United Indians Of All Tribes Foundation

Target demographics: Indigenous individuals and families

Direct beneficiaries per year: 1,000 clients

Geographic areas served: The Puget Sound region

Programs: Our programs provide culturally responsive, comprehensive services to urban Natives of all ages. Beginning in youth, our Daybreak Star preschool provides a quality education based in Indigenous knowledge for 17 children per year, with priority given to economically disadvantaged families, homeless families, and children in foster care. Our Ina Maka Family Services programs offer a full spectrum of services for Native families. Within the realm of foster care, we serve over 160 foster children per year, to ensure they are placed in safe, healthy homes with families who honor their heritage and culture. We do this by certifying foster care homes, and providing foster care case management and Indian Child Welfare services for Native American children and families in King County, Snohomish County, Skagit County, Whatcom County, Pierce County and Island County. The Ina Maka family tribal home visiting program for newborn and young children throughout King County offers families with American Indian/Alaska Native/Pacific Islander children one-on-one home visits with specially trained parent partners, so that parents can learn to better serve as their children's first and most important teachers. Our parent partners encourage research-based parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, family well-being, and integration with our many other programs. Sixty families per year receive services, with positive ripple effects extending far beyond those individual families. Our residential transitional youth home, Labateyah, provides a safe and nurturing environment for 25 homeless youth ages 18-23, including youth transitioning from foster care. The goal is to transition youth to stable permanent housing and self-sufficiency. At Labateyah, we provide housing and meals, social services, transportation to medical services, educational services, life and job skills training, outings, and gardening in a culturally appropriate environment that incorporates Native American wisdom and ceremony. In 2016, 62 homeless youth were served. In the two decades since its founding, we have served over 2,000 youth at Labateyah, nearly two-thirds of whom have gone on to permanent housing. This group of programs provides a wide variety of cultural, social, and employment services to thousands of Native people throughout western Washington, especially those who are critically underserved elsewhere. The Native Workforce Services Program serves approximately 100 clients per year with job counseling, training, placement, and referral to other services critical to success in the workforce. With our help, clients overcome tremendous challenges, such as homelessness and lack of formal educational qualifications, to attain training, employment, and greater self-sufficiency. A significant majority of our clients report higher earnings and greater work satisfaction on completion of their participation in the program. Our Elders nutrition program serves more than 5,600 meals a year to 107 unduplicated clients, as well as offering transportation to appointments and cultural activities. We hold several Native cultural events during the year, including a three-day powwow in the summer and a commemoration of Indigenous peoples day in October. Our Native Arts program operates a gallery averaging five exhibits per year displaying works by Native artists, and also organizes Art Marts displaying the works of dozens of regional Native artists two times per year.