Keeping tribal children in their tribal communities is the solution to improving regional child welfare, panelists said Monday at the Association of Village Council Presidents annual convention
The panelists represented a range of local, regional and state organizations and said the approach to keeping children in their tribal communities is two-pronged.
The first is by training more foster parents in each village. There is especially a need for therapeutic foster parents. Such parents receive extra training and an additional stipend to provide behavioral health services to foster children.
Panelist Fennisha Gardner, Southwest regional director of children services, said currently there are no therapeutic foster parents in the Bethel area. Without these parents, many children are removed from their homes because they require therapeutic services not available in their communities.
Panelist Linda Ayagarak-Daney, an AVCP social worker, said many foster parents are acting in a therapeutic way by engaging their foster children in cultural practices like berry picking, subsisting and boating.
Another solution panelists offered was to continue establishing and empowering tribal courts. Many panelists said tribes, not the state, know best how to care for their children.
The AVCP recently hired Monique Vondall-Rieke to help establish tribal courts throughout the region. Her vision is to create 25 to 30 new courts. To do that, she will soon begin tribal court assessments in AVCP villages.
Vondall came from working with the Chippewa Tribe in North Dakota as a tribal judge and attorney. She was also responsible for writing tribal court code.
The convention goes until Thursday at the Bethel Cultural Center.
