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 Volume 10, Fall 2002 |
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Protecting California CILS Partners on Tax Assistance Project Court Upholds CA Board Member Profile: Home Ownership: Indian Housing Law Practice at CILS CILS Fights to Preserve Indian Organizations Working for You: Indian Child and Family Services CILS Domestic Violence Initiative Tribal TANF Making Great Strides in CA |
Indian
Organizations Working For You: An article in our Summer 2002
newsletter highlighted a severe problem facing Indian Foster Parent Licensing Established in 1980, ICFS was the first agency in California to provide Indian foster parent licensing services and is now licensed by the state as a foster family agency in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties, with additional limited licensing privileges in Orange and Los Angeles counties. ICFS offers interested foster families training and on-going supportive services to make the transition into foster care as smooth as possible. ICFS is also one of the few – if not only – Indian agencies in California licensed as an adoption agency. Adoption licensing services are offered in the same counties as the foster family licensing services. Clinical Services In addition to their foster and adoptive family licensing services, ICFS offers a range of clinical services to children and families involved in the juvenile dependency system, including group counseling, individual therapy, and parenting skills training. ICFS works with children of all different ages on self-esteem, problem-solving, behavioral, and other matters. Parenting Skills Under a recent grant, ICFS is taking parenting skills training to a whole new level. Whereas most parenting classes are conducted in a lecture format, ICFS is instituting an interactive parent-child coaching program. Trained ICFS personnel watch parents interact with their children through a window and, using a microphone in the parent’s ear, coach the parents on appropriate ways to handle situations as they arise. According to Luke Madrigal, even the most simple immediate praise is proving to be a very effective teaching tool. ICWA Services Another priority for ICFS is continuing to educate the Southern California counties, especially social services agencies and juvenile dependency courts, on ICWA compliance issues. ICFS has a longstanding relationship with the San Diego County Department of Social Services’ Indian Unit, is in the process of working with the director of Riverside County’s social services agency to establish a comparable Indian program, and hopes to begin similar work in San Bernardino County. Through these relationships, ICFS helps new social workers understand the local Indian tribes and cultural attitudes that play a role in child-rearing and family dynamics. ICFS advocates also represent its member tribes in juvenile dependency court, but ICFS is working toward the goal of seeing all tribes represented by attorneys such as CILS in juvenile dependency proceedings. Indian Children and Families Conference Future projects for ICFS include hosting an Indian Children and Families Conference in Spring 2003, at which leading Native American professionals and scholars will discuss new research-based directions for working with Indian families. ICFS is also working with the Morongo Band to develop a model children’s tribal court so that Morongo, and other California tribes, can begin to fully exercise their sovereignty under the ICWA by hearing juvenile dependency cases in their own courts. Availability of Services
ICFS has eleven member tribes: Soboba, Pechanga, Agua Caliente, Cahuilla,
San Manuel, Santa Rosa, Torres-Martinez, 29 Palms, Morongo, Pala and Pauma,
and its Board of Directors also include delegates from Riverside-San Bernardino
Indian Health, San Diego American Indian Health Center, and the Indian Human
Resource Center. Although ICFS limits some of its services to its member tribes,
it provides foster care and adoptive licensing services to all Indian families
in its service area. Indian families interested in applying to be a licensed
foster placement or permanent adoptive placement should contact ICFS directly
at (800) 969-4237, ext. 21 or ext. 28. |
Indian children and tribes in California: a critical lack of licensed Indian
foster homes for children in the juvenile dependency system. One agency strongly
committed to the important goal of providing stable Indian homes and placements
for Indian children is Indian Child and Family Services (ICFS) in Temecula.
Under the guidance of Executive Director Luke Madrigal, ICFS licenses Indian
foster and adoptive homes and provides a broad range of needed clinical services
to families in the juvenile dependency system.