Emerging professional development program helps tribal communities help themselves

Most of us are unaware of the level of poverty that Native Americans face every day. Typically, reservations and rancherias are located in isolated areas with limited access to jobs, child care, educational opportunities and public transportation. The scarcity of these basic economic resources makes self sufficiency a challenging—and often elusive—goal for many tribal communities and their members.

During the federal welfare reform of the mid 1990s, a law was passed that gave tribal governments authority to structure and administer their own social services programs for the first time, including welfare (now called TANF—Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), employment and training, child care and child support programs.

"Tribes aren't accustomed to running their own social services programs," explains Julie Gondry, Tribal TANF program director at The Center for Human Services, UC Davis Extension. "But this law benefits tribes because it gives them an opportunity to take charge in helping themselves—serving clients who were once overlooked and underserved."

This is no easy task, however. Many tribes have faced difficulties with implementing these programs because of challenges like a lack of infrastructure (automated information systems, for example), as well as limited professional experience in managing social services programs. In addition, tribal TANF caseloads have grown quickly, as have the individual and collective needs of clients on and off reservations and rancherias.

The Center for Human Services at UC Davis Extension now offers Tribal TANF professional development training to better equip tribes to serve their own people.

The only one of its kind in the western United States, UC Davis Extension's Tribal TANF training program began unofficially in 2004 when it offered a series on human services case management training to a Native American tribe.

"The training was well received, but it didn't specifically address the cultural aspects of Native American life," Gondry says. "So we hired Geni Cowan to develop a curriculum for case management that was specific to Native American families and cultures." Cowan, a local professor and a Native American, now works as a program development specialist and lead instructor for the Tribal TANF courses offered through UC Davis Extension.

Tribal TANF programs need skilled case managers to address the complex and unique needs of Native American individuals and families. The Center's Tribal TANF professional development programs serve to strengthen caseworkers' and managers' skills through a series of core courses that addresses a broad range of topics, including the history and practice of case management, the Native American Indian worldview, cross-cultural communication, and interviewing and assessment skills. Also, content can be tailored to specific tribal cultures. Elective courses allow the tribal TANF participants to develop skills in areas such as alcohol and drug abuse, family violence, crisis management and child welfare. All courses are taught with an emphasis on cultural sensitivity. For example, in the "Interviewing and Assessing Clients" class, participants learn how to ask direct (and sometimes personal) questions to their clients—an action considered disrespectful in some tribal cultures.

According to Cowan, the door to Tribal TANF training is wide open. "In some cases, tribal social workers are coming into their positions with a social services background. But in many cases, they have no specialized training in the field," she says. Professional development training from UC Davis Extension gives them the confidence they need to succeed in their jobs, as well as understand that they are helping to build stronger tribal communities by helping others achieve self sufficiency.

Training sessions take place on-site at reservations as well as in urban locations. In addition, this summer, The Center for Human Services will offer its first weeklong residential training program in Tribal TANF case management, where it expects to draw participants from across the country.

What began only two years ago as a general case management training that just happened to take place on a reservation, has since blossomed into a uniquely-tailored and culturally-driven professional development program that, to date, has trained more than 150 participants in California, Washington and Arizona. The Tribal TANF training program is just one example of the responsiveness and commitment to service excellence that The Center for Human Services has provided for more than 25 years.

For more information about Tribal TANF or other training opportunities with The Center for Human Services, call (530) 757-8643, email human@unexmail.ucdavis.edu or visit the Web site at www.humanservices.ucdavis.edu.