Are We Making a Difference? Listening to Native Families and Community Stakeholders

1. Are We Making a Difference? Listening to Native Families and Community Stakeholders University of Iowa School of Social Work Nat’l Resource Ctr. for Family Centered Practice Iowa City, IA 52242 Presenters: Brad Richardson, Research Director Julia Kleinschmit-Rembert, Clinical Faculty Jeri Gordon, Research Associate & Iowa Department of Human Services Presenter: Pat Penning, Service Area Manager

2. The National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice • Established in 1977 as a national consulting division of the University of Iowa School of Social Work • Research, Evaluation, Technical Assistance, Training & Organizational Development • NRC specializes in research-supported, strength-based culturally competent family centered practice; “Dr. Outcomes” • Family Development Specialist Certification Program

3. Research & Evaluation Division DMC Resource Center & Minority Youth & Families Initiative National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

4. National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

5. Jumping the Gap • Families getting what they need, when they need it • Flexible access to community resources • Systems Change • Research • Training • Meetings • Pilot projects • Test protocols • Fear • Defensiveness • Hidden assumptions • Formal structures • Tyranny of habit (Adapted from John Franz, Sr. Juvenile Justice Advisor, Nat’l Resource Network)

6. National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

7. Woodbury County (Sioux City) Iowa • Native American = 0.4% of the population • Native American children = 2.2% in foster care • History of community activism/need for change • Community Initiative for Native Families and Children (CINCF): 2001-present • Memorial March for Lost Children: 2002-2006 • Passage of Iowa ICWA - 2005 National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

8. Alaska Assiniboine Cherokee Cheyenne River Sioux Chippewa Crow Creek Sioux Fort Peck Sioux Ho-Chunk of WI Hopi Mille Lacs Mississippi Choctaw Navajo Northern Cheyenne Oglala Sioux Omaha Ponca Pottawattamie Rosebud Sioux Santee Sioux Sisseton Sioux Spirit Lake Sioux Tanana Chief Turtle Mt. Chippewa Yankton Sioux Wahpeton Sioux Winnebago of NE Tribal Affiliations/Enrollments of Native Children Assessed for Abuse,Woodbury CountyJanuary 2005-December 2006 National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

9. Reduce disproportionality of Native Americans and African Americans in child welfare In Sioux City, planning involves multiple systems and stakeholders, especially Native American community and Tribal members Trust, communication, and relationship issues among IDHS, courts, families, Tribes, and Native community Minority Youth and Family Initiative (MYFI): 2004 to present National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice Broken Trust by Stanley Wanlass

10. Increases in: Relative placements, Reunification with parents, Increase of Native American foster homes Decreases in: Termination of Parental Rights Reabuse/neglect rates Entry into the foster care system Abuse/neglect rates overall Number of placements for Native children MYFI Goal Statement Native American children are safely raised in the Native community as evidenced by: National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

11. Areas of Primary Focus • Provision of culturally competent services • Use of family team meetings • Increase of Native children placed with relatives (including Tribal transfer) and • Increase in Native children placed in Native foster homes. - Photo by National Geographic National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

12. MYFI Tools • SNAP Team: Special Native American Project Team • Emphasis on Relative/Community/Tribal Networks • Flexible resource dollar pool • New approaches to recruiting Native foster parents • Helping non-Native foster and adoptive parents become more culturally competent National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

13. First Year Outcomes: 2005 • North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) showed improvement in family functioning domains • Colorado Family Risk Assessment and Reassessment (CFRA and CFRR) showed • Decrease in High and Moderate Risk • Increase in Low Risk • Other methods: Treatment Activity Reporting Form, some interviewing, project monitoring National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

14. 2 ENV_I -0.18 0.82 ENV_C 0 -1.27 PAR_I -2 PAR_C -3.31 -4 -4.27 FAMINT_I -4.31 FAMINT_C -5.45 -6 FAMSAF_I -7.38 -8 FAMSAF_C -8.08 -10 CHILDWB_I -10.23 CHILDWB_C -12 NCFAS Results +2 = clear strength +1 = mild strength 0 = baseline/ Adequate -1 = mild problem -2 = moderate problem -3 = serious problem. National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

15. CFRA and CFRR • 24 Family Assessments • CFRA: • 1 Low risk • 9 Moderate risk • 13 High risk • CFRR: • 9 Low risk • 6 Moderate risk • 8 High risk National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

16. What other information do we need? • Family perspectives • Provider and worker perspectives • Community perceptions National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

17. Provider Responses Interviews conducted with: • Members of SNAP • Judicial System: Judge, Guardian Ad Litem, Assistant County Attorney, Court Administrator • Tribal Child Welfare Workers • Community Advocates • In-Home Service Providers • Others National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

18. Provider Questions: Changes. . . • Q1: Over the past year, what do you think has changed about the way DHS serves Native American families involved with child welfare? • Q2: How has your agency’s relationship with DHS changed? • Q3: How do you feel about the changes over the past year? National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

19. Provider Questions: Overrepresentation • Q4: Do you think these changes will affect over-representation in Woodbury County? • Q5: What do you think the percentage of Native Americans in child welfare should be? Graphic from the Nawash Native child welfare program for the Neyaashiinigmiing Community National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

20. Provider Questions: Strengths, Improvements Needed • Q6: What are the unique strengths in the service system? • Q7: What would you like to see done differently? Photo by Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

21. Provider Questions: Family Team Meetings and Native American Workers • Q8: How do you think using Family Team Meetings impacts service outcomes for families? • Q9: What difference do you think having Native American workers makes in working with Native families? www.redheadedartist.com National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

22. Better relationships between DHS the Native American Community and individual families, increased resources, and focus on prevention of out of home placement. • Improvement in communication. • Optimistic about longer term systems change, but concerned about sustainability; a sense from some that these changes are long overdue. National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

23. “They are consulting with the Tribeswhere they hadn’t done that in the past. There has been a dramatic change for the positive. They have the Tribe involved in decision making and working as a team instead of being in left and right field. If the Woodbury County Attorney would get on the team, things would be even better.” Tribal Child Welfare Worker • “DHS is more receptive to trying new services. . . A year or two ago, sending families to Flowering Tribe (substance abuse treatment for Oglalla Sioux women with children) would have been unheard of and now it’s considered part of a service option menu.” Guardian Ad Litem • “There is more focus on prevention– getting calls from families when problems are small. . . DHS has been getting a better reputation for being helpful rather than punitive – this is a shift happening over time, but it is happening.” DHS CPS Worker National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

24. “Money frustrates me because I know it won’t always be thereand there will be backlash when it’s gone. “You paid for it before and now you don’t!” . . . we will regress to where we were before in terms of caseloads, time, funding, etc. – are we always going to have the unit when the state commits to it one year at a time?” DHS worker • “I appreciate the changes immensely.I see better services for children. I see the workers making a sincere effort of getting to know the client, and working for the clients and not so much against.” Tribal child welfare worker • “. . . We cannot compliment . . . DHS at this point as they are simply doing what is necessary,what (should have been done) before now. One must acknowledge effort . . . It is not a time to throw roses, but a time to talk of issues . . . That will be when every Native American family in this community has a feeling about DHS that is not negative. That will take some time.” Native community advocate National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

25. “It already has” (impacted overrepresentation) • Varying answers re: what the proportion of Native Children in the child welfare system should be: • proportionate to the number of Native people in the population • Zero • Some concern that numbers would always be disproportionate. Image from Canku Oto newsletter: http://www.turtletrack.org/ National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

26. “The community is seeing action, not just words. Action helps them to deal with all the removals and terminations in the past.” Native community member • “I think it already is, because I can tell by clients I have on my caseload that they are with families or in relative placement. There is a real push to use relatives, which should have been true all along . . .” Guardian Ad Litem • “We need to try to work with families before they are formal, open cases . . . Once they are in the system, they have a better chance too, because of best practices and because Tribes are notified earlier. In the past it felt like Guardians Ad Litem, DHS, etc. were teamed up against the family and now it feels like the workers are working with families, not against them.” Tribal child welfare worker National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

27. “It should be the same proportionality as any other race – or less,because of kinship ties that are different and stronger in the Native American community.” DHS worker • “The number of Native American kids and families in the system will always be disproportionatebecause of economics and generational problems we have in the Native American community . . . Our concern is about the lack of process that makes disproportionality as severe as what we’ve seen in Woodbury County” Judge • “My position is that families need to stay the heck out of the system.I think families are better served staying out of the system. It limits your freedom and independence.” Native community advocate National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

28. Strengths include engaging clients in a trusting relationship, strengths-based work, and concrete help. • Needed improvements: providing a longer commitment to the program, keeping caseloads low, better understanding data, and more Native providers National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

29. “Case workers nowadays don’t judge people by their standards,but the standards of the people. Being in the white society, and I was raised in it, you have very strict standards and that won’t work with Native American people. If they offer you a cup of coffee, take it and be respectful. A lot of little things can work to become positive, and I see that happening.” Tribal child welfare worker • “Concrete help they are able to givesuch as gas cards to get to appointments, WalMart cards to get food and clothes, family team meetings to connect extended family that have been distanced from the situation. All these are strengths in the system.”Court Appointed Special Advocate National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

30. “A five to ten year commitmentfrom the state would send a good message to the Native American community.” Native community advocate • “If they want to determine the impact MYFI can make,we need to know our data.”Native community advocate • “Caseloads were intended to be low–they’ve gone up because we have ongoing families and redesigning the system (has had an affect).” DHS worker • “More Native providers would be helpful . . .” Guardian Ad Litem • “Tribal continuity is hard . . .Workers change constantly.”County Attorney National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

31. If done well, the Family Team Meeting gets families and workers on the same page, identifies family strengths, and builds a workable plan. • With Native workers, engagement happens faster, trust is deeper and more natural, but being Native isn’t an absolute requirement for being a good worker. Ronald Lewis, first Native American to earn a doctorate in Social Work National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

32. “(In one) it was a yelling, screaming match halfway through, but in the end,the whole family saw what was going on and what needed to be done to get the family back together.It was a large one with lots of people: aunts, uncles, relatives, grandparents. At first they didn’t understand what was happening in the family, and then when they did, they all took a part of that and committed to making this work.” DHS worker • “I think they are goodbecause it puts everything out on the table for the family. What is expected, what the responsibilities are, not blaming, finger pointing, but this is our goal; this is what needs to be done for the child to be with the parents. Everyone has the same goal: working together.” Native community advocate National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

33. “ . . . (the Tribal liaison)can get more donewith Tribes in 20 minutes than most can do in a month.” DHS worker • “I think . . . Native persons can understand betterwhat is going on in the system and they are more comfortable. I get calls daily from Native parents . . . A lot of them are thinking the system is making them do this or that – and I help them understand what they have to do and why, to get their kids back.” Native family liaison • “It helps build trust, however . . .(You) can’t generalizethat just having a Native American worker will be effective with all the Native American families. . . (We) need to remain sensitive to treating people as individuals." Judge National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

34. Listening to Families • Referred for: • Maltreatment report • Issues with children with which they were involved • Removal of a child • Involvement (time) in system varied Santee Angel – by Rita Tate National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

35. Opening Questions • Q1: When you first came to DHS, what were you looking for/what did you need? • Q2: What services did you think you needed? • Q3: What services were recommended? • Q4: How much time was there from the time you first met with DHS until you started receiving help? National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

36. Questions about service participation, change experienced, and what the families would have done differently. • Q5: Which services did you participate in? • Q6: What changed in your family as a result of your involvement with DHS? • Q7: How did these changes come about? • Q8: Were there any things you would have liked better, or things you would have liked to be different? • Q9: About the way services were identified or chosen? National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

37. How did you feel about . . . • Q10: What you were able to do? • Q11: The level of interest the worker showed toward you and circumstances/toward helping you resolve issues? • Q12: What was provided? • Q13: Do you think it makes a difference to have workers who are of the same race and ethnicity? • Q14: Do you think family team meetings make a difference? National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

38. What families were looking for . . . • “My girls were removed from our home.We had been staying with a person who was selling drugs. When I went to DHS, I was looking for help to get the girls back home with me.” • “To report neglect and abusein regards to adopted children of my husband. We now have them and were looking for resources to help the children.” Native American Woman, redthreaddesigns@aol.com “I did not want anything from them.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

39. Needed Services • “I just wanted my children to stay with me.” • “I was looking for someone to help me with my nieceso I could get guardianship from the court system.” • “I wanted the adoptive mother to be looked at and thechildren removed and placed with my husband and me.” • “At the time, I didn’t think I needed any services.” Mother and child – Christianna Hunnicutt National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

40. Recommended Services • “DHS recommended that I contact our Tribe and follow the ICWA guidelines.They provided free long distance for us to call the Tribe and Child Protective Services in the county where the children were, and they provided free long distance phone cards, free faxing, transportation to court, and advocated for our family.” • “Counseling and an in-home therapist.” • “Intensive (substance abuse) outpatient treatment, an in-home worker, and the Unit worker.” Mohawk Woman by Natasha Smoke Santiago National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

41. Timeliness • “After they came to my house and called me,they immediately started a home study for placement.” • “ . . .the CPS Worker . . . suggested I call the Native Unit. I was already able to visit with my kids.The Unit came a little later.” • “CPS took the kids and I stayed away until they were going to take my parental rights away.I decided to set up the in-patient treatment.” • “I started receiving help immediately.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

42. Service Participation • “I did inpatient treatment with the children in Pine Ridge, SD. We had in-home services and I got help with housing and I had outpatient treatment.” • “We got family therapy with a counselor and cultural activities.” • “They didn’t have me participate in any services except when a woman came over to monitor how I interacted with my son.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

43. Changes • “The DHS Native American Unit brought our family back together. . . It was the first time I used a program that actually worked.” • “The kids started to trust me again. We started to do family activities . . . Life is good. The family became closer.” • “The fear went out of working with DHS, of asking for help, of being misunderstood or the kids being taken away. I started being honest about the problems.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

44. How the changes happened • “The DHS Native American Unit helped by having our family take the situation into our own hands and learn how the system works. The workers stood behind us and advocated for us, and helped us contact the Yankton Tribe for help too.” • “I started being sober and got involved with the kids and their activities, with the school and the staff.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

45. Suggestions for Improvement • “I wish that the Unit had been developed years ago so they could have helped our children and many would not be lost in the system today . . . Long-term foster care should mean long term so the parents do not lose their children. Family placement should receive the money that foster and adoptive placements receive so (relatives can take in the children).” • “I would have liked more communication between the worker and our family.” Native Mother & Child, Nome, AL HG Kaiser, 1915 National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

46. What you were able to do • “Not given much choice. The Unit told me what services I needed and, if I didn’t do them, then my children would be taken away.” • “I was able to give a lot of input on services. DHS came and helped me when I asked and when things became overwhelming.” Sherwoodsspirit.com • “I felt like I had to “play the game” with DHS and let the adoptive mother try reunification. Everyone knew that was not going to happen. It was upsetting.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

47. The way services were chosen • “ . . . I was surprised that they gave me a chanceto participate in placement for my niece because of my past history with DHS. People change and the Unit recognized that and gave me a chance.” • “At first I didn’t want treatmentfor my drug abuse, but now I know how it leads to negative behaviors and the wrong people.” Mohawk Mother & Child Clayhorsepottery.com • “At first I thought it wasn’t working. I thought they were using my children to make me do things I didn’t think I needed.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

48. Worker’s level of interest • “The Unit workers had great interest from the beginning. They called right back and always helped with what we needed and helped resolve issues.” • “I don’t feel my worker showed any interest, she only talks to me when we are at court. The worker wants me and my son’s father to communicate, and that is not going to happen. She is not doing much to get me out of the system.” Narcisco Platero Abeyta (Ha-So-De), Navajo, b. 1918Children to Day School, n.d. • “The worker was helpful to both me and my children and was respectful of our family.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

49. Feelings re: what DHS provided • “I got my granddaughter back in my home and I’m waiting to hear from the Tribe to go to Tribal court. The workers helped me until the end. The Unit workers know their job and the support from the Unit made a difference.” • “It was the first I saw DHS care for the children and understand the way of my culture and how I raise my children.” Spirit Child – Jamie Winter • “Although it took two years in the system, I got my children back in my home. Today, I find it harder to get services because I am not drinking. I don’t like the way the system is set up so you can only get help if you are messed up.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice

50. Having Native Workers • “It does make a difference when working with a Native worker. They have a better understanding and are more empathic rather than sympathetic. They don’t enable, they just help.” • “Yes. There is an understanding of how I live, my culture, my values, and my ethics. It helped me to be honest with DHS, and they did not look at me negatively.” • “Yes, the worker has been the best thing for one of the girls because she can relate to her and sees hope that someone has made it and is successful.” National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice Jamie Winter