Social Work Awarded Bremer Grant

UMD's American Indian projects receives Bremer Grant

The UMD Department of Social Work’s American Indian Projects recently received a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation. This grant will fund a collaborative effort between American Indian Projects and the Search Institute to develop a culturally appropriate model of the developmental asset approach.
The Search Institute has created a framework that focuses on understanding and strengthening the developmental assets communities have and need to support healthy children and youth. For some time the Search Institute has been interested in exploring how this framework of developmental assets resonates in communities of color. This project will work with a tribal community to discuss the existing models of asset development and consider ways to adapt these models to fit the community’s traditions, beliefs and values. Interviews and discussion will be held first with tribal elders and other respected leaders.
The project will develop a curriculum that includes elements of cultural competence and working with rural American Indian communities. This model will suggest opportunities for understanding between native and non-native people, in the hopes of building a bridge between these cultures. The concept was discussed with and supported by the American Indian Community Advisory Council, which is comprised of elders and tribal social service directors from the seven Minnesota Chippewa Tribes. American Indian Projects will work with the Search Institute to distribute the curriculum to other communities of color, schools and higher education systems, human service organizations, and tribal groups.
Co-project coordinators are Priscilla Day and Anne Tellett
UMD Department of Social Work