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Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Effective Program Strategies

Child Care/Boys and Girls Club Bay Mills Indian Community

Chippewa County, the rural area served by BMIC’s CCDF program, is the second largest county (by area) east of the Mississippi River. Although large in size, Chippewa County is sparsely populated (roughly 12 people per square mile) and fairly isolated; more than 36% of the county’s estimated 39,000 residents live in its largest town, Sault Ste. Marie, located 25 miles east of BMIC. Out of a total membership of 1,610, about 1,013 BMIC tribal members reside in Chippewa County, and roughly 900 of them live on the reservation.

The isolated, rural nature of the community, along with its extreme weather conditions (winters often last well into June, with annual snowfalls of up to 110 inches), mean that job opportunities for tribal members are limited. The three main types of employers in the area are Tribes (BMIC and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), State-run prisons (there are six in Chippewa County), and the county hospital (in Sault Ste. Marie). The Bay Mills Tribe operates two casinos, which create jobs and revenue that goes back into the community. Most community programs are supported by casino revenue and are therefore able to offer free services to members.

Type of Program:
The Bay Mills service area is home to approximately 304 children under age 13. The Tribe operates full-year, full-day Head Start and Early Head Start for about 72 children ages birth through 5; it also provides services and home visits for pregnant mothers, and operates a book lending library funded through a grant from Reading is Fundamental (RIF). Bay Mills recently applied for an Early Learning Opportunities Act (ELOA) grant to develop a mobile literacy program to serve all seven Michigan Tribes that run Early Head Start programs.

Child care wrap-around services are provided for families served by the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. This program provides child care from 2:30 – 5:30 p.m. each day at a cost of $2/hour to parents. The Tribe pays the difference between parent fees and the full cost of the wrap-around program.

While the Tribe’s CCDF program has licensing regulations and voucher procedures in place, there are currently no licensed family child care providers on the reservation. BMIC’s CCDF funds provide limited support for the Head Start and Early Head Start programs; the primary use of the funds is for school-age care.

Effective Program Strategy:
In 2003, Bay Mills Indian Community embarked on a creative path to serve the after-school care needs of its school-age children. The Tribe once operated an after-school program, but the opening of a Boys and Girls Club on the reservation reduced interest in the CCDF-funded school-age care program. With attendance dwindling, BMIC was concerned that operating its own school-age center was an inefficient use of scarce child care resources. When queried about whether the Tribe should close the school-age child care program, Bay Mills parents noted that their older children were already spending time at the Boys and Girls Club and that it would be helpful for the Club to accept their younger children so all the children could attend together. The Tribe decided that a more efficient use of its CCDF grant would be to use most of the direct service dollars to support the services of the Boys and Girls Club. The Club in turn lowered the minimum age for Club membership from 8-years-old to 5-years-old to accommodate BMIC’s youngest school-agers.

The Bay Mills Boys and Girls Club, the first and only one operated by a Michigan Tribe, was launched about five years ago when the Native American Boys and Girls Clubs’ national coordinators inquired about whether the Tribe would be interested in applying for a $50,000 Department of Justice (DOJ) grant to open a Club. Initially, the Bay Mills Club was sponsored by another Club located in Grand Traverse, Michigan. This arrangement, in which the Boys and Girls Clubs of Grand Traverse received the DOJ funding to pass through to Bay Mills, allowed BMIC to begin serving children before it completed the lengthy administrative tasks involved in starting its own Club. Bay Mills assumed responsibility for the Club after a year of sponsorship and received another DOJ grant during its first year as an independent Club.

The Bay Mills Boys and Girls Club has received support through a number of funding sources, including a state grant for drug elimination, a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), child abuse and neglect prevention funds, and tribal funds. CCDF funds support the portion of the Boys and Girls Club attended by 5- to 8-year-olds. With approval from its ACF Regional Office, the Tribe modified its CCDF two-year plan to use tribal income levels in determining CCDF eligibility and to reflect the use of CCDF funds for care provided by the Boys and Girls Club. Since almost all of the BMIC families meet income eligibility requirements, the CCDF funds support the entire lower school program. While the CCDF program does not have a formal Memorandum of Agreement with the Boys and Girls Club, child care coordinator Kathy Adair meets with the Club’s director each year to develop the budget and plan the use of resources.

More than 200 children are now enrolled in Boys and Girls Club and each day the program serves 70-80 children. Families pay just $12 per child annually in membership dues, which provides them with a sense of ownership in the program.

Most of the Club’s activities rely on Boys and Girls Club curricula that have been adapted specifically for Native American and younger children. The Club provides computer labs, reading labs, nutrition programs, and other resources to which the Bay Mills children wouldn’t otherwise have access. The Club is housed in the former offices of the local mental health agency; a large gymnasium has been added to provide space for sports and recreational activities. The facility includes a kitchen, which is used to provide cooking classes for the older children. Since the police station is housed in same building, police officers are able to interact regularly with the children.

The recently opened Ojibwe Charter School, which serves children from Kindergarten to 8^th grade, is located directly behind the Boys and Girls Club, so the children who attend the school have easy access to the Club. The charter school and Boys and Girls Club are open to native and non-native children. Ninety-five percent of the children attending the Boys and Girls Club are Native American.

Resources
CCDF quality set-aside funds and CCDF school-age earmark funds are used to sustain this project.

Results
While the school-age program has only been operating for a few months as a component of the Boys and Girls Club, community support for the program is high, and there is a waiting list for the 5- to 8-year-olds program. By merging services for school-age children, children have access to activities and resources that otherwise would have been much more difficult to provide. The program has also attracted a highly educated director and teachers. Through this unique arrangement, BMIC is providing higher quality after-school opportunities for its young children and more efficiently meeting the needs of its school-age children and their families.

Using the Boys and Girls Club as the sole provider of CCDF-funded school-age care has streamlined the administrative side of Bay Mills’ CCDF operation, since the Tribe is no longer doing individual client intake. The Tribe’s child care administrator works with the Club staff to ensure that the grant funds are spent appropriately.

Lessons Learned
The Bay Mills Indian Community has discovered that building on "what works" in existing programs can be an excellent use of community resources. When it became clear that the Boys and Girls Club was having a positive impact on reducing juvenile crime rates, it seemed logical to try to extend this impact by making the Club’s programs available to younger children. The Tribe also recognized that the community needed to address drug abuse prevention, diabetes prevention, and obesity prevention. Collaborating with the Boys and Girls Club around school-age care and activities was a proactive way to start reaching children early on these fronts. Since community members agreed that younger school-age children were not receiving the care and services they needed, the CCDF administrator developed the collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club as a creative way to maximize existing resources and to make sure all children had access to positive learning opportunities.

While new Boys and Girls Clubs are not required to have a sponsor, collaborating with a sponsoring Club speeded the start-up process and made it more efficient. By working through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Grand Traverse during its first year of operation, Bay Mills did not have to have its own Club by-laws in place right away, and Grand Traverse lent a hand by providing technical assistance and completing most of the grant application work.

Through the experience of developing this partnership, BMIC’s CCDF administrator found that creativity goes a long way when funds are limited. If you’re not sure whether an initiative is feasible under your program, just ask. In this situation, the ACF Regional Office was helpful in figuring out how to make the collaboration work under the CCDF program.

Contact Information
Kathy Adair
Child Care Coordinator

Address:
Bay Mills Indian Community
3095 S. Towering Pines
Brimley, MI 49715-9319

Phone: 906-248-5524
Fax: 906-248-5571
E-mail: kathyadair@hotmail.com

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This page was last updated September 24, 2004.