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

Training for CCDF and TANF Caseworkers Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe

Demographic Information:
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation is located on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of the Hood Canal. The reservation consists of 1,340 acres of land held in trust by the Federal government. There is no private land ownership on the reservation. Most of the land is forested, with a mix of residential, business, and office areas. The reservation lands, which receive approximately 20 inches of rain per year due to their location in the Olympic Mountain rain shadow, rise from the beach to a gently rolling terrain.

Of the 1,043 enrolled members of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, about 932 live on the reservation. The majority of off-reservation members reside in surrounding Kitsap County and the Puget Sound area. Major employers for tribal members include the tribal government, individual treaty fishing enterprises, gaming, and local area businesses. The word S’Klallam means "strong and clever people," and the Tribe’s economic and social services demonstrate its firm commitment to keeping its people strong.

Transportation is one of the greatest barriers to families living in Port Gamble. Many low-income residents on the reservation do not have current driver’s licenses, so securing employment off the reservation is a challenge.

Type of Program:
Port Gamble’s CCDF program, which is operated under a P.L. 102-477 consolidation plan, offers a range of child care options and services in a center-based model for children from birth through age 5. The Early Childhood Education Program’s (ECEP) center is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Children 6 weeks of age through age 12 receive child care services in a wrap-around model that includes Head Start preschool classrooms and Early Head Start infant/toddler socialization groups four days a week, plus before and after school care.

There are approximately 32 preschool-age children, 32 infants and toddlers, and 13 school-age children who receive services at the center. Family literacy activities, parenting classes, an intergenerational program, and other services for pregnant women and families are also offered. Port Gamble’s child care center provides S’Klallam language and cultural training to strengthen children’s connections to their Tribe. Leaders believe this is important for many reasons, including that the fact that identifying with the culture has been found to be a protective factor in preventing addiction to drugs and alcohol.

In addition to the daily schedule, evening child care is available at the center for families enrolled in the Tribe’s Family Strengthening Program, which runs for 12 weeks each fall and spring.

The Tribe’s Family Assistance (TANF) program, which works closely with the CCDF program, provides cash assistance for very low-income families and self-sufficiency assistance to help low-income families continue to work. In FY 2003, the TANF program provided assistance to 80 families and 97 children. One innovative component of the TANF program helps clients obtain or regain their driver’s licenses so that they can secure jobs.

Effective Program Strategy:
In February 2003, Port Gamble initiated a two-year Touchpoints implementation project based on the Touchpoints training model, developed by pediatrician and researcher T. Berry Brazelton, which is centered on key points in a young child’s development. It emphasizes prevention through anticipatory guidance and the development of relationships between parents and child care providers. "Touchpoints" are those predictable periods of disorganization in a child’s development that can disrupt family relations but can also provide opportunities for providers to connect with parents. The goal of working within this model is two-fold: to optimize child development and to ensure that all families in the community are functional and healthy.

The focus of the Port Gamble Touchpoints initiative is to provide training to all child and health care providers and caseworkers who work with the families of young children, to support providers through reflective techniques, to educate the entire community about the strength-building model of Touchpoints, and to value and respect families in all of the community’s services and activities.

Port Gamble is implementing the program with ECEP, TANF, and its other tribal social and health service agencies. This collaborative effort created a team of members from the tribal clinic, community health department, early childhood, Indian child welfare, and wellness program. A core team of three representatives participated in an intensive five-day train-the-trainers program held in early 2003 at the Touchpoints Center in Boston.

As a result of the training, the Port Gamble team is developing awareness of the Touchpoints Project within the reservation community. The ECEP teaching staff and support staff received more than 18 hours of individualized training in June 2003 from the Touchpoints faculty. In August 2003, the core team implemented its training schedule with the ECEP teaching staff. The project will move forward with collaborations among ECEP staff, tribal health clinic staff, wellness center staff, and Indian child welfare staff to increase service providers’ capacity to strengthen families in all areas of contact.

In May 2003, team members revised the Touchpoints Quick Reference Guide to include information specific to the S’Klallam community. The guides were distributed to all early childhood classrooms, tribal clinic rooms, maternal/child health caseworkers, and Indian child welfare caseworkers.

Results:
Children, families, and the providers who work with them have all benefited from the positive interactions brought about through this strength-based model. Child care and other service providers now strive to understand families’ particular circumstances and to interact with them based on their strengths. This approach to meeting families’ needs has had the effect of expanding opportunities for exploring and understanding community needs.

The Touchpoints initiative has provided more than 60 hours of specialized training for ECEP staff and 16 hours of training for TANF and Indian Child Welfare Caseworkers. Because the initiative is a collaborative effort, it has created opportunities across various tribal departments to share information and learn from successes and challenges. In addition, the initiative has had an impact in the greater community: staff have shared their knowledge of the Touchpoints model through the S’Klallam Newspaper, ECEP Newsletter, and presentations before the Tribal Council and Elder meetings.

Lessons Learned:
The Tribe’s P.L. 102-477 consolidation plan is a framework that has encouraged the start-up and growth of such initiatives as the Touchpoints implementation project. The Tribe takes a team approach to the operation of several different human services departments sharing common work and common clients. Families often come to the tribal departments with an array of challenges: family violence, alcohol addiction, lack of education, mental health problems, and a sense of hopelessness. The Touchpoints initiative and the P.L. 102-477 consolidation plan both seek to strengthen families by linking them with the tools they need to address barriers and to be strong at home and in the community.

Contact Information:
Jaclyn Haight
Early Childhood Education Program Director

Address:
Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe
31912 Little Boston Rd. NE
Kingston, WA 98346

Phone: 360-297-6258
Fax: 360-297-4496
E-mail: jhaight@pgst.nsn.us

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This page was last updated October 21, 2004.