Quarterly Newsletter
“Systems Change”
NICWA News is the quarterly newsletter for members and donors of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. Donate or become a member today to subscribe.
A Message from NICWA’s Executive Director
Dear NICWA Members, Sponsors, Donors, and Friends,
Greetings from the board of directors and staff of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. When NICWA was founded in 1983 as the Northwest Indian Child Welfare Institute, our focus then, as it is today, was to strengthen the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families. Our first conference helped to clarify what NICWA stood for and what our work would be. Our vision—that every Native child must have access to community-based, culturally appropriate services that help them grow up safe, healthy, and spiritually strong, free from abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, and the damaging effects of substance abuse—helped us determine where we could best intervene to produce better outcomes for children and families. These conversations explicitly guided NICWA’s interrelated and mutually reinforcing work.
At our first conference, in Newport, Oregon, our members helped us arrive at a core set of beliefs to guide our buckets of work. First, we believe there are people working in every Native community to protect children and strengthen families. They need the best information and training available to do that job well, so NICWA provides high-quality, culturally specific information and training.
Second, we believe every Native community has people who want to do something to improve the lives of children. NICWA’s job is to support them. We partner with Tribal and urban Indian communities to facilitate systems change. Through community development projects and principles, we consult, train, and provide technical assistance onsite to support child welfare programs, children’s mental health programs, and Tribal community organizations. Finally, we believe American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes need the rights and resources to protect their children and maintain the integrity of families. NICWA’s advocacy and research activities stem from this belief. We advocate relentlessly for Tribes and empower and support them to draw on their sovereign authority, steward scarce resources, and support the safety and well-being of children. Our advocacy work is only as effective as our ability to use data to make the case for the resources our communities need and the important role Tribal governments play in the lives of their citizen families and children.
This issue of NICWA News highlights our decades of experience working with Tribal communities to facilitate intentional systems change at the community, and ultimately family, level. We’d love to hear from you by email or on social media about how you’ve experienced NICWA’s services and the impact of our work to change systems to better support Native families. Please reach out to us at info@nicwa.org or tag @NativeChildren on Facebook or Twitter and @nicwa1983 on Instagram.
With gratitude for our work together for children,
Sarah L. Kastelic, PhD, MSW
(Alutiiq)