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January 7, 2009
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Aboutfor Unified
Solutions Tribal Community
Development Group Building capacity through education,
training and resource support. Unified Solutions is
dedicated to partnering with American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) communities
to end violent crime, heal from the effects of trauma, and promote resilience.
We recognize the problem of violence in our communities and at home can be
directly linked to institutional practices of dominance and privilege.
Therefore, we invite individuals and agencies to examine and transform these
practices and dismantle internalized oppression at all levels. Our Methods: (1) We provide training
and resources to build confident and responsive grassroots and workplace
leadership; (2) We work in
partnership with diverse community sectors, actively seek the participation and
involvement of resident community members in our work, and recognize equitable,
shared power among all stakeholders involved in a project; (3) We facilitate
learning environments and promote linkages between multi-cultural,
multi-disciplinary, and multi-faith communities to develop a best practices
network of “unified solutions” to sustain peace in our world; (4) We tailor our
services and products to uphold the unique cultural heritage and spiritual
vitality of those we serve. VALUES STATEMENT for Unified
Solutions Tribal Community
Development Group Building capacity through education,
training and resource support. At Unified Solutions, we strive for our operations and services to
be: (1) Inclusive: All stakeholders affected by a project are invited
to the conversation. We recognize the equality and validity of all
perspectives. Each voice that chooses to be heard is heard. (2) Generative: We deliver product that is relevant and necessary
to catalyze community action. Our work reflects our commitment to the next
seven generations of the Earth’s children. (3) Receptive: We listen to each other, and to the guidance we get
from our own experience. We listen to what our elders say, and to what our
children say. (4) Responsive: We allow ourselves to be changed by new
information. We change our direction and practice when the needs of the
community change. (5) Cooperative: Whenever possible, we share resources and generate
alliances. We know that we are one human family, sharing planet Earth. We seek
to pool our strengths and celebrate each other. PURPOSE STATEMENT for Unified
Solutions Tribal Community
Development Group Building capacity through education,
training and resource support Unified Solutions is a national, federally-recognized 501(c)3
tax-exempt educational organization serving the American Indian/Alaska Native
community and its allies. We exist in
order to bring our communities together and co-create a world of physical, emotional,
social, psychological and spiritual wellness for all. We believe a healthy community is a resilient community - a
community that is willing to learn, grow and change in response to its members
needs. We invite communities to have deep dialogue inclusive of all
constituents and listen respectfully to the stories that are told. We invite community leaders to model
cooperative and collaborative interaction, encourage innovation and facilitate
resource sharing to deliver products and services responsive to the needs of
its membership. Our role is to help facilitate community conversations and
generate grassroots community leadership. We provide the resources, education,
and technical support necessary to empower communities to achieve their goals for
social improvement. LOGO DESIGN for Unified
Solutions Tribal Community
Development Group Building capacity through education,
training and resource support
The Unified Solutions logo was formed from a
collaborative process with the community members we serve. We have been blessed by those who support the
vision of Unified Solutions and have offered their talents to express this
vision in visual art. Special thanks to
Victor Robles, Yaqui artist, and Desiree Trowbridge, The image depicts a The image tells a story and sends a message: “The fate of our world depends upon our
ability to come together and create together – all people, young and old, of
all colors, from all directions. There is only one family among the people, and
that is the Human Family. When we commit
our hands together in action, creating a new way with unified solutions, the
power of our Light shines from within the SERVICES PROVIDED by Unified
Solutions Tribal Community
Development Group Building capacity through education,
training and resource support Skills Training On-site training
workshops, regional seminars, annual conferences, teleclasses. Needs Assessment Comprehensive assessments
designed and/or administered. In-person, telephone, or written interviews
depending on the needs of community or workplace. Grassroots leadership
courses and program management skills. Facilitating community conversations and
coordinated agency responses. Mentoring programs. Strategic Planning Developing short- and
long-term goals, objectives, and a plan of action for tribal victim assistance
programs and the community stakeholders. Sustainability Development Budgeting for program
development, grant-writing workshops, maximizing human, fiscal, and community
resources. Program Evaluation Data collection and
interpretation, establishing feedback loops throughout your organization. See
Training Descriptions for more. Personalized Coaching & Consulting One-to-one personal contact for technical support and greater effectiveness. Techniques for improved group dynamics in the workplace. Support for program managers. SUMMARY
OVERVIEW for the COUNSELING for CRIME
VICTIMS in INDIAN COUNTRY by FAITH BASED
ORGANIZATIONS grant program Program
Description:
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country is a discretionary grant
program from the Dept of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, designed to link
faith-based organizations, spiritual leaders, and traditional healers with
victim service programs in AI/AN communities to provide counseling services for
crime victims. The goal of this initiative is to encourage collaboration
between victim service programs, traditional healers and other faith-based
clergy, as well as to recognize traditional healing services as a resource for
AI/AN crime victims. Grantee Programs: Eight
tribal programs are the selected recipients of this grant award for fiscal year
2005. They are: Choctaw Nation of
Oklahoma; Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes; Greater Minneapolis Delivery of T&TA: Unified
Solutions Tribal Community Development Group, Inc. (Unified Solutions) has been
awarded a contract from the Dept of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, to
provide free training and technical support to tribal grantee programs of the
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country grant. For this project,
Unified Solutions has teamed up with the National Indian Women’s Goal of T&TA: (1) Expand the capacity of tribal victim
assistance programs to collaborate with traditional healers and other
faith-based groups. (2) Assist tribal victim assistance programs to effectively
and consistently integrate traditional healing and other faith-based counseling
options in their service delivery to tribal crime victims. Deliverables of T&TA: -
Needs assessment for each tribal grantee program -
Monthly teleclasses -
On-Site Training & Program Support -
Website with Resource Library & Training
Calendar -
Educational Publications & Newsletters -
Annual Resource Forum -
Budget & Sustainability Assistance -
Availability for 1:1 TA assistance by phone, fax,
email T&TA
DELIVERABLES Unified Solutions and its Project Partners are proud to deliver
products that support the growth of tribal crime victim assistance programs. T&TA Resource
Library T&TA Website Educational
Publications & Newsletters Teleclasses Annual Skills
Conference & Resource Forum Budget Assistance
& Sustainability Support On-Site Training
& Program Support 1:1 TA by phone,
fax, email Sponsored
by the US Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, we are able to
offer our products and services free of charge to recipients of the
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
grant programs. Contact us toll-free
T&TA Resource
Library Unified Solutions maintains an in-house and on-line
resource library from its main office in Grantees from the
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
grant programs may contact the
Unified Solutions Research & Publications Specialists with their research
needs. Materials can be sent to you by
email, fax or mail. Resources can be found in the following categories: AMERICAN INDIANS BOUNDARIES (BOU) CHILD ABUSE (CA) CHILD RESOURCES (CRes) COMPASSION FATIGUE/VICARIOUS TRAUMA/HEALING (CF) CRIME VICTIMS’ COMPENSATION (CVcomp) CURRICULUM/TRAINING (CU) DATING VIOLENCE (DaV) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (DV) ELDER/DISABLED ABUSE (EA) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI) GRANT WRITING (GW) FAITH-BASED ISSUES (FB) HISTORICAL TRAUMA (HT) JUVENILE JUSTICE (JJ) LAW ENFORCEMENT (LE) LEADERSHIP (LD) MAGAZINES (Mag) MISCELLANEOUS (MI) MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES (MI Res) MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING (MC) NATIONAL PROTOCOL FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT NEITHER NUTRITION PROGRAMMATIC/POLICY DEVELOPMENT/MANAGEMENT (PM) RESOURCES (Res) REPORTS (Rep) SOCIAL STALKING (STA) SUBSTANCE ABUSE (SubA) VIDEO/AUDIO MATERIALS (VA) YOUTH/GANGS/SUBSTANCE ABUSE/VIOLENCE (YV) There are more than 550 materials
on file in the Unified Solutions Resource Library and the library is growing
every day. Please visit the website at http://generatingsolutions.org/tva/resources.php
or call our researchers toll-free
at 1-877-438-4400 to access information. T&TA Tribal
Community Website Featuring an online
training calendar and online
training request form, this website makes it easy to identify the resources
necessary to strengthen program delivery skills. The Resource Website is maintained for
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country grantees
and features information relevant to Tribal Victim Service providers, tribal
law enforcement, and tribal program managers.
At this site, you will find contact information for
Federal Victim Witness Specialists (FBI and USAO), along with State VOCA and
Victim Compensation administrators. You
can access other Tribal Victim Assistance programs and programs that deliver
Counseling for Crime Victims in Indian Country by Faith Based
Organizations. You will also find the
Resource Library, and Unified Solutions newsletters, workbooks, and training
manuals. This website also features
links to OVC and TTAC, and delivers information about allowable costs for your
grant program. You will find help for
filing program and financial reports to the Comptroller. Educational
Publications & Newsletters In order to deliver the most current, accurate, and
helpful information to Tribal Victim Service providers, Unified Solutions is
continuously researching and developing
original training publications. As
partners committed to the success of each community, we offer a wide range of
educational materials at both the administrative and direct-service level. Our
current titles include:
Unified Solutions publishes a bimonthly T&TA Newsletter to extend
educational training, support, and resources to Tribal Victims’ Services
providers. Regular features of the
newsletter include:
The newsletter is provided free of charge to
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
programs and is also available on our website at www.generatingsolutions.org. Additional hard copy newsletters may be
requested by calling us toll free at 1-877-438-4400. Teleclasses Unified Solutions delivers teleclasses on topics of
interest to tribal advocates, program managers, law enforcement officers, and
faith-based providers. Classes are
conducted on a toll free teleconference line available exclusively for
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
grantees. Unified Solutions has developed an original 16-week
teleclass series, Leadership Skills for Program
Managers in Indian Country, designed to provide participants with
culturally-relevant tools and skills to achieve the goals of their Tribal
Victim Service program in a more effective manner. The class is facilitated by our trainers, and
participants are encouraged to share resources with each other in an effort to
build a best-practices network. Each
class also has a workbook portion, with exercises and notes to help
participants remember and apply what they have learned. The
workbook can be downloaded from our website or faxed to participants. A series of monthly teleclasses will be provided for
Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
grantees. Each teleclass will
be a focused, concise training determined directly by the needs of the
grantees. These monthly
classes will provide a forum for identifying emerging trends, and to create a
network of best practices relevant to faith-based service providers in Indian
Country. Annual Skills
Conference & Resource Forum Under the sponsorship of the Office for Victims of Crime,
US Department of Justice, we are proud to host an annual Tribal Victim
Assistance Skills Conference. Each
conference features expert faculty and guest speakers, interactive skills-based
workshops for administrative and service-delivery tracks, opportunities for
networking with other Tribal Victim Service programs, and cultural experiences
that allow us to share our rich heritage.
This year we are pleased to invite grantees to our third
annual conference, which will focus on skills for law enforcement personnel and
advocates. This spring, grantees will have the opportunity
to participate in a Resource Forum featuring best practices in collaborations
with traditional healers and other faith organizations. This event is sponsored by OVC and hosted by
Unified Solutions and project partners. Budget Assistance
& Sustainability Support Unified Solutions recognizes a critical factor to
sustainability for Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country
programs is successful budgetary and program
management. We provide services and resources to assist Tribal Victim Service
providers with both budget reporting and sustainability efforts in order to
promote successful management, continued growth, and program sufficiency. Technical assistance we offer includes:
On-Site Training
& Program Support Unified Solutions trainers, project partners and
consultants understand that the best type of training is one that is tailored
to each tribal community. We will visit
each community at least once during the grant cycle to deliver training and
program support. We work with program
managers to identify the strengths and needs of their programs, and assist in
the writing of program policies, procedures, and definitions of terms. We can help locate training curriculum from
other sources, and we also prepare our own training curriculum in each of the
following areas: TRAINING TOPICS
include: Advocacy Skills Reviewing the needs of tribal
member victims of crime and the dynamics of abuse/trauma for all areas of
violent crime, including: domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual assault,
stalking, strangulation, dating violence, and more. Learn specific skills for on-scene crisis response,
short and long-term advocacy; navigating through the criminal justice
system. Criminal Justice
Investigations & Forensic Interviewing For law
enforcement and other criminal justice personnel, learn techniques of evidence
collection, report writing, and investigation for domestic violence, sexual
assault, child abuse, stalking, strangulation, dating violence, and other
violent crime. Learn techniques for
successful interviews of child and adult victims of crime. The Impact of
Historical Trauma Reviewing
the dynamics of internalized oppression and intergenerational trauma,
understanding their effects in present-day crime response, and learning to
identify the ways these processes can interfere with healing and recovery. These skills will assist advocates and
counselors in appropriately addressing the effects of internalized oppression
and intergenerational trauma. Cultural Proficiency
and Communication For
advocates, law enforcement and clergy, this training will review the six stages
of cultural proficiency and delineate various communication styles and
behaviors. Participants will learn those
specific behaviors that have been shown to help and hinder effective
relationship building with victims of crime from the AI/AN community. Community
Collaboration and Networking Historically
AI/AN groups collaborated in a highly structured way for such areas as trade,
security and societal preservation.
Today collaborations and networking are the key to successful outcomes
for social change and buy-in of the entire community. This training/technical assistance will
provide methods of collaborating with the faith based organization including
traditional healers and how to measure the success of a collaborative effort
and capacity building. Needs Assessments
and Community Outreach This
section will provide an overview of various methods of collecting information
about the needs of communities such as appreciative inquiry, planning and focus
groups and community mapping. The
training will also address using the needs assessment to identify opportunities
in each community. Outreach strategies
will be reviewed with particular emphasis on approaches that would be effective
in tribal or reservation settings. Data collection and
Outcomes Assessment Improve
your data collection methods by learning how to assess your data needs and how
to develop a schematic flow chart for data inputting. Get answers to questions such as “When should
you collect data? How can you smooth the wrinkles in the data collection
process? How should you collect data?”
This training will also address the various methodologies of Outcome
Assessments. Grant Writing &
other Sustainability Practices Learn the
elements of effective grant writing, learn where to look for private and public
grants, learn program and management practices that offer the greatest chances
for long-term financial support. 1:1 TA by phone,
fax or email Unified Solutions providers are available Monday-Friday,
Grantee Advisory
Board The Grantee Advisory Board is made up of members of the
tribal grantee community. The purpose of the Advisory Board is to offer
feedback and suggestions to improve T&TA Services. An Advisory Board member
is expected to meet a minimum of once per year with the T&TA provider, read
draft training materials and other products from the T&TA provider, and
submit timely feedback surveys with concrete suggestions for improvement of
materials. The Advisory Board members may also be called upon to participate in
tele-conferences to review products and submit feedback. There is a limit of 15 tribal grantee members on the
Advisory Board, and new Advisory Board members are selected each year. If you
would like to participate in the Advisory Board, please contact Gina Gavaris at
Gina@GeneratingSolutions.org. Warren
Bailey, Chief of Tribal Police Sara
Brubaker, Tribal Prosecutor Grand
Traverse Band of Chippewa
Indians Chippewa
Indians warren.bailey@gtbindians.com sara.brubaker@gtbindians.com Alejandro
Benally, Chief of Police Joyce
Tovar, Program Manager Donn White,
Criminal Investigator Blanche
Criss, TVA Counselor North Slope
Police Department Barrow, AK Arctic
Women in Crisis donn.white@north-slope.org Barrow,
AK Jim
Summers, Chief of Police Coleen
Clark, Domestic Violence Coordinator Poplar, MT j.summers510@nemontel.net c_raeclark@yahoo.com Vanessa
Lunderman, Police Officer Kim
Edwards, Advocate Choctaw, MS Choctaw,
MS Rodney
Soap, Police Sergeant Jesusita (Sue) Gaytan,
Advocate United
Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians United
Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians jgaytan@unitedkeetoowahband.org Michael
Kaiser, Stalking src@ncvc.org diannebarkerharrold@yahoo.com Veronica
S.M. Cook Jesucita
Hernandez, Program Manager Pascua
Yaqui Violence Prevention Program Walking
in Balance – Pascua Yaqui Tribe Bio Sketches Unified Solutions Staff Mary Brown Mary is Tlingit of the Raven
Dog Salmon Clan, recently relocated to Natalia Calhoun Natalia is an enrolled member
of the Lummi Nation located in northwest Aaliyah Gina Gavaris Gina is a licensed professional
counselor and founder and executive director of Unified Solutions Tribal
Community Development Group, Inc., a 501(c)3 national nonprofit agency
dedicated to partnering with AI/AN communities and their allies to end violent
crime, heal from the effects of trauma, and celebrate resilience. Formerly, Gina directed the Walking in
Balance Family Violence Intervention Programs at the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, where
she established numerous programs, including the tribal victim compensation
program, tribal batterer re-education program, and the Yoeme Traditional Arts
Program. She has co-chaired the Southwest Indian Coalition Against Domestic
Violence, chaired the Pascua Yaqui Collaborative Community Response Team, and
served as a member of the Federal and Tribal Effective Sex Offender Management
Teams and Tribal Public Safety Committee.
She assisted in drafting and introducing new legislation for the Pascua
Yaqui Victim Rights Ordinance, the Sex Offender Notification Law, the
Collaborative Community Response Protocol, and helped broaden definitions of
domestic abuse and sexual assault for the Tribal Code. Gina has current board seats as
the Vice-President of Marketing and Membership at the American Society of
Training and Development of Southern Arizona and as Community Liaison for the
Counselors for Social Justice Division of the American Counseling Association
(ACA). She is a professional member of
the ACA and the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and an advisory
board member for the Native American Circle Domestic Violence Fatality Review
initiative, and the curriculum development
committee of the national American Indian/Alaska Native Victim Assistance
Academy. She is the author of "A Cross-Cultural Introduction to
Working with Native Americans who are Victims of Crime." Erin L. Good Erin Good (Métis) is a Research & Publications
Specialist for Unified Solutions. She
earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from |
