 Spirit Lake Consulting-- News Archives
November, 2007 Latest Stops on Dr. Longie's Traveling IEP Tour:
Dr. Longie is traveling around the Great Plains reservations to meet with parents and let them know about their children's rights to a free, appropriate public education, regardless of disability. Last week he enjoyed the hospitality and intelligent conversation of individuals with disabilities and their families on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation.
Friday, November 30, he will at Turtle Mountain Community College, 10-1. Email Willie Davis or call (701) 477-0322.
USDA FUNDS TRIBAL LEADERS WITH CHARACTER TRAINING PROJECT Running a tribal government, or tribal program is similar to managing a Fortune 500 company. There are huge budgets to be overseen, regulatory issues to address, rules or laws to enact and dozens of other issues that must be addressed...
Final Report on Caring for Our People Training - Phase II -- We know it is not polite to brag, but this project has been a great success. We have developed four workshop modules, a virtual library , demonstrated a significant improvement in the knowledge of staff members who attended this program for training on people with disabilities and chronic illness. (Note: This is a large file to download - about 1.5 MB)
Spirit Lake Consulting on the Move: Workshops around the Country , May, 2007
Work, School and Humor in the Lives of People with Disabilities
Two new resources unveiled to assist people with disabilities, staff members and families, March 2007
Spirit Lake Consulting receives award for disseminating information on Individual Education Plans - February, 2007 New award will allow SLC to study how Native Americans get information on disability and chronic illness, Internet use on the reservations and provide training on reservations throughout the Great Plains on parent involvement in special education. The new Individual Education Plan training will also be available on our website.
Spirit Lake Consulting exhibit and demonstration CDs at Consortium of Administrators of Native American Rehabilitation. February, 2007
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. Pilots New Computer-Integrated Training Applications in North Dakota and around the Country
Spirit Lake Consulting President Makes History - Again
Spirit Lake Reservation Company Hits One Million in Contracts
Spirit Lake Consulting presents REALnet (Resources in Acquisition of Language)
Caring for Our People Training: SLC Brings to Reservation Communities Training for Staff Serving People with Disabilities & Chronic Health Condition.
Spirit Lake Tribe Receives Grant for Training Families of People with Developmental Disabilities
Spirit Lake Consulting Receives Small Business Grant from UND Center for Innovation
USDA FUNDS TRIBAL LEADERS WITH CHARACTER TRAINING PROJECT
Running a tribal government, or tribal program is similar to managing a Fortune 500 company. There are huge budgets to be overseen, regulatory issues to address, rules or laws to enact and dozens of other issues that must be addressed.
Additionally, tribal leaders face the challenge of incorporating traditional cultural values into the modern business system. However, despite the huge responsibilities placed upon tribal leaders, they rarely have the same professional training or background required to run a business of a such magnitude. Because of this, unethical practices have a detrimental effect on a number of reservations.
Over $2 billion dollars are appropriated each year for the operation of Indian programs by the Department of Interior, this does not include additional funding that comes through private agencies and enterprises. However, a large share of this money is lost because of unethical behavior in the workplace. In a survey by Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. tribal leaders revealed five major ethical issues that were their primary concerns on the job. In these cases, the traditional Indian values of leadership through honesty and courage have been lost.
In recognition of the severity of these issues and the priority given by tribal managers, Spirit Lake Consulting is developing an on-line course, Tribal Leaders with Character. Accord to Dr. Erich Longie, company president, “By increasing awareness and understanding of ethical business practices along with providing tribal leaders executive-level training we believe we can alleviate unethical behavior in the tribal workplace.”
To pursue this, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. has been awarded a grant for $80,000, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, to finance its latest endeavor. Tribal Leaders with Character is a web-based course that aims to stress ethical behavior amongst tribal leaders and reinforce the core Native American values of community through respect and honesty. The course is built around a website that is written by Native Americans for Native Americans. TLC’s content aims to train leaders to make viable business decisions based on traditional values and deal with the contemporary issues facing tribal leaders today. The program’s long-term goal is to increase application of tribal policies and promote moral courage of tribal employees.
For additional information, please contact Dr. Erich Longie at (701) 351-2175 or via e-mail at ericstev@spiritlakeconsulting.com.
Spirit Lake Consulting on the Move: Workshops around the Country
SLC staff are around the country working in the summer weather. Dr. De Mars will be staffing our exhibit at the Educating Bilingual Students conference in Riverside, CA on May 9th. Dr. Longie will be on the White Earth Reservation in June to present training on special education and parent rights. In July, Dr. De Mars and Dr. Longie will both be teaching workshops in North Dakota on Early Childhood Special Education All of these activities are funded by grants from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Reservations where one or both of them will be presenting during the summer include Spirit Lake, Turtle Mountain, Fort Berthold, Fort Peck, Red Lake and Crow. Also re-joining our teaching staff this summer will be Evelyn Klimpel, back by popular demand.
To get more information on our workshops or register, email Fort Totten site research assistant, Breeanne Hinojoso at breeanne@spiritlakeconsulting.com or call Dr. Longie at (701) 351-2175.
Work, School and Humor in the Lives of People with Disabilities
Conflicting opinions are common at recent workshops focusing on parent and student involvement in special education. Some staff members participating in the workshops have argued that students should not attend their owwn Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings because they do not feel free to give their opinions in front of a student because "it might damage the student's self-esteem". SLC has taken a very strong stand that students SHOULD attend. In explaining this position, the Project Director, Dr. AnnMaria DeMars, responded,
"First of all, if a student has a learning disability or a speech impairment - the student knows it! Secondly, what exactly are you saying that you can't say in front of the student? This is the reason we believe students should attend their IEP meetings. Staff members should speak about students in a respectful and positive manner at all times.
I am sure some people will not appreciate the stance we took in the web pages suggesting that if the staff is inconvenienced by having a student or parent take the IEP home, think about it and sign it (or maybe not) later, well that is just too bad. However, parent rights mean very little if all parents ever do is provide a rubber stamp for the school district. Involvement means that sometimes people will not agree, but we hope that controversy results in better programs for students in the end."
While some do not appreciate the virtual field trip on Individual Education Plans and the link to the Mothers from Hell 2 website, but most participants found too much of their humor page to be just too true and too funny. (You had the gall to have this child, and look how many professionals you have inconvenienced by it! Welcome to the IEP meeting!) Dr. DeMars did add,
"No matter what the Mothers from Hell site says, someone probably WILL mind if you slap the school psychologist, it is probably not a good idea to invite a tattooed biker named Bear as a child advocate to the meeting, unless he happens to be the child's father, and, as for having the IEP meeting in your neighbor's hot tub, well, when it was 14 below in January that sounded like a pretty reasonable suggestion to me but I don't know anyone at Spirit Lake or Turtle Mountain who has a hot tub. In all seriousness, though, humor is crucial in successful parenting for a child with a disability, or any child for that matter. We want people to leave the workshop with the feeling, 'I have this wonderful child and I am going to do these specific things to help my child succeed in life', not, 'Oh poor me.'"
A second workshop offered in April focuses on work opportunities for people with disabilities. This encore presentation of the Vocational Rehabilitation workshop is due in part to demand for staff training for the newly-funded Oyate Recreation Project. This grant (written by Spirit Lake Consulting) was awarded to the Boys and Girls Club of the Spirit Lake Nation by the Rehabilitation Services Administration. A major focus of the grant is to develop social skills among people with disabilities through recreation in an environment that includes people with and without disabilities. Most job failure among individuals with disabilities occurs due lack of 'soft skills' such as on-time attendance, understanding and following procedures and getting along with co-workers and bosses. The Oyate Project will help people develop these skills.
For more information, please contact Dr. Erich Longie at (701) 351-2175 or ericstev@spiritlakeconsulting.com
TWO NEW RESOURCES TO ASSIST STAFF, INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES AND THEIR FAMILIES
A Workshop on Vocational Rehabilitation will be offered March 21-22 at Lake Region State College from 11- 5. Disability Access: The School Years will be at Turtle Mountain Community College, March 26-27, also from 11-5. If your job involves working with people with disabilities, or if you or a family member have a disability, these workshops are designed to make your life better.
"At first thought, many people mistakenly believe disability information only applies to Special Education, " says Spirit Lake vice-president, Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, "However, the people who have strongly supported these workshops are those, such as Head Start directors, or Boys and Girls Club directors who spend a lot of time reflecting on their programs and how to make their services better. Head Start is required to have children with disabilities as 10% of their enrollment. As the director of one recreation program said, children with emotional or learning disorders don't leave their disabilities in their desks at school. "
The vocational rehabilitation training would be useful for any employer, staff working with youth or adults with disabilities in any program, as well as individuals with disabilities, parents and yes, special education staff, too.
Some of it sounded okay. Some of it, I just couldn’t picture in my head. I spent most of the meeting nodding—like I understood—and agreeing with everything.
If your IEP meeting ever went like that described by the mother above, then Disability Access: The School Years, is the workshop for you. The School Years workshop is designed to inform students with disabilities and their families about modifications they could request to improve their success in school, legal rights and how to be effectively involved in the special education program. Offered on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in March, this workshop will also be available on the Spirit Lake Reservation in April.
Spirit Lake Consulting receives award for disseminating information on Individual Education Plans
"It's all nice for you to stand up there with your doctoral degrees and say how I need to speak out and get services for my son. How can I ask for what he needs if I don't know what services are out there?"
Spirit Lake Consulting received a Research Utilization Award (RUA) from the Research Utilization Support and Help (RUSH) project to help distribute the results of our Disability Access research to a wider audience within Indian country. RUSH is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and housed at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). Three major activities will take place under this award.
First, we are testing the assumption that the Internet and email are not effective ways to reach Native Americans. Seeing so many young people in our workshops who are interested in MySpace, NativeWeb, IMing and text messaging, we are pretty skeptical about this stereotype and expect to see some major age differences. This is the first major study on how reservation residents get their information on disability, health and other issues. We are really excited that it is being conducted by an Indian-owned company, after years of seeing people coming off the reservations to do research.
Second, Dr. AnnMaria DeMars will be creating a computer-based training module focused on Individual Education Plans. In our training over the past couple of years, we have seen a real need from parents, schools and vocational rehabilitation for a better understanding of what should be on an IEP, who qualifies and what types of services are available.
Third, the RUSH award allows us to provide demonstrations of our training on several new reservations. Dr. Erich Longie will be conducting training focused on parents' involvement with special education for their child beginning in June, 2007. All community members, including parents, school staff and youth with disabilities are more than welcome to attend at no charge, thanks to the funding made available through the NIDRR-RUSH award.
 FEBRUARY 14, 2007 This week, Spirit Lake Consulting staff are hard at work preparing for the CANAR conference (Consortium of Administrators of Native American Rehabilitation) in Washington, D.C. February 18-21.
Our last module in the Caring for Our People staff training series is on Vocational Rehabilitation. As with all of our training, it has a very practical, applied focus. We include a lot of first-hand experience from staff members, both good and bad,
"Vocational rehabilitation is about getting a job. You do want to work, don't you?"
An experienced VR counselor laughs as she tells us that is the first thing she tells consumers now. She goes on to explain that, when she started her job she just assumed that every unemployed person with a disability really wanted a job, "And then I found out that some people really don't....
As always, we have included full-text documents you can download or read from the CD-ROM given out free at our workshops. We have everything from consumer handbooks to newsletters with articles from both staff and consumers. Those newsletters were quite a shock to some of the young participants in our recent workshop for the Spirit Lake Head Start. The younger staff members had only known Dr. Longie as a college president and, more recently our corporate president. While reading about his younger days as a client in vocational rehabilitation who only wanted to get back on his feet so he could go out drinking and raising hell again, we could see them glancing from the computer screen to the man in the business suit in the front of the room and back again.
SPIRIT LAKE CONSULTING, INC. PILOTS NEW COMPUTER-INTEGRATED TRAINING APPLICATIONS IN NORTH DAKOTA AND AROUND THE COUNTRY
The Spirit Lake and Turtle Mountain Reservations will be the site of testing of a new computer-based training application, developed by local business, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. Within one month of notice of receiving a prestigious USDA Small Business Innovation Research award to develop the Caring for Our People training application, vice-president Dr. AnnMaria De Mars was already presenting a prototype at the annual conference of the Consortium of Administrators of Native American Rehabilitation (CANAR) in Seattle, WA. Conference attendees were able to see a demonstration of all of the components of the Caring for Our People product; course web pages, Virtual Library, Commons Area, and experience a sample of the workshops that are currently being conducted on the Spirit Lake and Turtle Mountain reservations . COPT courses include on-site instruction, web-based training, emailed newsletters, and group activities in a workshop setting with others working in the field. The Virtual Library includes handouts, booklets, even entire books, that give the participants more information on the disability that they are researching. The Commons Area contains newsletter articles, advice posted by staff members, tribal members with disabilities and families and virtual field trips of interesting websites. Designed for rural communities where high-speed Internet access may be limited by affordability and geography, the COPT application provides several hundred web pages on each CD-ROM as well as thousands of pages of books, articles, and other documents.
From Seattle, testing moved to Devils Lake and Belcourt, North Dakota, where pilot sessions were completed in December through March. The first section of the series, Introduction to Disability & Culture, is now in commercial development. Significant revisions were undertaken following field-testing to increase the ease of navigation of the website and CD-ROM as well as to strengthen the cultural content. The second training program, Special education for tribal members with disabilities and chronic illness, will be piloted on both the Spirit Lake and Turtle Mountain Reservations in June. Staff working in programs serving people with disabilities are encouraged to contact Dr. Erich Longie at (701) 351-2175 or COPT@spiritlakeconsulting.com . As well as free training and a free CD-ROM, participants will receive a $50 stipend.
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. is an Indian-owned business that serves residents of rural reservations, acting as a resource to American Indian and other disadvantaged communities by providing training, evaluation, data analysis, and technical assistance services. The COPT project is a computer-integrated workshop series designed for staff who work with people with disabilities and chronic illnesses living on American Indian reservations.
Spirit Lake Consulting President Makes History - Again
Upon successfully defending his doctoral dissertation on Tuesday, November 15, Erich Longie became the first member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux Tribe to receive a doctorate. Dr. Longie's dissertation analyzed common factors in the success of two tribal colleges in enhancing the academic achievement and economic development in their respective regions. Dr. Longie will be formally awarded his doctorate in Educational Leadership by the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks on December 16. A private reception in his honor will be sponsored by Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. at the Holiday Inn, Grand Forks from 1-3 p.m. A reception open to the public will also be held on the Spirit Lake Reservation on December 17, invitations can be obtained by emailing info@spiritlakeconsulting.com .
Dr. Longie is the president of Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. an Indian-owned business that aims to help the reservations on two fronts. First, services are provided to the disadvantaged (e.g., training for people with developmental disabilities, grantwriting assistance to human service organizations) and economic development occurs through employing tribal members in professional and technical positions. It has been a record-setting year for Dr. Longie, as just two months ago the company he co-founded hit a record one million dollars in contracted business.
When asked how he planned to follow up this year's accomplishment's in 2006, Dr. Longie replied, "My vision is to continue to apply the technical and managerial abilities within our company to expand the services on the Spirit Lake Nation and other reservations. We have knowledgable people within the tribes who can offer training, marketing, data analysis, evaluation and other professional business services. Just like the tribal colleges offered a reservation-based option for education, I know that it is possible to offer a reservation-based corporate option for employment."
Spirit Lake Reservation Company Hits One Million in Contracts
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc., a firm founded and headquartered on the Spirit Lake Reservation passed the $1 million mark in contracted business this week with a $471,000 grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The award, for Small Business Innovation Research funds the company to further develop its computer-assisted training program for persons with disabilities and their families. According to SLC President Erich Longie, “Based on the reservation, we have unique insights into the needs in small communities. For example, our training CD-ROM includes a virtual library where fact sheets or booklets are available on everything from Alzheimer’s to Diabetes to Social Security disability requirements. We understand that most rural residents do not have a large library close at hand, so we provide everything they need in one CD. Our on-site training walks people through using our CD so when we leave they can actually use it to find the information they need.”
This award follows up a second Small Business Innovation grant of $296,000 the company received last month from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for computer-assisted training for staff members working in the disability or special education field.
“It has been a great week for me, “ the company president added, “I have completed my dissertation, becoming the first enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Dakota to receive a doctoral degree. Also, my company is now the first Indian-owned business on the reservation to top one million dollars, and we may be the first Indian-owned business in the state to do so.” Unlike many reservation based businesses, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. is not owned by the tribe but rather, is a private business with majority ownership by tribal members. Two of the three co-founders, Erich Longie and April St. Pierre are members of the Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux. Both reside on the Spirit Lake reservation.
These awards will provide employment and income for individuals on the reservations. Dr. Russell McDonald will be coordinating the Spirit Lake site for the software testing, while Willie Davis will coordinate the Turtle Mountain test site. The company is seeking special education staff as well as persons with disabilities and their families to participate in the testing. In the software development phase, training is provided free and participants receive a small stipend for their time. Anyone interested in participating is asked to contact Erich Longie (701) 351-2175 or email INFO@spiritlakeconsulting.com for more information.
SLC presents at the Educating Bilingual Students Conference
May 18, 2005 -- At the Educating Bilingual Students Conference today, held at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. AnnMaria De Mars introduced a new product, available free for teachers. REALnet. (Resources in Acquisition of Language) offers peer-reviewed sites on education of English learners and bilingual sites from around the world. These pages provide activities, worksheets and resources teachers can use in their classroom. REALnet was created and is maintained by Spirit Lake Consulting, an Indian-owned company with headquarters on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota. A mirror of the website was provided on CD-ROM for use in classrooms without Internet access or with dial-up access. According to Dr. De Mars, "We work with many rural schools that do not have high-speed access. It can take a long, frustrating, annoying time to go through index pages, sites you don't need to finally find the worksheet, lesson plan or handout that the teacher wants to printout or have the student complete on the computer. By offering most of the websites on a CD, teachers or students can pull up pages immediately and only need to connect to the Internet once they have found the specific resource they need. "
The Educating Bilingual Students Conference, sponsored by the Language and Learning Institute at UC Riverside, emphasizes
Spirit Lake Consulting Receives Grant to Train Staff to Care for People with Disabilities & Chronic Illness
May 4, 2004 -- Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. received an $80,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop and test a computer-integrated training program for direct care staff servining Native Americans with disabilities and chronic health impairments. The project, Caring for Our People Training (COPT) addresses the USDA rural community development priority in two ways. Improved service and greater availability of trained direct care staff allow people with significant health care needs to remain in their homes, prevent medical problems due to inadequate care, e.g., pressure sores, and, in general, provides a better quality of life for these rural community residents. This training also provides employment opportunities for rural residents who are interested in working in the health care field. Both training and employment are available in their local communities. The COPT model is particularly appropriate for use in training personnel in reservation communities where a combination of cultural, economic and family constraints make residents much less likely to relocate for training or employment than the U.S. population as a whole.
Spirit Lake Tribe Receives Grant to Train Families & Staff of Persons with Developmental Disabilities
October 15, 2003 --The Spirit Lake Tribe has received a one-year grant from the North Dakota Council on Developmental Disabilities. The purpose of this grant is to create a website and CD-ROM that can be used by staff and family members to access information related to providing assistance to persons with developmental disabilities. The project also includes two on-site training sessions on each of the state reservations to familiarize community members with these resources. A statewide listserv will also be created. The grant was written by Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc., a technical services firm with headquarters on the Spirit Lake Reservation.
Ms. Martina Kazena will be directing this project.
For aditional information, please contact her office (701) 766-4446 or via email.
Spirit Lake Consulting receives grant from Center for Innovation
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. , a firm based in Fort Totten, North Dakota on the Spirit Lake Reservation has received a $2,500 grant from the University of North Dakota’s Center for Innovation. The company is one of eight grant recipients chosen statewide in a competition for small businesses pursuing innovative research. Funds will support preparation of a proposal for computer-integrated training for staff providing medical care and allied health services to adults with chronic health conditions. Erich Longie, company president, commented, “The value of this award to our company far outweighs the monetary amount. It also provides us access to the technical staff at the Center for Innovation who have years of experience preparing Small Business Innovation Research proposals for submission to various federal agencies. Their help has already been invaluable in refining our commercialization and research plans.”
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. is the only technical services firm incorporated on a North Dakota reservation, and one of the few in the nation. The company’s three principal consultants have worked in partnership for over a dozen years and incorporated in 2002. The firm specializes in evaluation, management and statistical consulting for educational, healthcare and social services projects. Reflecting their corporate motto, "Reservation-based, not reservation only" the company serves clients on two North Dakota reservations, in southern California and New York City.
Latest Stops on Dr. Longie's Traveling IEP Tour
Dr. Longie is traveling around the Great Plains reservations to meet with parents and let them know about their children's rights to a free, appropriate public education, regardless of disability. Last week he enjoyed the hospitality and intelligent conversation of individuals with disabilities and their families on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation.
Friday, November 30, he will at Turtle Mountain Community College, 10-1. Email Willie Davis or call (701) 477-0322.
Monday, December 3, at 5 pm he will be giving another presentation for parents at New Town High School on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation.
Wednesday, December 5 he will be presenting at Four Winds School, again from 5- 8 p.m.
If you’d like to meet with Dr. Longie, he’ll also be at the Fort Peck Reservation on November 26th. Feel free to email him at erictsev@spiritlakeconsulting.com or call (701) 351-2175 to discuss offering a special education rights workshop.
Special Education Rights – Getting Your Child the Services Needed
A student has a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car accident. He is told that he cannot return to his local school because “we are not prepared to handle students with disabilities.”
Parents are told that they must pay for their child’s evaluation for special education because “you are a two-parent family, you make enough money and we serve a lot of low-income families on this reservation who need help.”
A student with a traumatic brain injury returns to school and sits in the corner of the classroom with nothing to do. When the parent complains, she is told that she should send her child to a special school where they know how to deal with him.
All of the above have actually happened and what do all of these real-life examples have in common? They are illegal! Your child has a right to a free, appropriate public education.
Dr. Longie has decided that, based on the feedback we have been receiving, there is a great need for more information to be provided to parents on their children’s rights in Special Education. He is going to be out and about this month. First he was in New Town on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation, at New Town High School on November 14 at 5 p.m. The next workshop was closer to home on November 23 at Lake Region State College, from 10-1.
The next week, he will at Turtle Mountain Community College, November 30 from 10-1. Email Willie Davis or call (701) 477-0322.
Monday, December 3, at 5 pm he will be giving another presentation for parents at New Town High School.
Wednesday, December 5 he will be presenting at Four Winds School, again from 5- 8 p.m.
If you’d like to meet with Dr. Longie, he’ll also be at the Fort Peck Reservation on November 26th. Feel free to email him at erictsev@spiritlakeconsulting.com or call (701) 351-2175 to discuss offering a special education rights workshop.
Attendance is FREE thanks to a RUSH award from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
Participants who complete a pre- and post-test will receive a $25 stipend in appreciation of their time.
December 14, Dr. De Mars and Dr. Longie will be sharing what we have learned about what works and what doesn't in research on reservations in the webcast, Research and Dissemination in Indian Country: Indianonish, Email, and Other Surprises.
Registration for this webcast is free and open to the public. If you are available December 14, 2 pm Central Time, please feel free to sign up.
Speaking of RUSH, this is a Research Utilization Support and Health grant, awarded to distribute the results of our Disability Access research project farther and wider in Indian country. The most recent quarterly report is now available, with information on the use of the Internet by tribal members, the effectiveness of IEP training and more.
|
