Program areas at United Indians of All Tribes Foundation
Designed Community Program - This group of programs provides a wide variety of cultural, social, and employment services to thousands of Native people from teens through elders throughout western Washington, especially those who are critically underserved elsewhere. The Native Workforce Services Program serves approximately 100 clients per year with job counseling, training, placement, and referral to other services critical to success in the workforce. With our help, clients overcome tremendous challenges, such as homelessness and lack of formal educational qualifications, to attain training, employment, and greater self-sufficiency. A significant majority of our clients report higher earnings and greater work satisfaction on completion of their participation in the program. Our Elders Nutrition program serves more than 5,600 meals a year to 107 unduplicated clients, as well as offering transportation to appointments and cultural activities. We hold several native cultural events open to the community during the year, including a three-day powwow in the summer and a commemoration of Indigenous Peoples' Day in October. Our Native Arts program operates a gallery averaging five exhibits per year displaying works by Native artists, and also organizes Art Marts displaying the works of dozens of regional Native artists two times per year.
Youth Home - Our Residential Transitional Youth Home, Labateyah, provides a safe and nurturing environment for 25 homeless youth ages 18-23, including youth ransitioningfrom foster care. The goal is to transition youth to stable permanent housing through our rapid rehousing program and self-sufficiency. At Labateyah we provide housing and meals, social services, transportation to medical services, educational services, life and job skills training, outings, and gardening in a culturally appropriate environment that incorporates Native American wisdom and ceremony. In the two decades since its founding, we have served over 2,500 youth at Labateyah, nearly two-thirds of whom have gone on to permanent housing.
Family services division programs:Foster Care Support:The United Indians ICW-Foster Care Program is a Child Placing agency (CPA), located at Daybreak star cultural center in Seattle, WA. The ICW foster care program is Licensed through DCYF regional licensing to assist Native American families who wish to become licensed to provide foster care. Our program also assists Non-Native American families currently caring for native American children. The ICW-foster care program recruits, trains, licenses, and offers support to families caring for Native American children. Our program offers supportive services to all families caring for Native American children who are in need of access to culturally specific services and training. Ina Maka Home Visiting program:Our Ina Maka home visiting program for newborn and young children offers families one-on-one time with home visitors who work with them to make sure they receive the support they need. Every family and child is met from a respectful and supportive place. We partner with families to encourage parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting and family wellbeing. Ina Makas unique home visiting program is completely voluntary. We work with you to make a schedule that works for you and the children you are raising. For most families, visits will be about one hour, twice a month. Parent Partners work with all caregivers who are a part of the childs daily life. During each visit, your Parent Partner will assist you in playing with your child and discussing a variety of topics. You can ask any questions or discuss concerns about child development or where to go for needed services.Our Strong Fathers program:UIATF OSF program meets Native American fathers unique needs through group and individualized support, Our Strong Fathers (OSF) is designed to meet Native fathers cultural and parental needs. OSF will work to reduce the personal, cultural and systemic barriers that disproportionately affect Native fathers. Meetings consist of talking circles, cultural crafts, parenting skills, mentorship, and traditional Native American singing (Drum Group). Daybreak Star Preschool:Daybreak Star Preschool, a high-quality early learning program rooted in Indigenous, play-based, emergent curriculum that sees children and their families as competent contributors to our community. Daybreak Star Preschool serves children ages 3 to 5 in full-day (9am-3pm) programs, with before and after school care available.Daybreak Star Preschool is a long-standing program of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, whose mission is to provide educational, cultural and social services that reconnect Indigenous people in the Puget Sound region to their heritage by strengthening their sense of belonging and significance as Native people. While our primary goal is to serve Urban Native families and children, all families and children are welcome! We strongly believe that the childs first adults in their life (parents, foster parents, extended family, legal guardians) are the childs first teachers. We look forward to strengthening a partnership with you to create a strong foundation for life and school readiness.Traditional Medicine program:The Traditional Medicine program at United Indians is founded on the belief that our Native community thrives when Indigenous knowledge is celebrated and maintained. Housed at Daybreak Star Cultural Center on 20 acres of land inside Discovery Park, the program prioritizes the seasonal teachings of the land and our responsibilities to one another. Culture gatherings are the foundation of the program activities. We offer rotating community workshops on plant medicine (plant identification walks, tea and salve making), regalia making (sewing, beading) Native storytelling, spiritual practices and traditional foods. Each month we highlight a Traditional Plant Relative, anchoring our cultural workshops and activities to our monthly plant relative. Our program began with the creation of a shared understanding of Traditional Medicine that would have relevance for our tribally diverse UIATF community. Through multi-generation taking circles we defined traditional medicine as encompassing Indigenous plant and food knowledge, art and culture, spiritual beliefs and practices, and Indigenous ways of life. Our program currently works across all departments at UIATF and all Native families regardless of tribal enrollment status are welcome to participate in program activities. To better accommodate families, we offer most of our program activities on weekends at Daybreak Star. Please sign up for our UIATF monthly newsletter to track our announcements and activities and check out our event calendar and social media accounts for the latest news.UIATF COHABThe UIATF Coalition Against Hate and Bias program works to address and respond to the AIAN and NHPI community needs by providing direct services and training to the community through participation in community events and community-based Coalition work with BIPOC partners. Our work with the Sound Alliances Assembly as well as their Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization trainings provides progress towards an inclusive and diverse community. This work is done in part to increase the awareness of non-Natives of Native issues and history as well as to help build meaningful alliances with between Natives and non-Natives. Food Equity Fund/ Way of the Buffalo:The Way of the Buffalo food equity fund provides UIATF families to receive holiday meal assistance, community feasts, and programming related to Indigenous food sovereignty. This program has provided community members with the opportunity to attend a traditional buffalo hunt and procure traditionally harvest buffalo meat for community consumption. This program also provides elders with meals that consists of food from local sourced indigenous providers.