Utes getting greater role in foster care

Two regional initiatives in the Unitah Basin have come about in response to a lawsuit four years ago that claimed Utah was not meeting its responsibilities for caring for foster children.

The San Francisco-based National Center for Youth filed the suit against the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. A recent update on the status of foster care still says there is much to be done in Utah. One conclusion is the need to spend more time in the communities."One of the real developments has been partnership. What we learned is we weren't out there enough in the community," said Ann 0. Cheves, Northeastern Region DCFS director.

The regional initiatives that have come about as a result of changes that were made as the division worked to come into compliance with the lawsuit included an agreement between the Ute Tribe and the state which combined services into a "neighborhood office" to serve Ute families and a call for more foster parents in the Uintah Basin.

In February, the state and Ute Tribe celebrated the opening of the Ute Family Center in Fort Duchesne. The project focuses on the concept of the "family unity method" and is designed to give the tribe greater stewardship over Ute children who enter foster care by allowing the child's entire biological family to be involved in the foster care arrangements. At the same time DCFS is working with social service workers from the tribe to recruit tribal members to become foster parents. Right now, about 95 percent of Ute children placed are put in non-tribal homes because of the lack of foster care resources among tribal members.

"The family unity method talks about issues, not about problems," explained Ute Tribe attorney Sandy Hansen. "It brings the family resources to address the issues in that family. It's a real native thing to do, it's what the Ute's used to do. If all the issues can't be addressed in the family, we identify resources for the family."

Eventually tribal social service workers will be trained to "take over the whole gamut" of child protection services for their children, Cheves explained. The tribe will also be able to develop its own set of foster-care licensing standards that the state will adopt.

"We need to be more sensitive to what will work for the Native Americans," commented Robin Arnold-Williams, executive director for the Department of Human Resources.

"The agreement lends itself to the concept that children can be raised by the community," said Ute Tribe Business Committee member Roland McCook, adding that the tribe wants additional cultural sensitivity training for non-Indian foster-care families who take tribal children.

Gov. Mike Leavitt has set a goal of 3,000 foster families by the year 2000. There are currently about 1,500 foster families, said Arnold-Williams. "We would like three or four options for every child who needs foster care; our goal is to have a lot more choices, and we need them in rural areas."

Foster parents Diane and Tony Reynolds, of Roosevelt, say their experience over the past nine years has been positive, influencing many of their extended family members to take foster children into their homes. DCFS social workers in the Roosevelt office have been particularly responsive to their concerns, Tony Reynolds said.

There are 103 foster homes in the tri-county Uintah Basin, serving approximately 133 children, statistics are not kept specifically on how many of the children are Ute Tribe members.

The caseload in the Uintah Basin accounts for just about half of the 230 cases logged throughout the eastern region, which includes Uintah, Duchesne and Daggett counties, as well as Moab, Blanding, and Price.

To find out more about becoming a foster parent, contact Rick Bisel, resource family consultant for DCFS' Roosevelt office. Bisel can be reached at 722-6550 or 1-800-912-9827.