American Indian Projects

Boozhoo!

 

Mission
American Indian Projects, Department of Social Work, University of Minnesota-Duluth, enhances the contemporary social work skills of American Indian students while providing cultural activities to enhance cultural knowledge. This program assists American Indian students in bridging these two world views, enabling them to return to the Indian community in leadership roles to more effectively serve children and families.

Philosophy
The basic philosophy is to enhance social work student's abilities to deal with the complex challenges they face in providing services to Indian families and communities. Its goal is to create a network of American Indian social practice using the unique world view and knowledge of Indian people. The Department of Social Work hopes to alleviate barriers by having faculty and staff as mentors and support people while providing cultural resources and advocating for financial aid for American Indian students.

History
In an effort to support American Indian and Minority initiatives, American Indian and Minority Projects was developed and housed in the Social Work Program (known as the School of Social Development) in 1971. Throughout the years Project changed with funding availability, and was temporarily suspended due to lack of funding in the early 1990's.

American Indian Projects was resurrected in 1999 to manage the growing outreach to American Indian communities by the Department of Social Work. Currently, the MSW program has two full time tenured American Indian faculty and one full-time adjunct American Indian faculty. Additionally there are also two full time American Indian staff in the Department who are both adjunct faculty.

STUDENT SUPPORT
CURRENT/PAST PROJECTS