Winnebago Tribe of

P.L. 102-477 Annual Report FY 2017

Description of Achievement One of our biggest achievements this year was the restructuring of our program and how we operate and provide services to our clients. We added new positions, such as a services specialist and a GED instructor, which were both extremely instrumental in providing services to our clients. For our clients to be successful in their case plans and achieve self-sufficiency, it is important that we can provide one on one services to them through our GED and job preparation classes. Each client can work one on one with these staff members. We are also able to provide GED classes after hours and transportation with the purchase of a new passenger van. Although this restructuring is new to our program, we are confident that it will provide better outcomes for our clients and our program. We completely revamped our plan through a new 3-year agreement and changed the services that we provide to allow for a better chance of success with our clients. We are currently working on providing a space for childcare, which is in planning phases right now. Our Sioux City office has moved to a bigger space and expanded to three staff instead ofjust one, which has been beneficial for our clients that we serve in those counties. It has been an interesting process to incorporate all our programs into one program with multiple services. It is a different mindset but a better way to open the door for all the services that we can provide to our clients.

Description of Services The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is located in the northeastern corner of Nebraska, 26 miles southeast of Sioux City, Iowa, and 70 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska on state highways 75 and 77. The reservation consists of over 40,000 acres and is located in both Nebraska and Iowa. The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is a federally recognized Indian Tribe with an enrollment of 5,269 members, 1,739 members reside on the Winnebago reservation. The Winnebago P.L. 102-477 program has a service area which includes Thurston and Dakota Counties in Nebraska and Woodbury County in Iowa. The Winnebago P.L. 102-477 program consists of the following: • Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) o General Assistance (GA) • Workforce Investment Act (WIOA) • Native Employment Works (NEW) o Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) The Service Area currently identified for General Assistance and Native Employment Works is the Winnebago , located in Thurston County, Nebraska, all participants must meet eligibility guidelines. Workforce Investment Opportunity Act services are available for enrolled members of all Federally Recognized tribes residing on the Winnebago Reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska and off the reservation in Dakota County, Nebraska. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) is available to Winnebago Tribal members who reside in Thurston County in the State of Nebraska with the exception of those residing on the and to enrolled members of any Federally Recognized tribes residing within the boundaries of the Winnebago Reservation. Services are offered to enrolled members of any Federally Recognized tribe residing in Dakota County in the State of Nebraska and Woodbury County in the State oflowa. Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) services are available for enrolled members of all Federally Recognized tribes residing on the Winnebago Reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska, Dakota County, Nebraska, and Woodbury County, Iowa.

llPage Each of these programs is a vital part of the community and ultimately assists families in becoming self- sufficient. There are times when families fall upon hardships in their lives, and these programs are here to assist families in overcoming these hardships. The program currently houses staff in two offices in order to provide services to the 3 counties that we cover. Our Thurston county offices, which is located in Winnebago, Nebraska, houses Administrative staff, one intake clerk, three caseworkers, one case aide, one Social Services Assistant, one GED instructor, and one Services Specialist. Our Woodbury county and Dakota County office, which is located in Sioux City, IA houses two case workers and an intake clerk. Our program assists clients with a variety of different services. We have supportive services that are related to employment, training, and education. We also provide supportive services for TANF recipients that are related to maintaining safety or obtaining employment, training, or an education. Our supportive services assist our clients in overcoming a number of barriers such as but not limited to: fines, transportation issues, employment, education, training, shelter expenses, etc. The Summer Youth Employment Program is offered to youth ages 14 to 18 years of age residing on the Winnebago Tribe reservation who meet the income, attendance and GPA requirements. This program provides youth with training and job skills that will help them when they are ready to enter the workforce. There is an adequate number of tribal programs that are willing to supervise youth participating in the SYEP. The Youth WIOA funds we receive are minimal, and assisted 1 youth throughout the 2016 summer. TANF funds allowed services to be provided for 20 youth. Youth are the future of the Winnebago Tribe, and the SYEP assists students in the service area with gaining job skills that can be used later in the Tribe's workforce.

Barriers The Winnebago P .L. 102-4 77 Program continues to work on building and maintaining relationships with tribal and non- tribal programs that offer services to clients working towards self­ sufficiency. Service providers and Programs that the Winnebago P.L. 102-4 77 program partners will include but are not limited to: Little Priest Tribal College, Western Iowa Technical Community College, Northeast Community College, WinnaVegas Casino, Educare of Winnebago, ATLAS Program of Winnebago, Winnebago Tribe Higher Education Department, Vocational Rehabilitation, Winnebago Tribe Behavior Health, Winnebago Tribe Health Department, Winnebago Drug and Alcohol Program, Winnebago Drug Dependency Unit, Iowa Department of Human Services, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Goodwill-Sioux City, IA, and Winnebago Child Support Program. It is important that we maintain good working relationships with each of these programs in order to better serve our clients and assist them in becoming self-sufficient. Our program is expanding and growing out of our current space. The program remains located at the Human Services building. Our program needs a larger office space for confidentiality purposes and to accommodate a growing staff. It would also be ideal to have a larger meeting room for client workshops and trainings with a separate computer lab. Unfortunately, we had to downsize our training space due to a growing staff and the need to integrate our programs and provide a more welcoming space for clients to come into when accessing services. The new set-up works much better, however, without adequate training space our services are limited. Over the last year, we have been in the planning phases of moving to a bigger space and utilizing it to provide more trainings and other services to our clients. Our program now provides GED prep courses on-site for all clients that are working towards their GED and is now run by a GED instructor who provides one on one guidance and tutoring services for our clients. Although each client can access these educational services, transportation continues to be a major barrier for clients. Without reliable and affordable transportation, the clients often are deterred from attending GED and college classes. Unless clients obtain private transportation or have access to public transportation, this will continue to be a barrier to their self-sufficiency plans. Child care, transportation, and lack of employment are our biggest barriers that clients face when coming to our program for assistance. Lack of child care and transportation make it difficult for our clients

21Page to obtain employment much less maintain any employment we help them find. We have a limited resource pool to utilize for our clients as far as referrals and have had to go resort to programs off the reservation in order to meet the needs of our clients who face substance abuse issues or counseling, which causes strain on our limited staff for transportation. One of the largest employers for the Winnebago community is the tribally owned casino, WinnaVegas. The tribe provides an employee transit system which allows employees to catch rides to and from work for a small fee; however, the transit system is not available during all shifts and this proves to make it difficult for clients to get to and from work each day. Another major barrier our clients face is child care. Our clients find it difficult to complete work activities required with their plans when they do not have reliable child care. Our program has been in the planning process of developing a solution to this issue. Economic issues within the reservation cause hardship for many of the community members that live here. The unemployment rate is 82.5% according to the 2005 BIA Labor Force Report on the Winnebago Indian Reservation.

Quality Requirement (CCDF) We used funding to provide supplies, staff training, and salaries for additional teacher's aides in the classrooms to provide slots for our clients to have accessible services through Educare. We also funded a Childcare Worker position to assist with the recruitment of child care providers and collaboration with the state.

45 CFR 286.275(b) excluding (b)(4) All requirements of this section are outlined in our approved P.L. 102-477 plan.

Respectfully Submitted,

Chiara Cournoyer Human Services Director Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

3IPage