Family
The Chickasaw Nation understands the need to dedicate quality time and resources to building strong, healthy families. The tribe continues to protect Chickasaw families by offering a variety of family-oriented programs and services.
Reaching out to parents, the child care department hosted a parenting conference for parents of children birth to four years of age in August 2008. The one-day conference focused on information and tools needed to build confidence in children and provided parents an opportunity to enhance relationships with their children.
Through the department of family advocacy, the violence prevention program received a grant from the United States Department of Justice to open the first Chickasaw Nation Indian Women’s Shelter, named Chonkash Yohbi Chuka – a Chickasaw phrase meaning a peaceful heart house. The shelter is staffed 24-hours a day and provides emergency housing for Native American women and children who encounter domestic violence.
The shelter provides a safe, secure and culturally sensitive environment for visitors to receive the necessary resources, education, emotional and financial support to transition to independent living.
In FY 2008, the violence prevention program provided assistance for rent, utilities, furniture and other household goods to more than 240 Native American families within the Chickasaw Nation.
The office of strong family development provided counseling services to more than 570 families through ongoing individual, couples and family therapy.
The family preservation program and the Chepota Himmita (healthy families) program provided assistance through more than 1,000 home visits and served approximately 400 families. Chepota Himmita performed 116 assessments regarding child development for infants and toddlers participating in the program and facilitated 50 group education programs for parents in areas of family finances, child nutrition, positive discipline and child safety.
Through the foster care and adoption program, the tribe facilitated the adoption of 11 Chickasaw children and conducted 147 home visits to screen potential foster care homes. The program also facilitated 23 reunifications
for 40 children to the homes
of their birth parents.
During 2008, approximately 16,000 phone calls were received through the child support customer service call center. The call center provides answers to general child support questions, helps individuals understand specifics regarding pending cases, assists citizens in obtaining necessary documents and provides a variety of additional information.
Other accomplishments:
- Child support services assisted eight other Native American tribes in developing tribal child support enforcement programs.
- More than 3,000 child support case files were transferred to these new tribal programs.
- Child support services collected more than $5.3 million in child support on behalf of Oklahoma Native American children in fiscal year 2008.