**Abstracts of Applicants Recommended for Funding**

**FY 2005 Tribal Even Start Program (CFDA#84.258A)**

(1) **S258A050008: Owens Valley Board of Trustees**

> **Michael Rogers, Chairman**
>
> **Owens Valley Board of Trustees**
>
> **P.O. Box 1467**
>
> **Bishop, California 93514**
>
> The Tu-nee-wa Novee Even Start Project is currently one of the largest
> in the country targeting Native Americans, and is based on a
> previously implemented eight-year program that will continue to
> implement the four components of the Even Start Family Literacy
> Program. Owens Valley has developed an articulated, comprehensive
> family literacy project serving over 45 families each year. The Owens
> Valley Career Development Center developed its Tu-nee-wa Novee Even
> Start Family Literacy Program in 1996 with state and federal funding
> assistance. A major purpose of this program is to establish
> cooperative efforts between the Native community and public school
> system. The Even Start staff has developed a strong collaborative
> support system over the past eight years, including over 25 agencies
> representing both tribal and non-tribal entities. These linkages
> augment services for Even Start families and allow Even Start staff to
> concentrate on the unique cultural and educational needs of families
> being served. Even Start enhances these programs and builds on
> existing community resources to create a new range of resources. Even
> Start provides center-based services for all program components, Head
> Start and our Tribal Childcare/Preschools provide high quality Early
> Childhood Education programs that follow state and federal guidelines
> for curriculum and meet standards for Even Start quality.
>
> The Tu-nee-wa Novee Even Start Project is a model family literacy
> program that will continue its effective track record of eight years
> of high quality, intensive, flexible, and responsive family literacy
> services which impact Native families positively and appropriately for
> family bonding, education, and household self-sufficiency. The
> schedule offers 33 hours per week of Adult Education, 34 hours per
> week of Early Childhood Education, and 20 hour per month of Parent
> Education and Parent and Child Interactive Literacy Activities. All of
> these allocations follow recommendations in the Even Start Guide to
> Quality.
>
> The Tu-nee-wa Novee Even Start Project has served as a mentor and
> model for other programs, both new and existing. Staff participated
> with statewide and national groups and provided valuable input into
> program design for new programs. The project has served as a mentor
> program for nationwide tribal Even Start programs and has hosted
> national tribal meetings.

**(2) S258A050012: Four Winds of Indian Education**

**Betty Jo Smith, Executive Director**

**Four Winds of Indian Education**

**2345 Fair Street**

**Chico, California 95928**

Four Winds of Indian Education was funded in 1989 and is organized and
operated exclusively for educational purposes. Four Winds currently
administers eight state and federal grants: Four Winds Indian Education
Center: Histum Yani Indian Education Center, two tobacco education
programs; California MESA program; a state student youth leadership
program; a 21^st^ Century Office of Education to provide preschool
transportation, a breakfast and lunch program; a California State Even
Start program and an Early Childhood Education preschool for American
Indian children 3 to 5 years of age.

Project FLINT proposes to serve thirty American Indian families which
represents a diverse mixture of California tribes including Mechoopda,
Maidu (indigenouos people of Butte County), Pomo, Cherokee, Miwok, Pit
River, Wintu, and out-of-state tribes including Cherokee, Sioux,
Chippewa and Klamath. Although the four local federally recognized
Rancherias in Butte County represent many families, there are many
families that are isolated and fragmented from their tribal governance
and connections.

As a part of the quest for educational excellence, Four Winds strives to
develop, implement and maintain successful educational programs whose
instructional methods and practices show promise as replicable models.
The goal is to continue an educational model that demonstrates exemplary
progress and growth in family literacy for American Indian children and
their parents through collaboration among new and existing community
service agencies.

Project FLINT will continue to provide a comprehensive family-centered
education program linking goals, objectives, and activities to promote
the literacy development of children and their parents, to prepare
parents to support the educational growth of their children and to
prepare children for success in public schools. Project FLINT recognizes
and honors each parent as their child's first teacher. Project FLINT
will support parents by providing opportunities to engage in
language-rich parent-child activities; encourage literacy in the home
environment; increase parents' awareness of child development and know
their child's interest and abilities; encourage parents to take an
active role in their child's school and the community and provide
opportunities for parents to take an active role in their child's school
and the community and provide opportunities for parents to take on
leadership roles. The primary focus of Project FLINT will be to develop
a strong educational partnership both in application and in action
between the home and school.

**(3) S258A050005: White Earth Reservation Tribal Council**

**Erma Vizenor, Chairperson**

**White Earth Reservation Tribal Council**

**P.O. Box 418**

**White Earth, Minnesota 56557**

The White Earth Reservation Tribal Council (fiscal agent) and Mahnomen
School District #432 have partnered together to provide a
strengths-based family literacy program for up to twenty families, with
young children (ages zero-to-three), who are most in need of literacy
services on the White Earth Reservation. As center-based early childhood
educational opportunities for children ages zero-to-three are very
limited in our area, this project will provide a valuable resource for
parents with children in this age group who want to obtain their GED or
diploma. White Earth is in the fourth year of an original four-year
Tribal Even Start award.

The program consists of the following components: Adult Basic Education,
Early Childhood Education, literacy-based Parenting Education, and
Parent & Child Time. Programs collaborating in this endeavor include the
White Earth Even Start Family Literacy Program, White Earth Adult Basic
Education Program, and Mahnomen Area Learning Center. The program will
have center sites in the communities of Mahnomen and Pine Point.

The mission of the White Earth Even Start Family Literacy Program is to
enhance existing programs by creating a comprehensive, culturally
relevant, year-round family literacy program for families with young
children on the White Earth Reservation by building upon the strengths
of each family member to increase self-sufficiency, financial stability,
and promote life-long learning for the entire family through the
utilization of developmentally appropriate practices based on scientific
research.

**(4) S258A050023: Rock Point Community School**

**Martha Saggboy, School Board Member**

**Rock Point Community School**

**Highway 191**

**Rock Point School**

**Rock Point, Arizona 86545**

The goal of the Rock Point School Family Literacy Program is to counter
the cycle of poverty and illiteracy and enhance the educational
opportunities for low-income families by providing integrated,
center-based and home-based, early childhood education services, adult
education, family literacy and parent education programming under a
comprehensive, intensive program by building on existing community
resources.

Rock Point Community School (RPCS), of Rock Point, Arizona located in
Apache county, is applying for its second round of the William F.
Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Programs multi-year, 48 month grant
as an incorporated, non-profit, multi-purpose, community-based Indian
organization. RPCS is a community controlled contract school serving 458
students in grades K-12. It is chartered by the State of Arizona and
sanctioned by the Navajo Tribal Council. Apache County is documented as
the 18^th^ poorest county in the United States according to the 2000
Census figures with 81% of the children at Rock Point eligible for free
and reduced lunch. This program will offer educational opportunities for
15-25 families, serving a minimum of 40 children (0-7 years through a
comprehensive, adult, family literacy, and parenting program along with
early education and child development services. This program will
involve a social, literacy, academic, cultural, and bilingual focus for
children and adults. It will expand existing services to include a
center-based program along with the existing home visitation program.
The new program will expand and partner with existing resources of Rock
Point Community School, the Tse Nitsaa Deez ajo Early Learning Center,
Head Start, Baby Face program, 21^st^ Century Community Learning, and
other community and school resources and programs.

**(5) S258A050013: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community**

**Keith Tourtillott**

**Chief Executive Officer**

**Keweenaw Bay Indian Community**

**107 Beartown Road**

**Baraga, Michigan 49908**

The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) Even Start Project will provide
comprehensive family literacy services to 30 families on the L'Anse
Reservation in Baraga County, one of the poorest and most isolated
regions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. High local rates of teen
pregnancy, unemployment, child poverty and adult substance abuse are
factors in poor child achievement and adult educational attainment among
prospective project participants. Area adult education and support
services are extremely limited.

KBIC will contract with BHK Child Development Board (BHK), a provider of
high quality Even Start services since 1994, to improve adult literacy,
high school or GED completion and career preparation; provide
developmentally appropriate early childhood education that promotes
school readiness; and support parents as their children's first and best
teachers through parenting education and interactive family literacy
activities. A project director with eight years Even Start experience
and three Michigan-certified teachers will provide services through a
hybrid center-based/home-based model, featuring center-based adult
learning, weekly home visits, and group parent-child activities
including story circles, playgroups, and Anishinabe (Native Ojibwa)
cultural events.

Fourteen scientifically based curricula and assessment tools will be
used to provide high-quality, effective services. Project resources
include Head Start, Early Head Start, and licensed child care programs
operated by KBIC and BHK, as well as modern facilities and experienced
teachers, social workers, and health care providers on staff at each
organization. Thorough evaluations, including data analysis and
reporting on Michigan and federal education benchmarks, will be
conducted by an independent evaluator who is experienced in evaluating
Even Start programs.

The project will employ a hybrid center-based/home-based model that
provides a flexible yet intensive combination of complementary adult
education, child development, parenting and interactive family literacy
activity services. The project will use proven curricula, in sufficient
intensity and duration, to make an impact on adult and child literacy in
families with a background of poverty and low educational attainment.
Teen parents will receive up to 120 hours of in-school education per
month. Adult learners will have access to adult learning labs and
professional instruction up to 88 hours per month in addition to weekly
home visits. All children will have access to high-quality

early childhood education; approximately 80 hours per month of Head
Start/Michigan School Readiness Program preschool is available (four
days a week for four hours a day, plus latchkey childcare) for children
ages 3-5, and approximately 200 hours per month of

**(5) Keweenaw Bay Indian continued\--**

Early Head Start is available (7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday) for infants and toddlers. At least 20 hours per month of
parenting education is available through parenting series, as well as
parenting instruction provided on home visits and at center-based
activities (such as playgroups and father support groups).

(6) **S258A050020: Local Indians for Education, Inc.**

> **Irma Amaro-Davis**
>
> **Local Indians for Education, Inc.**
>
> **440 Shasta Dam Boulevard**
>
> **Shasta Lake City, California 96019**

The Tantan Ha-taam (Four Directions) Even Start project is a
continuation of a federally funded program (currently in its fourth
year) serving Pit River Indian families living in the Northern
California area of Shasta Lake City and Burney. Local Indians For
Education is the applicant.

The project represents a strong collaborative effort involving nine
agencies that have agreed to the reorganization of their existing
programs and the development of new services. Yearly, the project will
provide comprehensive literacy services to the 30 most needy families.
To best meet the needs of the families, the project will serve families
during the day and evening utilizing the Keenan Model at existing
centers in Shasta Lake City and Burney. The project provides a
comprehensive year-round program, integrating the following effective
early childhood, adult literacy, parenting and parent-child interactive
activities which will result in measurable changes in the lives of each
participating family.

**Early childhood education**: center-based preschool program at each
site for children ages 2-5; enriched childcare for all children;
home-based programs for all children; an after-school program for
school-age students.

**Parent Education**: Weekly parenting classes; weekly home visits;
parent volunteer training and support; parent training and workshops.

**Adult Education**: Adult Basic Education (ABE); General Education
Development program (GED); computer classes and job training.

**Parent and Child Interaction**: Center-based activities; weekly
home-based activities facilitated by Home Specialists and family
activities.

The likelihood of success is assured through the research-based
approaches which build on model programs and the strong partnerships
with collaborating agencies. A fully qualified staff, center-based
preschool programs, enriched childcare, transportation, and numerous
outreach services will facilitate participation among the most needy and
hard-to-reach families.

(7) **S258A050017: Choctaw Nation of Ouzinkie**

> **Gregory E. Pyle**
>
> **Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma**
>
> **16^th^ and Locust**
>
> **Durant, Oklahoma 74702**

The Choctaw Nation sponsors 14 Head Start programs within a 10.5 county
area. Recent assessment results revealed the need to expand and enhance
the family literacy services provided in all centers, with the greatest
need indicated in the Enterprise Community of Hugs (Choctaw County),
based on adults' low levels of education (29% with less than 12^th^
grade attainment), the high unemployment rate (10.1%) and high poverty
level (73% of students receive free or reduced price lunches).
Successful implementation of the Choctaw Nation's center-based Even
Start Project (CNESP) will lead to replication of these efforts at the
13 other Head Start sites. The CNESP Goals and Purposes are to provide
effective (1) early childhood instruction that meets the learning and
communication styles of three and four year olds, focuses on literacy
and other school readiness skills, features instruction in the Choctaw
language and culture, and includes curriculum-based child care for
children of ages 0-2, (2) after-school tutoring for ages 5-7, (3)
classes of 30 hours/week for parents in literacy, GED preparation, ESL,
and parenting skills, with provision for weekly Home-Based Instruction
and PACT activities, (4) staff training in the instructional methods and
materials needed, and (5) character education for all participants and
staff. CNESP will serve at least 130 families (60 children in the four
classes for ages 3-4, and all age 0-2 children of adult participants).
All will meet Even Start eligibility requirements based on poverty,
education, and need for literacy, workplace, and parenting skills. The
Hugo Community Center/Head Start facility is adequate to meet project
needs. All resources not listed in the budget will be supplied by the
Choctaw Nation.

(8) **S258A050019: Pala Band of Mission Indians**

> **Robert H. Smith, Chairman**
>
> **Pala Band of Mission Indians**
>
> **PMB 50, Pala Temecula Road**
>
> **Pala, California 92059-0050**

The Pala Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized American Indian
tribe, is the applicant for this Even Start Family Literacy Program. The
project services Native American Indian families of the Pala Indian
Reservation and the adjacent reservations of Pauma and Rincon. The Pala
Indian Reservation is located in north San Diego County, in Southern
California. The program represents a collaborative effort involving six
agencies and two related programs that have reorganized their services
and developed a comprehensive family literacy program for the Pala
Native American Indian Community. The program targets 30 families in
greatest need each year, including 60 children. The Pala Indians are
rurally isolated in the most educationally disadvantaged region within
San Diego County. The targeted community consists of a 70% unemployment
rate, a 90% high school dropout rate, and a variety of related social
problems, such as teen pregnancy, breakdown of the family unit,
violence, substance abuse and community unrest.

The overall goal is to continue a fully integrated comprehensive
program, which represents a strong partnership between the tribe, the
public school districts, and their related programs. The program
consists of the following four components: 1) Early childhood Education
(EDE), including a Boys' and Girls' Club serving school-age children
with after school tutoring, a home-based program serving children ages
0-3, a center-based preschool program serving children ages 3-5, and a
summer transition component for newly-enrolling kindergarteners; 2)
Adult Education, consisting of Adult Basic Education (ABE), a Graduate
Equivalency Degree program (GED), and employment training; 3) Parent
Education, including parenting skills, leadership training, and school
involvement which empowers parents in the community and educational
system; and 4) Parent and Child Interactive Activities, which takes
place through the Parents As Teachers program and center-based
activities, preparing parents to assume their role as their child's
first teacher and advocating family learning.