Minneapolis American Indian Center
Healing Generations will weave together cultural values, traditions, and wisdom into contemporary best practices services to create a healing social fabric that supports American Indian children and families who have been involved with child protective services.
Frances Fairbanks, MAIC Executive Director, is pleased: “We are very thankful for this funding from ANA, because of our experiences we’ve had with children in foster care and adoption, this funding is being put to good use for families in need.”
Healing Generations will bring together elders, service providers, tribal representatives,
families, and youth transitioning from foster care to determine ways to use our traditions
and resources that support healing and restoration of healthy family traditions. The ties for
family roles and responsibilities, guidance and oversight from family systems and communities that have protected our Indian families and children through the millennia are frayed and weakened, particularly for families suffering from intergenerational disruption of traditions. The planning grant from ANA empowers us to collect and evaluate high quality first person, traditional, and community data. The planning phase includes compilation of data and demographic characteristics, identification of gaps, resource mapping, curriculum development and evaluation.
Rose Robinson, MSW (Leech Lake Ojibwe) is leading the project team. Robinson is known for her extensive work and leadership in Indian Child welfare. Linda Harris, Minneapolis, will serve as Project Evaluator and other support staff will round out the team. Sheri Riemers, MAIC Child Welfare Program Director submitted the grant proposal in April 2009, and says she is “excited to now have the project launched with this great team of passionate community people mobilized to self-determination in the community.”
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
