S moke S ignals
june 1, 2014
Tribe reduces foster care numbers
Prevention efforts
replacing crisis
management in dealing
with troubled families
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
Over the last five years, the
Grand Ronde Tribe has seen the
number of Tribal children in foster
care drop by more than 50 percent,
from 100 in 2009 to 47 in 2013.
The success has come mainly by
preventing new children and fami-
lies from entering the foster care
system, said Dana Ainam-Leno,
supervisor of the Tribe’s Children
and Family Services Division in the
Social Services Department.
The decrease comes “by being
proactive, by making connections
with families and by giving them
the support they need,” she said.
Instead of crisis management,
prevention services are currently
favored nationally across the social
services profession, Ainam-Leno
said.
Last year, Children and Family
Services received 255 reports of
possible abuse and 44 of those were
referred to the investigative arm of
the division.
“Most of the reports do not rise
to the level of abuse or neglect re-
quired by the Children and Families
Ordinance,” said Ainam-Leno, “and
for others, there was not enough
information to go forward.”
In a typical year, Children and
Family Services serves about 30
families through prevention ser-
vices, but not many progress to the
courts. With the prevention model,
Tribal Court did not review a new
petition involving abuse or neglect
in 2013, Ainam-Leno said.
State social services departments
and courts serve those who are not
and cannot be enrolled in the Tribe.
The state also may take Tribal
member cases where the location of
the family’s home makes it difficult
for the Tribe to serve them.
It may be that the Tribe, for any
number of reasons, is not the best
agency to provide for a family’s
needs, she added.
The state system takes Tribal and
non-Tribal families; the Tribal fos-
ter care system only serves Tribal
children and families.
Tribal members are all over, said
Ainam-Leno, and services can best
be provided locally.
“There are many cases where the
Tribe chooses to allow the state
social services departments and
Exhibits tell the
Grand Ronde story
CHACHALU continued
from front page
artifacts and items into the Tribe’s
collections have increased substan-
tially. Also, people are coming for-
ward with offers to volunteer after
our opening.”
Chachalu has already started
holding cultural classes in two
classrooms and has an interactive
iPad station with a new language
application where people can prac-
tice Chinuk Wawa.
“That’s the reason that we are
here,” said Reibach, “to help con-
nect Tribal members with their
culture, with their artifacts and
with their history. After all, those
things belong to them.”
The museum building, the former
Willamina Middle School that was
purchased by the Tribe in 2011, is
partly sheathed in cedar donated
by Willamette National Forest. The
whole building will have a cedar
exterior when completed.
At the entrance of the museum is
an exhibit showing the plankhouse
experience.
The collections room holds one of
the largest basket collections in the
Pacific Northwest. On display is a
piece of Tomanowos, also known as
the Willamette meteorite.
Exhibits tell the Grand Ronde
story, a history of more than 14,000
years up to present-day Grand
Ronde.
“So many folks have worked hard
for years to make this dream a real-
ity,” said Reibach. “Tribal Council’s
support of Tribal culture and the
If you go
Grand opening of Chacha-
lu, the Tribal Museum and
Cultural Center
When: 4 p.m. Thursday, June 5
Where: 8720 Grand Ronde
Road
What: The opening ceremony
will occur outside, weather per-
mitting, and include an opening
prayer, drum song, welcome,
Tribal Council member remarks
and recognitions. Those attend-
ing will be able to walk through
the facility from 4:45 to 6:30
p.m. Light refreshments will be
provided.
More information: Call 503-
879-2226
direction for this project have paved
the way to put this together. Staff
here is working as a team in devel-
oping the many processes to man-
age Chachalu now that we have a
facility in place.”
Chachalu is at 8720 Grand Ronde
Road. The opening ceremony will
occur outside, weather permitting,
and include an opening prayer, drum
song, welcome, Tribal Council mem-
ber remarks and recognitions. Those
attending will be able to walk through
the facility from 4:45 to 6:30 p.m.
Light refreshments will be pro-
vided.
For more information, contact
the Tribe’s Land & Culture Depart-
ment at 503-879-2226. n
Children and Family
Services staff
For questions about parent-
ing classes and prevention
services, Amber Amouak, the
Tribe’s CFS Prevention case-
worker, is available at 503-879-
2147.
For questions about foster
care, Amanda Mercier, Foster
Care coordinator, is available
for questions at 503-879-2039.
For more general questions,
lead caseworker for the CFS
program, Kristi Petite, can be
reached at 503-879-2045, and
Ainam-Leno is at 503-879-
2037.
courts to serve Tribal families.
These decisions are made based on
the location of the family, level of
services needed, whether there are
non-Tribal siblings in the home and
the connection of the family to the
Tribe and community.”
When the state takes over a case,
the Tribe stays involved by filing
a motion to intervene. The 1978
Indian Child Welfare Act requires
that all state social services units
notify Tribes when their members
are being served.
The right to legal intervention
allows Tribal Children and Family
Services to seek return of the Tribal
family to Tribal programs, though
the family also has a say, Ainam-
Leno said.
Prevention services are not lim-
ited by time, but by a family’s
ability to reach their goals. “Many
times,” she said, “we supply support
services for six months to a year.”
Children and Family Services
keeps up with the people it serves.
“In the community and at Tribal
events, we have definitely contin-
ued these relationships. We see
folks at many Tribal events,” she
said.
With the prevention model, Tribal
expenditures are larger at the front
end, but with less foster care, fewer
court cases, better contracted pro-
grams and reduced staff time, the
model is saving at the back end.
“Without new funds, we are able
to allocate funds differently,” said
Ainam-Leno.
A March program assessment
through the National Resource
Center for Tribes, an agency of the
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, found that the
Tribe’s division has a committed
staff, places value in the work it
does in the community, and has
a lot of strengths with a quality
program that does a better job of
engaging families and meeting
their needs.
The assessment also said that
the division could still do a better
job of helping families understand
the process.
“They wanted to know that fami-
lies feel the time spent on their
family dynamics is worthwhile,
that they have a voice in the process
and that their opinions are valued,”
she said.
When resistance comes from
families, it reflects the reality that
so much is at stake, said Ainam-
Leno.
The week-long review included fo-
cus groups attended by Elders, cur-
rent and former families involved
with the program, community
partners and the state Department
of Human Services.
The goal was “to build on the
things we do well and improve the
areas where we struggle,” said Ai-
nam-Leno.
Among Elders, the feeling was
that the program needed to rebuild
the sense of community that they
remember from the early days
of the Tribe. Even though pov-
erty plagued the community, there
was a time, Elders said, when all
worked together. People feel more
disconnected from the community
now, they observed.
Many are, however, excited about
coming phases of the prevention
effort. n
Adult Foster Program
The Tribe’s Adult Foster Care lodges are committed to offering quality
care to our Elders and helping them remain as independent as possible, while
providing the personalized assistance they need. At our lodges, a wide range
of services is available in a comfortable setting where privacy is respected
and maximum independence is supported. For information, contact the Adult
Foster Program Director at 503-879-1694. n