A5 - Racial Healing and Race Equity: Decolonization in Tribal-State Relations

This interactive session will provide an overview of disparities and disproportionality in the context of historic trauma and intergenerational grief. Participants will discuss how to engage tribal representatives as partners in serving families. Participants will learn how non-traditional/non-western services can and should be utilized with Native peoples to enhance outcomes and increase ICWA compliance. The presenters will provide brief comments about the Alaska Disproportionality Reduction Project and the important process that has begun to refer more cases to tribes. The workshop attendees will see examples of how the tribes are providing in-home services through a systems of care model.

Presenters: Terry L. Cross, National Indian Child Welfare Association, Portland, OR; and Cindy Blackstock, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Ottawa, ON