There are still open tables available for people who want to sell arts and crafts at our Vendor Day event on December 7. Please call Amandrea Chapman to reserve a table. Her phone number is: (612) 276-1502
New Volunteer Opportunity!
STUDENT INTERN/VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
Childcare Aide
10/23/2018
JOB DESCRIPTION
POSITION PURPOSE: Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) runs a Caregivers Parenting Circle every week on Thursdays from 3:30-6:30 . To reduce barriers to attendance, MIWRC offers free on-site childcare during this weekly meeting. The ideal candidate will be available to work one evening a week for 3-4 hours. This is an unpaid position. This is a great opportunity to join a leading community organization, gain on-the-job experience and enhance job skills.
REPORTS TO: Kinship Coordinator
Primary Duties:
Provide supervision to children during support group meeting
Organize/lead activities for children
Maintain safety of kids
Communicate effectively with parents and staff
Help keep the space safe, clean, and attractive
Qualifications:
Must be at least 18 years of age
Must have high school diploma or GED
Experience working with children
Experience with or knowledge of the American Indian community
Must have no current problems related to alcohol or drug use.
Must be willing to submit to DHS Rule #3, Criminal Background Study
Demonstrated ability to:
Maintain highly confidential information
Listen actively and respond appropriately with children, staff, and parents
Work effectively with children, staff, and parents
Exemplify professional conduct
HOW TO APPLY: Contact Hannah Passmore, Volunteer Coordinator at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, 2300 15th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404, phone (612) 728-2011, or email hpassmore@miwrc.org.
2018 Fall Feast
Thanks to everyone who attended the Fall Feast, it was great to see everyone and we hope you had an excellent time. We sure did!
Final Kateri Update
Our journey began in December of last year when we heard that the Kateri Residence Program was being closed by St. Stephen’s Human Services (SSHS) effective at the end of June 2018. The Women’s Foundation held a meeting with Gail Dorfman, SSHS CEO and a few other interested parties, including MIWRC. At that meeting, MIWRC put itself forward to take over the programming and property, but we were clear that we didn’t have a large reserve to use towards a purchase. At that time, a nominal purchase price or even the gifting of the property was suggested by SSHS. However, at the beginning of the year, SSHS let us know they wanted an appraisal done on the Kateri Property before deciding how to proceed on the property transfer proposed in December. That appraisal was completed in February.
MIWRC asked about the condition of the property and was allowed to do a walk through on March 6 with PCL Construction team members and a Kateri Residence Program staff member. We were also provided a January 2017 construction budget by Flannery Construction. At the time of the walk through, it was noted that several repairs and/or updates were needed in order to get the property to the standard required for the wellbeing our clients. However, despite these items, we were excited about the prospects for programming that we knew we could provide in the location.
While we waited to hear from SSHS, MIWRC hired a consultant to help manage the community outreach and fundraising plans. We held meetings with community members to start co-creating programming that we all felt would help our families move completely out of poverty. We held a pipe ceremony to bless the process and included current Kateri residents and staff. MIWRC reached out to funders and received commitments for support from foundations, different government levels, private funders, and tribal governments. Unfortunately, without knowing whether SSHS was willing to gift the property or not, it was very difficult to be strategic around fundraising. Applying for many of the housing program grants required ownership of the property, so we were stuck in a state of suspension.
It was not until the end of May that SSHS reached out to meet about the property. On May 30, representatives from the SSHS Board and the CEO met with us for the first time and informed us instead of a nominal amount or a gift, they wished us to purchase the property for $350,000.
Since up to this point no communication had been provided that SSHS was going to require a purchase of the property, beyond the initial suggestion of a “nominal” fee, MIWRC was not in an immediate position to agree or disagree to the purchase price. And, despite the fact that MIWRC Board meets monthly, they had already met four days before this meeting with SSHS, so the issue was brought to the very next MIWRC Board meeting on June 30. The Board agreed to move forward with the purchase but given the condition of the property, including the Flannery construction budget and advice from PCL Construction (who estimated that over $400,000 in work needed to be done for us to provide programming), the Board felt an environmental assessment needed to be completed before committing to purchase it.
MIWRC worked with a lawyer to draft up a letter of intent to purchase, which was finalized and sent on August 1 to SSHS. The letter indicated MIWRC intended to purchase the property contingent on an environment and property assessment so as to determine the condition of the building and the full price of acquiring it. On August 15, SSHS sent an amended LOI that requested final dates for closing on the property and completion of due diligence (environmental/property assessment). I ran into Gail Dorfman on August 17 at the Hiawatha Franklin Tent encampment, and I verbally confirmed receipt of their amended LOI and reconfirmed MIWRC’s commitment to purchase the property. I indicated I was working to get the assessments scheduled in order to provide the dates SSHS had requested.
Given the situation with families living in tents along Hiawatha, I also proposed to Gail that MIWRC rent the property from SSHS while we worked on the due diligence assessments for the purchase because it would allow us to provide immediate housing for some of the families. It had previously been brought to my attention that the last family to live at Kateri before it closed was now living in the encampment. I felt that renting the property to MIWRC since we were in the process of purchasing it anyhow would allow for immediate housing for some of the families, especially that one. On August 21, at the end of the day, I received an email from Gail requesting more information about the interim lease agreement I was proposing. So on Friday, August 24, I emailed a letter confirming our continued interest in moving forward on the purchase and laying out the terms of a lease agreement.
On Monday, August 27 I received a call from a colleague to inform me that he had worked out a deal to purchase the property from SSHS for $50,000 less than the price given to us. He had done a walk through on August 23 and made an offer on August 24, which he indicated they had accepted. Then the next day, on the 28th, SSHS sent me a letter rejecting MIWRC’s proposal to rent the property but making no mention of the counter offer they had accepted. It was not until September 5 that I received a call from SSHS telling me that if I could pay $300,000 by next week Friday, they would let me purchase the property “as is” and on the same terms as the other buyer. I turned them down.
The property has been purchased by American Indian Community Development Corporation and all of us at MIWRC are grateful it will be an American Indian agency that will be managing the property. We are unaware on whether there is any intent to do reunification programming at the location but at least Native families will hopefully be housed there.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't deeply disappointed in the way this was handled and the final outcome. MIWRC remained interested in the property from the beginning, communicated that interest throughout the process, but was fiducially bound to make an informed decision with the purchase. When we considered a $350,000 purchase price combined with at least $400,000 in repairs and updates for the residents, it would not have been responsible to move forward and purchase the property without knowing if there were unknown expenses caused by mold, lead paint, asbestos, etc. If the total cost was going to be closer to $1 million or more, it would make more sense to raise that money to purchase a property with less repairs or to raise a little more and build a whole new facility.
MIWRC sends gratitude to all who supported us from the beginning of this journey back in December and who continue to support us in the work we do. We send thanks to all who gave of their time to help develop a program design that would help our families safely reunify with their children and lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. We are grateful to all who sent us donations and who committed substantial pledges to our project. We are asking humbly that all who supported us for the Kateri property continue to support us as we move forward with new options. As the recent encampment along Hiawatha/Franklin has so strongly demonstrated, supportive housing for our community is absolutely a vital and critical need. MIWRC remains committed to partner and create viable and lasting solutions, as well as restarting the critical reunification housing programming for our families as soon as possible. We just need your continued support to do it.
Pilamayaye.
Chi-Miigwetch.
Patina Park, Executive Director
Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center
September 18, 2018
Needles in the Flower Bed: A Week in the Opioid Crisis
Our Executive Director, Patina Park
There is a lot of attention in the broader community now about the opioid crisis since it is affecting people from all socioeconomic and racial and cultural backgrounds. From my perspective, it feels like the attention and focus on solutions was only raised when white people started dying because brown and black people have been dying for a few years now, but any attention to the issue raises access to resources so I'm choosing to be grateful for the renewed energy around finding solutions.
I believe it can be difficult for those who have not been addicted themselves to understand how it affects the daily lives of many. They may see it as a character flaw... a "choice" people make to get high for fun, or to be weak in the face of life challenges. This is not true and is a perspective and attitude that only leads to more community harm and more of our people dying.
I want to give you a snapshot of my week at work and how opioids have come up to hopefully put a context on the problem that raises it above the superficial.
On Monday a request was made by a MIWRC program to move a picnic table away from a window because people are sitting around it to use drugs after business hours. This program operates in the evening so those here working on maintaining their own recovery can see the drug use. A discussion was held on the impact to staff and clients emotionally if the picnic table is moved and someone overdoses and dies because no one saw in time to save the person. There is no easy answer.
This week we had someone overdose at our front door. We were able to watch his actions on our cameras. He injected himself in plain daylight on the other side of the parking lot and then walked towards our agency. You can see exactly when the narcotic hits him hard as he veers towards the medicine garden, (She was trying to help him), but he gets back on the sidewalk, walks a little further, and then collapses. Luckily people saw him. Luckily we all carry naloxone here. Luckily he was revived. This was an Indigenous man. He was young. And though I don't know him personally, I know he is someone's son. I know he is our community's relative. I know that he is deserving of compassion and love.
Then a couple days later, another young Indigenous man took a large amount of prescription oxys here at the agency. He was able to call for help so the outcome could have been so much worse. But he is also someone's son and someone's father and our community's relative. Whether it was accidental or intentional, he is deserving of compassion and love.
Yesterday as I was leaving work, I ran into a friend who was wearing gloves, carrying a metal bucket, and walking around the neighborhood looking for needles. Looking for needles is an all day, every day activity, behind the trash containers, along the fences, in the allies, in the flower beds, everywhere. MIWRC has a staff member who now who lives on the premises in order to deter the evening, overnight, and weekend activity in our stairwells and more hidden spots.
Today one of the staff told me that one of her clients who is an elder and not a drug dealer, was the target of a group of people who surrounded and picketed her house because the large number of needles in the alley by her house led them to believe she is dealing drugs. These community members are frustrated and are trying to do whatever they can to stop people from bringing that poison to our families. Unfortunately, they were wrong this time. I am told she is deeply embarrassed and worried about what people are thinking of her. She is someone's daughter. She is someone's mother. She is deserving of compassion and love and so are those who mistakenly targeted her home. They are also sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers.
For those who are using, those who are selling, all our families affected, this is a problem hundreds of years in the making. For the Indigenous people of Turtle Island, the trauma of colonization is still living in our daily lives. The ongoing attempts for hundreds of years to wipe us off this land permanently is still felt acutely, and as someone who was at Standing Rock and who is paying attention to federal actions, policies, and rules regarding our lands, I don't believe those attempts ever ended. They just aren't as obvious as the past Boarding Schools and government payments for the scalps of Indians.
We aren't going to solve this trauma overnight. We aren't going to solve the symptoms of this trauma focusing on the individual symptoms and fighting amongst ourselves about who has the best approach. We need each other. And most important for me is that we recognize and see our relatives in the eyes of those who are caught up in the demon of addiction and we choose compassion. I know it isn't easy. I know this personally through the demons in my own family. I hate the addiction. I hate the behaviors that addiction causes. But we can't just focus on making the person stop using. We have to give them a reason to stop. There has to be hope for something better when they stop.
The solution is not learning abstinence, it is in learning how to heal. It is in the safety of knowing you can live in a safe and affordable home. It is in the security of meaningful employment. It is in the support for the first 1000 days of our children's lives and for education that meets the needs of our children. It is harm reduction and loving those who are almost impossible to love. It is in the healing of spirits and souls of everyone and of the land and water and air. We must address the root cause of this crisis, because until we do, we will continue find needles in our flower beds.
The Latest Update on the Kateri Project
Mind Body Medicine Newsletter
Summer 2018
Mind Body Medicine - Incorporating Indigenous Wisdom into Healing
The Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center (MIWRC) is a non-profit community organization that provides social services and education to American Indian women and their families. Established in 1984 by three local Native women and one male Native ally, our Mission is to empower American Indian women and families to exercise their cultural values and integrity, and to achieve sustainable life ways, while advocating for justice and equity. Since 2012, MIWRC has been training indigenous community members in Mind-Body Medicine (MBM) to better incorporate self-care into their agency cultures, to support providers who serve and care for community members, and to address intergenerational trauma. See below for evaluation findings and participant feedback from our MBM pilot.
First of two MBM Healing Events for Community Providers held on November 10, 2017. Second event was held on May 25, 2018. The purpose was to help providers with self-care and increase their capacity to work with relatives/clients.
Evaluation Findings
MBM is Reducing Job-Related Stress and Burnout
Participants report that using MBM techniques helps them to become calmer, more relaxed, and to avoid becoming overwhelmed. MBM helps them “stay in the moment. For many, it reduces burnout and exhaustion. Many have incorporated MBM into a regular part of their routine to prepare themselves for their workday.
"I do the soft belly breathing if I feel myself overwhelmed by a task. I just try to take a moment to calm down or to get myself into different state of mind."
Providers are Using Mind-Body Medicine to Help Clients, Patients, and Students
Many providers work with people who are experiencing severe trauma. They are using MBM to help the patients, clients, students, and others they work with to help them reduce stress and anxiety. Providers have used MBM to help people prepare for court appearances, cope with medical treatments, and deal with difficult family situations.
"They walk out of my door in a better state than when they walked in."
Incorporating Indigenous Wisdom and Mind-Body Medicine
MIWRC has indigenized MBM training to incorporate indigenous wisdom, traditions, and culture, which resonates with many people who have been trained. Participants value that the training is led by indigenous trainers who incorporate ceremony and sacred traditions into the learnings.
"I think it's key to the Native tradition and all a part of that sacred circle and how we take care of ourselves. How we can stay healthy or work towards being healthy, stay healthy, maintain healthy relationships. With family and community. I think it's really key."
"I really enjoyed a moment in the training where there was a group of us doing the dancing and shaking – and laughter of course came. And I thought it was just such an experience of peace that came over me. Being in a group of women laughing and dancing and reconnecting to my body in a healthy way."
MIWRC's new tipi outside of our agency building in South Minneapolis
MBM Training Outcomes
- 51% had no prior experience or training in MBM
- 96% know how to use MBM techniques to reduce their stress
- 97% have a better understanding of the impact of stress on the body after training
- 98% of participants reported they were satisfied with the MBM training.
Thanks to our dedicated MBM practitioners.
Donna LaChapelle & Linda EagleSpeaker
Donna LaChapelle (Ojibwe/Dakota) and Linda EagleSpeaker (Blackfoot) were the first Native American elders to become fully certified as faculty members by the Center for Mind Body Medicine.
MIWRC's Elder in Residence, Linda EagleSpeaker and NACC's Elder in Residence, Donnna LaChapelle, work to extend the benefits of MBM and culturally-grounded trauma healing locally and regionally via our Mind Body Medicine in Indian Country education and training program.
Thank you to our evaluator, Dr. Linda Bosma, and to the funders who support our MBM work.
Senator Tina Smith Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Help Tribes Pursue Justice for Crimes of Sexual Violence Committed by Non-Indian Offenders
For Immediate Release:
July 17, 2018
Contact:
Molly Morrissey
molly@smith.senate.gov
202-224-9857
WASHINGTON [07/17/18]—U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.)—a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee—has introduced bipartisan legislation to make sure tribes in Minnesota and across the country are able to prosecute crimes of sexual violence committed by non-Indian offenders.
According to the National Institute of Justice, over half of all Native American women—56 percent—and more than one in four men have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes. And among those, almost all—96 percent of women and 89 percent of men—were victimized by a non-Indian offender. Yet, few survivors ever see justice.
The Justice for Native Survivors of Sexual Violence Act—introduced with Senate Indian Affairs Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)—aims to help survivors of sexual violence by allowing tribes to prosecute cases of sexual assault, sex trafficking, and stalking against non- Indian offenders.
You can read a summary of the bill here and access text of the bill here.
“For a long time we’ve known that an alarming number of Native women and men endure sexual violence, and now we have the research to show the staggering occurrence of crimes of sexual violence committed by non-Native people in Indian Country. The federal government is failing Native survivors when it comes to prosecuting offenders,” said Sen. Smith. “If we want to support survivors in seeking the justice they deserve we can take an important step toward that goal by passing my bipartisan legislation.”
“Survivors of sexual violence in Indian Country deserve justice, but current federal law limits the abilities of tribes to fully prosecute these serious crimes,” said Sen. Udall. “This bipartisan legislation will restore needed jurisdiction to tribes and ensure that Native communities have the tools they need to keep families safe. I am glad to join with my colleagues on this bill, which, together with my Native Youth and Tribal Officer Protection Act, pushes forward this important component of tribal public safety.”
“National rates of sexual assault against Native people are staggeringly high. It is even more troubling that perpetrators aren’t pursued because of jurisdictional disputes among federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies,” said Sen. Murkowski. “This is a victims’ rights bill, making it clear that the tribes have jurisdiction to prosecute rapists and other perpetrators of sexual violence in Indian Country to ensure that justice for victims is not lost to loopholes in Indian law.”
“Too often victims of sexual violence in Indian Country never see justice. Our tribal citizens deserve better,” said Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. “This legislation will help ensure that tribal governments, just like state and local governments, are able to prosecute offenders who prey on their citizens.”
Outside of the limited special domestic violence jurisdiction granted to tribes under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization in 2013, tribal governments do not have the ability to punish crimes of sexual violence committed by non-Indian offenders. Furthermore, federal consideration of these cases rarely results in prosecution. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, between 2005 and 2009, federal prosecutors declined to pursue 67 percent of sexual abuse and related offenses in Indian Country.
This legislation expands upon the special domestic violence jurisdiction granted under the 2013 VAWA reauthorization to include all crimes of sexual violence. Sen. Smith’s legislation also eliminates a requirement that non-Indian offenders must have “sufficient ties” to the land to ensure all non-Indian offenders can be prosecuted for their crimes.
This legislation is supported by the National Congress of American Indians, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.
You can read a summary of the bill here and access text of the bill here.
MIWRC's New Tipi
MIWRC raised the agency's new tipi on May 17th during the annual Spring Feast community gathering. It was a months-long process to buy and prepare everything needed for the tipi, led primarily by two staff members, Marie Isais and Gary Smith. The whole agency pitched in, however, with decorating the canvas! After some nervousness about picking up the paintbrush, staff members began getting creative, mixing new colors for the various flowers and leaves that form a border around the bottom. It was a joy to see a change within everybody, said Gary, who sketched the flowers and MIWRC logo onto the canvas for staff to paint. Staff and community members were excited to finally see it up outside, and everyone is looking forward to having it at more events in the future.
Hearing Their Voices: Understanding the Past to Address the Present
A video of the last of a four part Workshop presented by Patina Park on May 31, 2018 at MIWRC.
Hearing Their Voices: Termination to Self-Determination
A video of the third of a four part Workshop presented by Patina Park on May 3, 2018 at MIWRC.
Hearing Their Voices: Allotment to Indian Reorganization Act
A video of the second of a four part Workshop presented by Patina Park on March 2, 2018 at MIWRC.
Photos from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's March, 2018
A Million Dollar Project: MIWRC and the Kateri Residence
Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center (MIWRC) needs to raise an average of about $20,000 a week between now and July 1, 2018. This fundraising challenge is one of many hurdles the agency faces in its attempt to take over the operation and programming of the Kateri Residence in south Minneapolis, but the agency's stance on the matter is that the services provided are far too valuable for the community to lose. Patina Park, MIWRC's executive director, became familiar with Kateri when she was working on ICWA cases in the early 2000s. The clients she had that were Kateri residents did comparatively well due to the extra support provided by the programming. Beyond providing housing, Kateri offered instruction in life skills such as financial literacy and education, sobriety support, and assistance finding employment to women with few other resources available to them.
In December 2017, St. Stephen's announced the closure of the 45 year old Kateri Residence Program, scheduled for the end of this coming June. The primary reason for closure is financial, but the problems programs like Kateri need to address have also become more challenging. Providing support for alcohol addiction, the primary issue the organization worked to address in past decades, does not require expensive licensing or complex treatment. Now, with many clients struggling with opioid addiction, St. Stephen's has acknowledged that the need has grown beyond their mission and capacity and made the difficult decision that they can no longer maintain the programming, even if they had the funding to do so.
Almost immediately after the announcement, people began reaching out to Patina-- with complementary programming and shared clients, MIWRC appeared well-positioned to help. It wasn't until a meeting at the Women's Foundation, with representatives of the Kateri Residence, United Way, and others in attendance, that she announced MIWRC would attempt to absorb Kateri programming. As far as she knows, MIWRC's is the only proposal to include the continuation of the current programming with or without the physical space.
There are a number of reasons MIWRC is poised to succeed in managing this programming, not least of which is access to more diverse funding sources than St. Stephen's. These include grants available only to native organizations and a billing relationship with the Fond du Lac Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa that allows MIWRC to bill for services through the tribe at a substantially higher rate than through Medicaid, as well as strong relationships with other community organizations. MIWRC also has the capacity to expand current programming, potentially offering healthcare for parents and children, chemical dependency treatment, a group residential housing rate through partnership with tribes or Hennepin County. Ideally, this expansion will result in the creation of a two-year model of care with the potential to be applied in other parts of the state, and beyond.
"Lots of little things need to be done," says Patina, "but this programming is too important to lose." Not having Kateri, she goes on to say, would result in "many more children in foster care, for much longer." Nearly always, when child protection is involved, children are unable to be reunified with their parents until "safe and sustainable" housing is achieved, but parents without custody of children are excluded from many housing resources. This catch-22 means that there is virtually nowhere for mothers to go where they can reunify with their children while involved in an open Child Protection case. Trusted by the county as a safe environment, and offering a two year program to support family stabilization, Kateri offered something rare: hope. One of the biggest struggles when working with families, Patina found, was convincing parents that there was a chance they could get their children back at all.
St. Stephen's will not be making a decision about what to do with the physical space until sometime in February. Whether or not the property, which needs roughly $411,000 in repairs to ensure sustainability, is granted to MIWRC, the agency is committed to continuing the programming. Already strategizing for the "Million Dollar Project", MIWRC plans to raise funds to cover the needed repairs or acquire a new space for the program, with enough left to cover the costs of sustaining programming until new funding sources can catch up. With failure not an option, the agency continues to explore every avenue that could potentially help with the process.
Hearing Their Voices: Colonization to Reservation
Video of the first of four workshops presented by Patina Park on February 1, 2018 at MIWRC.
MIWRC Is Trying To Preserve Kateri Residence Programming
Staff Profile: Cecilia Petit
Cecilia Petit
Cecilia Petit, originally from Washington but most recently living in Boston for school, found MIWRC because of the agency's national reputation as one of the only urban organizations working to specifically serve American Indian women impacted by domestic and sexual violence. She started her position as a Sexual Assault Advocate in June, and has recently taken over coordination of MIWRC's Two-Spirit Program, a two-year-old program that creates a safe space to address external factors that lead to marginalization of Two Spirit and Native LGBTQ individuals and encourages a reconnection to cultural teachings.
Relocating has been the biggest challenge of her first couple of months, as she'd never even been to Minnesota before starting work here. Cecilia's working on building a new community here in the Twin Cities and learning to navigate logistical challenges such as knowing what local resources are available to direct people towards. Throughout the settling in process, however, she's been grateful for the support of her coworkers. She says that "people have been super, super welcoming and helpful," since day one.
Cecilia is also enjoying the opportunity to work with some good people doing amazing work. She is looking forward to being mentored by other MIWRC advocates and growing in her own ability to help clients. She just took over the coordination of MIWRC's Two-Spirit Program in September. There is a core group of people involved with the program who are hoping to start doing more outreach and cultural education beyond just the group setting-this internal motivation to create a more intentional community is impressive to Cecilia, who is really happy to be a part of it.
Cecilia sees the friendly workplace community here at MIWRC as a big benefit of the job. She says, "There is a lot of opportunity for growth in the organization. Ideas aren't just tabled but are actively worked on." She has also been surprised by how supportive clients are of each other-that they are coming to MIWRC not just to get services for themselves, but to help each other.
Overall, her first few months have been very positive. When asked what her favorite thing about working at MIWRC is, she said, "I love everybody here! Staff of course, but also our clients-just great people everywhere!"
Staff Profile: Sue Kincade
Sue Kincade
Sue Kincade has been working with MIWRC since 1986, just a few years after the agency was founded. She was originally hired to be the agency's Office Manager and Affirmative Action Officer, a position that gradually developed into the role of Human Resources Director that she holds today. After leaving the agency for a few years early on, she jumped at the opportunity to return and has been here ever since. As the Human Resources Director, Sue provides administrative and Human Resource support to MIWRC's staff. During her time here she has, "had the opportunity to work with extraordinary leaders and staff in our community, including working with all four of the Executive Directors at MIWRC!"
She has seen some major changes throughout her time with the agency, including the closure of some programs, such as the Cherish the Children Childcare Center, and the opening of others, such as the Nokomis Endaad Outpatient Treatment program in 2010. The one accomplishment that stands out for Sue is being a part of the staff involved when the agency acquired our current building. Referring to the work involved with coordinating the acquisition, she says that, "the tremendous determination and perseverance that it required to overcome the great challenge was monumental!"
Sue's favorite thing about working at MIWRC is being a part of an outstanding community agency, and a place where, "women can find their strength again and know there's hope and that we are here for them." She adds that her time working here, "has been an incredible journey and so rewarding to be a part of an organization whose work supports women and families to find their strength again and provides hope and who does outstanding work while providing and honoring our beautiful cultural traditions."
Thank You, Senator Franken
Our Executive Director, Patina Park, sent this open letter of thanks to Senator Franken for his most recent contribution to our agency. The Star Tribune has a story about the gift
Today on Indigenous Peoples Day and on behalf of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center (MIWRC), I wish to extend my gratitude to Senator Al Franken for his generous contribution on Friday, October 6th. Senator Franken has been a long-time champion for Native American governments and people, both on and off the reservations, in urban and rural, and particularly in developing solutions to end the violence that has affected our women and girls. Senator Franken has taken the time to listen to us explain the problems affecting our families and to support our solutions, rather than creating solutions himself. MIWRC considers him a deeply trusted ally and our relative.
On Friday, October 6th we were approached by the Senator's staff to inquire whether we would accept a donation from the Senator. Though we are aware of the controversy surrounding Harvey Weinstein, and the fact that this money came from political contributions made by him, we do not believe that this gift from the Senator is tainted by that controversy. The gift will be used to provide funding for programming which is focused on empowering our mothers and their families and providing opportunities to heal from the trauma that our community has experienced for many generations. We believe a gift given to us with a good heart is a gift that carries good. Senator Franken has consistently shown us that he has a good heart and we are grateful for his gift
We are not deaf to the actions of Mr. Weinstein. We are deeply saddened by the stories that are now coming forward and send out our prayers to those who were harmed by his actions. We hope they all can find the healing they need and know in their hearts that they did nothing to deserve what happened to them, and they are all worthy of respect and honor. We also pray for Mr. Weinstein that he can accept responsibility for the harm he has caused and take actions to heal himself. He cannot undo what he has already admitted to doing, but he can stop himself from causing any further trauma.
Wopila Tanka Senator Franken for your gift and for your efforts to raise Indigenous issues at both the local and national levels. You are truly a trusted friend.
MINNESOTA INDIAN WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER
Patina Park
Executive Director
October 6th, 2017
Patina Talks About Child Poverty On MPR
Thirty-six percent of Native children in Minnesota are living in poverty. While the rest of the state's ethnic groups saw a reduction in poverty rates, the poverty rate for Native kids is on the rise. Patina joined Tom Weber on MPR News to talk about the new findings with Stephanie Hogenson from the Children's Defense Fund.