A Tribute to Our Founder
Aaliyah Gina Gavaris
March 16, 1971 - November 13, 2009
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal;
Love leaves a memory no one can steal
- Irish Tombstone
Aaliyah Gina Gavaris was the founder of Unified Solutions Tribal Community Development Group, Inc. She began her counseling career several years ago and worked at the Pascua Yaqui Tribe where she established numerous programs, including the tribal victim compensation program, tribal batterer re-education program, the Yoeme Traditional Arts Program, as well as directing the Walking in Balance Family Violence Intervention Program. 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 wanted to do more for crime victims in tribal communities. In 2002, she took a great leap of faith by leaving the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and formed what is known today as Unified Solutions Tribal Community Development Group, Inc. Within a very few months she had drafted a grant proposal to provide training and technical assistance to Tribal Victim Assistance (TVA) service providers and was awarded funding to do so. In 2006, Unified Solutions was additionally awarded the Counseling and Faith-Based (FB) Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country T&TA Grant. Both of these initiatives have been renewed and refunded consistently since 2003 and 2006. In 2009, Unified Solutions was additionally awarded the T&TA grant for the Children Justice Act (CJA) Partnership for Indian Grant.
Over the years, she sat on many boards and commissions, both in Arizona and nationally, assuring that quality services, the best possible training, and the most professional and knowledgeable trainings were a part of the fledgling initiation for crime victims in Indian Country. As part of the services provided to OVC grantees, Gina created a newsletter which has become to be recognized in the field as a top resource for victims services in Indian Country. In addition to many, many articles in the newsletter, Gina was also the author of “A Cross-Cultural Introduction to Working with Native Americans who are Victims of Crime”.
Gina had a vision and dream that came to fruition and touched many lives in many ways as she carried Unified Solutions to new heights and greater goals. Her vision and philosophy is very apparent on our web site as she wrote about who we are, our values, our mission statement, and our logo. She was a licensed professional counselor and authored many of the training curriculums used by Unified Solutions today. She had a passion for Indian Country and a huge heart for all the grantees that she has worked with over the years.
Although she battled cancer for over 4 years, she never let that define who she was or interfere with all the things she wanted to accomplish. She loved to laugh and enjoyed creating unique learning opportunities at her annual conferences and trainings and was always seeking was to challenge her staff and consultants to provide unique, timely, practical and informative trainings. We all remember the luncheon Jeopardy! Most of us will remember how she motivated staff to do a “YMCA” skit for TVA grantees that also provided a teaching component because the words were changed to fit the songs melody which told the listener all the services that Unified provided. She also did those games with her staff as well and most recently commissioned the staff to write Halloween poems and then offered funny little prizes as rewards. The staff will remember how she laughed and enjoyed the creativity and humor of the staff during the reading of the competitive poetry entries. Yet, all this while fun on the surface provided instruction, inspiration and team building. She had numerous books on motivational games, team building games and teaching exercises. She was a voracious reader and learner, memorizing things as she read and retained them for further use.
Gina is survived by her loving parents, Gus and Melody Gavaris of Florida and her two brothers and their families in New York, as well as host of friends and colleagues, and her beloved Unified family of staff, grantees, consultants and Board of Directors.
The work will continue and we will carry forward Gina’s legacy.
It is her vision, passion, and love that will continue to guide us and comfort us in the months and years ahead.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Most people go to their graves, with their music still in them". Although we didn’t get to hear it often, Gina had a beautiful singing voice and we know the music of her soul is with her but also remains with us to guide us.
