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

Parent and Provider Training Oglala Sioux Tribe

Demographic Information:
The Oglala Sioux Tribe's Child Care and Development Program provides child care services within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The reservation occupies more than 10,000 square miles in southwest South Dakota and is divided into nine districts. The Tribe's social service agencies face great service-delivery challenges because of the large distances covered and the diversity of needs among these largely rural districts. More than half of the reservation's 47,000 residents are under age 18, and working parents often commute more than 100 miles roundtrip to reach jobs on and off the reservation.

Type of Program:
The Oglala Sioux Tribe's Child Care and Development Program operates a certificate program offering parents a full range of child care options. Through the certificate program, tribally-operated learning centers, and strategic partnerships, the Child Care and Development Program serves more than 400 children from birth through age 12 in center- and home-based settings.

In addition to operating the certificate program, the Tribe's Resource and Referral program also provides parent and provider training, a provider resource library (including books, videos, and arts and crafts supplies), and health and safety improvements for public areas of family child care homes (e.g., fixing broken windows, putting up fences near busy roads, or replacing broken steps).

The training was held in a hotel in Rapid City, SD, which is located approximately 100 miles from all of the largest towns on the reservation. The off-reservation site was chosen because it would allow parents and providers to fully participate in the training sessions without the distractions of being close to home.

To encourage providers and parents to come to the training, whole families were invited to attend. The Child Care and Development Program's Mentoring Department offered age-appropriate child care during the training sessions, and family games and activities were scheduled in the evenings. Meals were provided for participants throughout the event. In addition, parents employed by the Tribe were given paid leave to attend the training.

Training sessions covered a wide variety of topics, including:

• Prevention of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome);
• Nutrition and meal planning;
• Behavior management and effective discipline; and
• Parenting and child development methods from a traditional perspective.

The training conference coordinators also reached out to a number of innovative partners to provide information at the event. For example:

• Staff from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe's child care program conducted a workshop on the history of Lakota language;
• A staff person from the State social service agency presented information about infant/toddler developmental stages;
• The American Red Cross conducted CPR and first aid training;
• Staff from the local Boys & Girls Club provided information on gang prevention;
• A BIA law enforcement official did a session on identifying and reporting child abuse;
• IHS Public Health Nurses provided health education sessions; and
• A staff person from the State child care agency conducted sessions on child development and parenting styles and on selecting quality child care.

In addition, conference attendees had an opportunity to participate in an in-depth 'Save the Child/Save the Teen' program, a culturally based, 2-day workshop presented by Vicente de la Garza, Ph.D. (Apache) and Dr. Lula Mae Stago (Navajo). The program taught parents how to talk to children in order to influence their choices about friends, behaviors, etc., including detailed information about what to say and how to use body language to diffuse confrontation.

The idea for the training conference came from a session at the 2002 National American Indian and Alaska Native Child Care Conference. After returning from the conference, Health Coordinator Lena Goings suggested to her supervisor that the Child Care and Development Program hold their own training conference for parents and providers. Ms. Goings and her colleagues completed the planning and coordination of the conference in approximately 5 ½ months.

Participant evaluations were collected at the end of the conference and a summary document was prepared. Copies of the evaluation form and summary are available to other interested programs (see Contact Information below).

Resources:
The Oglala Sioux Tribe's Child Care and Development Program used CCDF quality funds to develop this training conference. Additional support came from the presenters, most of whom did not charge a fee, and from the Tribal Government, which provided paid leave for its employees with children in the child care program to attend the conference.

Results:
As noted above, the Child Care and Development Program achieved a very high turnout rate for this training conference, with approximately 95% of the target audience participating. Participants left the event with increased knowledge of the topics addressed, and the parents also gained a better appreciation for the challenges of providing quality child care. Participants were so pleased with the conference that they have asked the Child Care and Development Program to make it an annual event.

Another positive outcome was that tribal organizations, such as BIA Law Enforcement and IHS Public Health Nurses, were given an opportunity to reach large numbers of families that they otherwise might not reach. Relationships between these programs and the Child Care and Development Program have also been strengthened, bringing increased opportunities and resources to the child care community.

Another strategy that helped make this conference a success was making good use of all available resources. Within the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Child Care and Development Program, everyone contributed to the event, including the Maintenance Department, which was responsible for setting up the meeting rooms and for tracking the inventory of books, videos, and other supplies that the Child Care and Development Program brought to the event.

Ms. Goings and her colleagues also made use of other resources within the larger community, such as the local Tribal College (Oglala Lakota College) and the State child care and social service agencies. Through this outreach, they learned an important lesson about asking for what you need: sometimes people don't help you simply because they don't know that you need help.

While holding a large, off-site conference can be an expensive undertaking, the staff of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Child Care and Development Program feels that this event was a worthwhile investment in the child-rearing skills of their parents and in the professionalization of their child care providers.

Contact Information:
Lena Goings
Health Coordinator, Child Care and Development Program

Address:
Oglala Sioux Tribe
Box 2070
Pine Ridge, SD 57770

Phone: (605) 867-5172
Fax: (605) 867-1774

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This page was last updated December 17, 2003.