meet regularly with our Native First Kids 1st partner organizations. While the child welfare partners’ group is new, each of the partners come to the table with a desire to learn as much as they can about ICWA and the needs of Native children, families, and communities so together we can change policy to improve the lives of Native children and families. While our resources are limited, we are discovering the power of our combined relationships and resources, and we believe that we can harness our shared knowledge and resources to improve policies and to bring more partners to

What’s There to Know?

Amazing Learning Opportunities from Qualified Expert Witnesses How often do you get the chance to learn from another culture? I’m not talking about the tip of the cultural iceberg stuff like learning about a tribe’s traditional dress or food; I mean the deeply meaningful, paradigm-shifting cultural expressions that can shake our world views. If you answer, “often,” then that’s fantastic! However, if you’re like most of us, the answer is not that often.

Even when we engage with one another as responsible citizens and try to educate ourselves, we face enormous systemic barriers. For example, most public school curricula are severely lacking any information about American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. Perhaps we received some badly stereotyped information about Native Americans pre-contact or around Thanksgiving, but that was it! A Google search today reveals a lot of the same. Things are—thankfully— changing, and we are beginning to see examples of culturally informed curricula, but change is slow, and when we’re in the midst of child welfare proceedings, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) gives us the opportunity to access that information in real time.

The testimony of an ICWA qualified expert witness (QEW) presents the state with a significant opportunity to learn about a tribe’s culture in the present and add it to the court record so the judge can make a decision that serves the best interests of the Indian child. While the ICWA regulations only say that the QEW “should” be qualified to speak to the child’s tribe’s cultural and social standards, we should all advocate for the state to seek someone who is recognized by the tribal community as an expert in the tribe’s cultural standards around child-rearing every single time.

The QEW isn’t just some layperson who argues for one party or another. They are there to educate the court on important practices beyond mainstream knowledge that ultimately benefit our families. The QEW can teach the court about how the community responds in times of crisis, what roles natural helpers and extended family members take on, what resources are available for children right now, and so much more.

State agencies and courts stand to grow from this knowledge and even apply it in future cases, ICWA or not. After all, the concept of restorative justice came from Indigenous communities, so QEWs present a real way for “new” justice principles to make it into the United States justice system.

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&Notes News from N I C WA

transportation costs to Campbell River, British Columbia, to join many other canoes in the annual tradition of canoe journey. We are glad to be part of a project that is positively impacting our youth and providing experiences that strengthen their cultural identities. We are grateful for the opportunity to invest in our local community by continuing to grow positive relationships with individuals and projects committed to supporting Native children, youth, and families.

MSW Intern Graduates There are so many exciting things happening around the NICWA office that we are honored to share with you!

Our social work intern, Rosella Stanley, graduated with her master of social work degree from Portland State University on June 18, 2017. Rosella is from the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and has served Native communities in many ways since she started her internship with us. She has led trainings on working with substance-abusing families and helped develop resource guides and collect data for tribal communities. Since graduating, Rosella has moved back to her community in Madison, Wisconsin, and supports NICWA as a contracted presenter for trainings on substance abuse and systems of care. We are so proud of Rosella and the great work she is doing for Native children and families!

Where We’ve Been Every year, NICWA provides onsite training and technical assistance to dozens of communities in the US, Canda, and now Australia. Here is where we have been since fall 2016.

New NICWA Baby NICWA’s Local Community Engagement Team Supports Local Canoe Family In August, the Portland All Nations Canoe Family, comprised primarily of families, youth, and individuals from the Portland area, set out on the waters for their annual canoe journey. The NICWA Local Community Engagement team was given the opportunity to be involved with the local canoe family in a new way this year. Last year, we were able to help provide life jackets for the team, and this year, we supported them in offsetting some National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

In June, the NICWA family welcomed a new little advocate to our growing ranks of ICWA defenders!

Rosalee June Scott was born on sunny June 22, 2017, in Portland, Oregon, to proud parents—Maggie and Matt Scott, our director of operations and member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon.

She weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces and measured 21 inches in length! Mom, dad, baby girl, and first-time big sister, Genevieve, couldn’t be healthier or happier and have been enjoying all their time bonding together as a family of four! Rosalee made her first appearance and stole our hearts at NICWA’s staff summer picnic where she received plenty of kisses and hugs from the whole team. We are ecstatic for Matt and Maggie and love being close by to support Rosalee and Genevieve as they grow!

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35 Ways to Learn at NICWA

At NICWA, we believe that lifelong learning is a Native tradition. It is common in Native communities to see men, women, and children of all ages gathering together to listen to elders teach and learn from their wisdom. As our children return to school, we challenge ourselves and our supporters to find new ways to continue our education to better serve our families and communities. In honor of NICWA’s upcoming 35th year of protecting our children and preserving our culture, we’re sharing 35 ways you can continue learning at NICWA.

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Check Out Our New Website We designed our new website for families and service providers so that it would be easier to navigate and connect with valuable resources. nicwa.org Subscribe to NICWA’s e-news Sign up on our website homepage today!

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Join NICWA A NICWA membership grants you exclusive access to benefits like our free monthly webinars on topics in Indian child welfare such as recruiting Native foster families, premium discounts on events and trainings, our quarterly newsletter, and much more. nicwa.org/membership

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Attend Our Annual Conference Our four-day annual conference is our biggest event of the year and has become the premiere national event addressing tribal child welfare and well-being.

Participants receive between 10–15 continuing education units (CEUs) and continuing legal education units (CLEs) upon request. nicwa.org/conference Connect with Conference Exhibitors Conference exhibitors can help you stay up-to-date on the newest programs and services.

Connect with Conference Speakers and Keynotes You can connect through our conference mobile app to learn about new programs, resources, and trainings.

Training Institutes are a favorite resource among members at NICWA. Learn more about the trainings and objectives, and access sample agendas at nicwa.org/training-institute.

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Attend Our Working with Substance-Abusing Families Training Learn five essential roles for working with substance-abusing families and how child safety can be accomplished through partnering on the parent’s recovery.

Attend Our Positive Indian Parenting Training Most Popular!

Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) prepares tribal and non-tribal child welfare personnel to train American Indian and Alaska Native parents using a strengthsbased, culturally specific approach.

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

Attend Our In-Home Services Training This three-day training provides instruction about how to develop tribal in-home services from a system of care strengths-based perspective as a set of familycentered services designed to keep families together.

Attend Our Understanding ICWA Training Learn the basic legal requirements of ICWA, the practice issues involved with ICWA’s implementation, and how to successfully integrate other federal and state policies with ICWA—such as the Adoption and Safe Families Act—and support developing tribal and state agreements and other elements of systems change.

Attend Our Cross-Cultural Skills in Indian Child Welfare Training This training utilizes NICWA’s Relational Worldview Model as a framework to provide guidance on how to build cross-cultural skills and implement culturally responsive services to connect with tribal communities you serve.

NICWA also hosts onsite trainings called Fee For Services (FFS) for tribes conducted by our experienced trainers.

Request a training or techincal assistance in your community by visiting nicwa.org/training

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Host FFS on Working with Substance Abusing Families Host FFS on Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) Host FFS on Understanding ICWA Host FFS on In-Home Services Host FFS on CrossCultural Skills in Indian Child Welfare Host FFS on ICWA Qualified Expert Witness Testimony This training prepares participants with information about the basic legal requirements of ICWA and will train participants on how to provide effective qualified expert witness testimony in ICWA cases as well as the practice issues involved.

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Host FFS on Tribal Customary Adoption This training discusses judicial processes for the recognition and certification of tribal customary law regarding the adoption of children and sets out a culturally based framework for conducting formal adoptions without the termination of parental rights.

Request Customized Technical Assistance You can invite NICWA to provide a customized technical assistance event in your community at nicwa.org/request-a-training.

NICWA has many ways to get involved and continue learning online. From our curricula available through our online store, our social media, and our website full of updated resources, you’ll find everything you need to keep families together.

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Purchase Our Tribal Customary Adoption Curriculum Our curriculum is available for purchase on our online store at nicwa.myshopify.com.

Purchase Our Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) Curriculum Our curriculum is available for purchase on our online store at nicwa.myshopify.com.

Read A Guide to Compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act Read Effective Leadership for Tribal Child Welfare

Read Cross-Cultural Skills in Indian Child Welfare: A Guide for the Non-Indian Read Grassroots Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in Indian Communities: A Guide for the Community Organizer Read Training Issues and Methods in Indian Child Welfare: A Model for Trainers Read Our Heritage and Helping Five-Part Curriculum Series • Basic Skills in Indian Child Welfare • Protective Services for Indian Children • Indian Extended Family and Foster Family Care • Family-Centered Services for Indian Children • Permanency Planning for Indian Children

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

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Read NICWA’s quarterly newsletter, NICWA News

Read NICWA’s Pathways Practice Digest

Read Our Annual Report Our annual report is a great way to learn what NICWA is doing in our communities and how you can help.

Take Our Online Introduction to ICWA Course You can earn 4.5 CEUs and CLEs for completing this course with a passing score on the final test.

Follow us on Facebook @NativeChildren

Follow us on Twitter @NativeChildren

Read Our Past News Publications Visit issuu.com/nicwa for all of our informative publications, including past issues of NICWA News and Pathways Practice Digest Check out the Following Factsheets You can find these on issuu.com/nicwa: • Top Ten ICWA Myths • How to Get Free Low Cost Legal Advice • Setting the Record Straight: The Indian Child Welfare Act Factsheet • Implementing a Youth Organizational Assessment: NICWA as a Case Study

NICWA Technical Assistance Pop Quiz Did you know that NICWA provides technical assistance (TA) as its primary community development service? For NICWA, community development is a process of helping communities build the capacity to respond to the needs of children and families with systems and services that positively impact those needs.

Take this true or false pop quiz to test your knowledge about our community development technical assistance approach.

To check your answers, see page 9.

1. NICWA technical assistance (TA) is a set of services that support people, organizations, and tribal governments in developing and operating programs that thrive, provide effective services, and are sustainable. True or False?

2. Child Welfare and Social Services should be provided by the people. True or False?

3. NICWA uses the Relational Worldview model as our conceptual framework for TA. True or False?

4. The Relational Worldview is a strengths-based model that relies on a community based locus of control. True or False?

5. We use the RWV model to assess the well-being of organizations and to assist managers with defining consultation and training needs. True or False?

6. The Relational Worldview model is represented as a circle with five sections. True or False?

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Stand Together for Native Children— Consider Hosting a House Party Your home is busy at this time of year, a gathering place for family, friends, and community. Your home provides a space to talk about issues impacting your community—a place that we can share experiences and stories, learn from one another, and talk about our aspirations for our community and how we can make a difference.

We hope that you will consider incorporating NICWA into your fall family plans by including us in your next gathering. Hosting a house party is an impactful way to share our work, helping communities learn more about the issues that keep their children safe and families connected. NICWA can provide support throughout the planning process and, where possible, provide a speaker along with videos and handouts.

Beyond house parties, there are many ways that you can support our work, such as organizing a holiday bazaar, coordinating a raffle, holding a bake sale, or launching a Facebook fundraising page. There are everyday activities you can consider, like GoodSearch.com, Amazon Smile, or workplace match donations.

Each of these examples is a way to share information about NICWA’s work and why you support us—but most of all it is an opportunity to stand together for Native children!

To check out more ideas about what you can do in your community, go to nicwa.org/in-your-community or contact Kim Christensen, development director, at (503) 222-4044 or kchristensen@nicwa.org for more information.

Make a difference in your community today!

Thank you for your ongoing support and contributions; without you our work would not be possible.

Cross-Cultural Skills Training Institute Overview Cross-Cultural Skills (CCS) is one of NICWA’s foundational trainings. It was designed to enhance the skills of non-Indian child welfare staff delivering services to Indian children and families. The three-day training lays a foundation for cross-cultural skills by providing information on the history of Indian people and policies affecting Indian children, so that participants understand the context in which services are provided.

Since the 1978 passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), there has been ongoing improvement in Indian child welfare (ICW) practice with the integration of culturally responsive services by and for Indian people. Cross-cultural training is an opportunity for child welfare staff to broaden their learning while developing the cultural awareness needed to implement ICWA and provide effective services to Indian children and families.

Across Indian Country, ICW cases are often handled by state agencies that have limited experience delivering services appropriate to Indian children and families.

The CCS training meets the increased need to deliver services that are culturally appropriate and responsive to the needs of families. Handling ICW cases effectively not only requires that staff understand and be in compliance with ICWA, but also that they have knowledge and skills related to cross-cultural practice.

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

Through interactive instruction, the training helps develop the cultural dimension of a participant’s ICW practice, skillset, and knowledge base. Using NICWA’s Relational Worldview Model as a guiding framework, the training offers insight on culturally responsive services and how workers can adapt their practice to provide such services. Participants learn how to conduct cross-cultural interviews, perform a cross-cultural assessment, and integrate cultural intervention skills into their existing practice. By embracing awareness, knowledge, and cross-cultural skills, case workers are better equipped to serve Indian children and meet the requirements of ICWA. Participants leave the training with the ability to navigate the field of ICW with cross-cultural communication skills, allowing them to have a positive and lasting impact in tribal communities.

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Programs Technical Assistance Pop Quiz Answers 1. True. To be effective, technical assistance (TA) is based in theories about systems, change, and organizational development and behavior. Effective technical assistance is dependent upon the development of a trusting relationship between the TA provider and the program served and a common language to describe the strengths and needs of the organization.

2. False. NICWA focuses on and nurtures the capacity to provide those services by the people, organizations, and tribes. Not just the people. Did you know that when applied to organizations, the Relational Worldview helps the planner, manager, or frontline service delivery staff to understand organizational, development, and related problems through the balances and imbalances in the organization’s relational world? Using this model, mangers can see and manipulate complex (and sometimes illogical) interrelationships. The well-being of the organization can be influenced by intentionally manipulating the balance contextually, cognitively, emotionally, physically and/or spiritually.

3. True.

4. True.

5. True.

6. False. The Relational Worldview model is represented as a circle with four quadrants. The four quadrants represent four major forces or sets of factors that together must come into balance. Applied to the person, they are: context, mind, body, and spirit. Applied to an organization, they are: environment, infrastructure, resources, and mission.

Learning for Policy and Practice: Update from the NICWA Research Department This summer and fall, the NICWA research department has been developing learning products on child welfare and behavioral health issues critical for Indian Country. The research department seeks to provide resources and research in service to the broader mission of NICWA, and in service to our members and American Indian/ Alaska Native communities. When members and communities ask for data or resources on specific topics, it guides our scope of work and plans for what products we will develop.

In other words, the research department seeks to gather the best data to inform the work of NICWA and to support the well-being of Native children and families. Gathering this data can mean doing original studies ourselves, or finding high-quality studies that have already been done. With previous studies, the findings are not always reported in a way that is clear for how to apply it on the ground in policy and practice. A core part of our work in the research department is to translate existing research into clear applications and recommendations for how to use information in communities and clinical settings (we call this “translational research work”). Another key aspect of our translational research efforts is to take a strengths-based approach. We explicitly look for measures of strength in Native communities related to the issues we are researching so that we can include information on how to marshal these strengths in our products for membership and communities. We invite NICWA members to reach out to us with specific questions about data you need, or ideas you have for topics we can explore in translational research to support your work.

The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis throughout the U.S. and it also affects Indian Country. The NICWA research department reviewed the literature and existing studies on this topic. We developed products with information on the health impact of this in Indian Country, including a focus on strengths in approaches Native communities are already using to address the opioid epidemic. We also address what steps child welfare programs, behavioral health programs, and communities can take to cope. We will share our findings with you in the upcoming year through webinars, articles, and presentations at the NICWA conference.

Recently, our translational research work has included projects on the opioid crisis in Indian Country, use of psychiatric medications in child welfare populations, helping children and families in the child welfare system access health insurance coverage and advocate for their needs with health care providers, and other topics. We use the information we have gathered to develop specific recommendations for child welfare and behavioral health practice, as well as steps communities can take. We share this information through webinars for NICWA membership, presentations at the NICWA conference, and articles in NICWA’s newsletters.

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

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Be a NIC WA Advocate!

36 th Annual Protecting Our Children Conference Call for Presentations Calling All Presenters!

Share your work at NICWA’s 36th Annual Protecting Our Children Conference. We invite you to present a workshop that will contribute to knowledge in the field that will improve the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families. This year’s topics include: · · · ·

Children’s Mental Health Child Welfare, Foster Care, and Adoption Services Judicial and Legal Affairs Youth and Family Involvement

To apply and for more information visit nicwa.org/call-for-presentations Questions? Contact Sarah Wittmann training@nicwa.org or (503) 222-4044 Submissions are due by November 16, 2017 National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

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New & Renewing Members Individuals Turquoise:

Abalone: Barbara Bolton Camilla Chouteau Melissa Chrans Gwendalle Cooper Mark Crawford Carol J. Deverney Marne Grusing Wendy Harris Lori Irwin William A. Metcalfe Linda Oberle Jovi Radtke Jacqueline Red Leaf

Melanie Sage David Sanborn Lindsay Sarracino Ashley Sarracino Steven Sochay Carla Jeanne Tenorio Jo Anne Tipps Rory Wheeler Wynette Whitegoat Erica Wondrasek Yvonne Yazzie

Melissa Akason Beverly Anderson Cheryl Baldomaro Lucas Laura L. Bentle Robyn Black Feather Cyndi Bush Luna Evander Delgado Julie Ellefson Brooke Loring Wesley Martin Jeanette Ninham

Dale Powless Ahniwake Rose Carol L. Silva Dorothy Wait Coral: Carole Butzke Terry Cross Denise Goodman Trina Hofbauer Robert Prue

Tribes & Organizations Cedar (*was Turquoise): Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Chickasaw Nation Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cook Inlet Tribal Council Itasca County Health and Human Services Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida Navajo Nation Division of Social Services Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota

Spirit Rock Consulting United Auburn Indian Community Sage (**was Coral): Ak-Chin Indian Community Comcast Corporation Handel Information Technologies Mescalero Tribal Human Services Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians Seminole Media Productions Seminole Tribe of Florida

Member Profile: Melissa Yazzie Melissa Yazzie is a second-year master of social work student at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St Louis. She is from Denver, Colorado, and has a rich Scottish/Irish and Diné lineage. She is passionate about preserving Native families and building resilient tribal communities.

Melissa believes that education is the building block that will strengthen tribes and contribute to lasting economic development and tribal nation building.

She earned a degree in political science from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Passionate about making improvements for Indian Country, Melissa was tenacious and applied for, and was successful in securing the 2016–2017 Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial MSW Scholarship, the Buder Foundation Scholarship, and the Navajo Nation Graduate Fellowship, which allow her to continue her education.

Melissa is currently conducting research on American Indian and Alaska Native people pertaining to incarceration, youth, and delinquency. She also intends to examine issues surrounding access to mental health services and destigmatization of mental health issues in tribal communities. After completing her degree, Melissa plans to return to her community and, with her policy and direct practice training, commit her career to listening to and meeting her community’s needs.

We are so proud of Melissa and thankful that she is one of our great members!

National Indian Child Welfare Association | NICWA News

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NICWA News

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO. 567

National Indian Child Welfare Association 5100 SW Macadam Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, Oregon 97239 PHONE: (503) 222-4044 FAX: (503) 222-4007 WEB: www.nicwa.org

Upcoming Events & Training

November 7–9, 2017 Albuquerque, New Mexico • Understanding ICWA • In-Home Services

December 5–7, 2017

Miami Beach, Florida • Understanding ICWA • Positive Indian Parenting

April 15–18, 2018

Anchorage, Alaska • 36th Annual Protecting Our Children Conference

April 18–20, 2018

Anchorage, Alaska • Understanding ICWA • Positive Indian Parenting