Building Partnerships Achieving Sustainability

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Building Partnerships Achieving Sustainability

• Teresa Peterson
• Dakota, Upper Sioux Community

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What does this mean?

• Building partnerships path/process
• Partnerships participate, associate, joint
  interest
• Achieving sustainability goal/outcome
• Sustain to support, hold, to keep going, to
  support a cause by aid or approval
• Its all in the journey.

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Why?

• Let us put our minds
• together and see what
• we can do for our children
• -Chief Sitting Bull

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Building relationships is key

• Cultural foundations
• Dakota ally (unity and cooperation)
• Dakota structure
• Tiwahe (those that live in the lodge together/
  those that live in a sacred way)
• Tiospaye (those that cook together)
• Oyate (the nation/people)

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To be a Dakota

• Kinship is most important
• Being a good relative
• Having a sense of responsibility toward each other

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Relationship building examples

• Building community leaders by addressing
  community issues/problems
• Building community leaders by building community
  capacity
• Building future community leaders by
  collaborating on a common goal
• Building leadership internally supports
  sustainability!

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I. Community issue/problem

• USC children not attending early childhood or
  head start programming in town
• USC Head Start
• Work launched in 2005
• Established Fall 2007
• 10 children to start
• 14 in Fall 2008

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I. Building community leaders by addressing an
issue/problem

• Problems issues opportunities for
  partnerships
• Background work surveys, parent meetings,
  planning meetings
• Identification of leaders in training
• Ms. Kati Jo Blue
• Identify each role responsibility

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USC Head Start Partners

• Prairie 5 expertise, administrative capacity,
  staff funding
• 501c3, 1965, several sites
• Our mission is to strive together to foster
  strong healthy children and their families and to
  promote staff excellence through dynamic
  programming.
• Upper Sioux Housing Program start-up funding,
  support, financial literacy training
• White Earth/Mille Lacs Head Start Programs
  provided t.a. on policies, etc through site
  visits

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USC Head Start partners continued

• 4. USC Social Service Programs funding,
  in-kind staff (drivers, fill-in staff)
• 5. USC Transportation Program bus
• 6. USC Meth Prevention Committee anti-drug,
  alcohol, gang, meth, violence curriculum based in
  culture (partnership through SMSU)
• 7. Non-formal partners
• -community wide donations, Indian non-Indian
  alike

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How did these partnerships form how do you
foster continued partnering?

• Media positive coverage
• Informal discussions
• Networking (state Indian liaison - )
• Evaluation
• Goal setting (Katijo to be Lead teacher)
• Celebration (graduation)

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• Upper Sioux Community Head Start Graduation
  Celebration Day

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II. Community capacity needed

• Land Natural Resources Department
• Solicitation of community leader applicants as an
  Internship through newsletter, informal,
  community quarterly meetings
• Program development as leader develops

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II. Building Community leaders by building
community capacity

• Internships promote partnerships
• Program components
• education
• shadowing
• evaluation
• employment
• training

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How did those program components get
accomplished? Through Partnerships!

• Education SMSU Science Dept.
• Shadowing
• 1. Other reservation program policy development
  
• 2. Tribal government leaders MIAC, civic
  engagement, mentoring in tribal government
  agency relationships

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Partners continued

• Training
• 1. Environmental office (regulatory, policies,
  statutes)
• 2. Upper Sioux State Park DNR (conservation
  practices, hands-on training)
• Employment USDAs local NRCS office
• (promotion of Indian employment initiative)

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Partners continued

• Evaluative Education Department
• (provided internship compensation, based on
  progress tuition funding, programming)

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III. Common issues state-wide initiative

• Minnesota Indian youth leadership project
• Impetus RL shootings
• A merging of collaborations

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III. Building Future Leaders by collaborating on
a common goal

• Blandin Indian Reservation Leadership Program
  2001 170 participants
• American Indian Advisory Committee alumni
  recommendations after RL shootings
• 2005 MIAC resolution to support a youth summit
  a state-wide initiative
• 2006 ML Blandin co-sponsored summit

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Timeline continued

• Vision to impact the factors contributing to
  desolate conditions of youth and begin to
  reawaken the dreams of tribal youth while
  validating and reviving cultural values
  community strengths.
• Goal to create healthy reservation communities
  by producing strong empowered youth who make good
  decisions through the establishment of a
  statewide youth initiative that provides
  accessible, culturally relevant resources and
  activities to strengthen protective factors by
  providing participatory leadership and increased
  opportunities to achieve their aspirations.

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State-wide initiative continued

• Desired outcomes the statewide organization is
  responsive to the needs of the tribal youth
  their communities, that tribal youth will gain
  training mentoring to increase leadership
  skills abilities while having an instrumental
  role in organizational, program delivery,
  evaluative functions, that a range of
  culturally relevant resources and activities are
  made available to address identified restraining
  forces and increase protective factors for tribal
  youth.

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Process of this state-wide initiative promotes
partnerships

• Conceptual framework done by a design team of
  experts University of MN- Duluth (research
  with Indian youth, teachers, schools,
  leadership development), University of
  MN-Extension Office/ 4-H (extensive work with
  youth leadership programming), Native Americans
  in Philanthropy board member (philanthropy,
  program development)

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Current Collaboration

• Blandin Foundation
• American Indian Advisory Committee alumni
• University of Minnesota Duluth
• University of Minnesota Extension Office
• Native Americans in Philanthropy
• Minnesota Indian Affairs Council

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Potential Partners through future planning

• Funders convening initial June 11th (there are
  several philanthropic orgs interested in
  partnering)
• Identification of a key/lead organization to
  serve as intermediary (there are several
  identified and volunteer organizations)
• Curriculum development Program development
  (there are several expert organizations
  identified)
• Community-Nested support (all tribal youth
  programs, schools can serve as community-based
  support networks)
• Program Funds (several Federal, state
  non-profit organizations identified as partners)

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Systems to bring about partnerships

• Identifying a common problem/issue that people
  can get behind
• Building capacity within your own organization
• Building future leadership within your own
  community

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How to find potential partners and to foster
relationships

• Use media to publicize the positive
• Remember leadership is about mobilizing others
  into action
• Identify stakeholders use mapping as a strategy
• Utilize a combination of strengths, experiences,
  information
• Create interaction between different sects
  intergenerational, diverse

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continued

• Hold an Open House, showcasing a special event
  (Head Start graduation)
• Involve local units of government (policy
  development, etc)
• Seek technical assistance from experts in the
  field
• Engage parents, community members
• Utilize tribal programming

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continued

• Create advisory committees with a cross-section
  of stakeholders experts
• Offer internships
• Utilize mentoring (provides hope, inspiration,
  advice encouragement)
• Keep your balcony people close utilize their
  networking connections (Joyce Landorf Heatherley,
  Balcony People)

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Education systems

• Master of Arts in Global Leadership and
  Sustainable Development Hawaii Pacific
  University
• - to prepare to lead change initiatives in a
  globalizing worldcharacterized by chaos,
  complexity, change. search for underlying
  causesproduce sustainable outcomes for future
  generations.

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Final tips

• Its all in who you know.
• Build relationships through understanding and
  trust.
• Cast your net far and wide.
• People are your greatest asset-invest in them.
• Two heads are better than one.

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Not original thought

• Credit to Dr. Tom Peacock, Blandin Foundation
  American Indian Advisory Committee, Prairie 5,
  Ella Deloria, Upper Sioux Community, mom, dad,.
• Sometimes we just frame it in a way that speaks
  to each other so we can hear the message.

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We are planting the trees today to shade our
childrens children. Gaby Strong
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• Teresa Peterson
• Independent Consultant
• Program, proposal, project development
• 41956 County Hwy 7
• Belview, MN 56214
• 507.938.3044 phone/fax
• 320.226.1227 cell
• teresarp_at_redred.com