Entries for the 'Tribal Systems' Category

16
Technical assistance providers and federal agencies that serve and support tribal water and wastewater systems have developed a unifying and comprehensive strategy to coordinate services.  This approach has given everyone involved a better understanding of the roles they each play in supporting tribal systems and has resulted in improved working relationships that are paying dividends for the tribes they serve.
 
Tribal Technical Assistance Workgroup
A national workgroup was formed to look at the technical services being offered to tribal water and wastewater systems.  The group included tribes; those providing tribal services including rural water associations, regional RCAP affiliates, tribal organizations; as well as the federal partners also serving tribes, IHS, USEPA, and USDA.  The IHS found that about 12% of American Indian and Alaskan Native Village homes do not have safe water and/or basic sanitation facilities, compared to 0.6% of non-native homes in the US.  The committment was made to try and reduce the number of tribal homes without access by 50% by 2015.
 
In evaluating services, they found that service was inconsistent across Indian Country, in some areas there was coordination among service providers, but in many some areas there was not. Lack of coordination and communication has lead to confusion, conflict, or inefficient use of limited resources. The workgroups objective was to maximize the benefits that coordination and communication would provide to create a higher level of service for all tribal systems, while minimizing the duplicate services and conflicts that were barriers to service and wasting resources. The result of their efforts was the Tribal Access Workgroup Report that describes their efforts, and provides recommendations on how to move forward to develop better coordination and communication among tribal service providers.
 
The Recommendations
The workgroup came up with 9 recommendations to improve coordination that revolved around two specific action items.  One was development of an online tool that should be maintained to allow service providers and recipients to easily identify their respective TA partners.  The other action item was to hold semi-annual technical assistance coordination meetings, and in the report, the structure, format, protocol, and justification are all provided in detail.
 
Outcomes
The online tool is the Tribal Contact Manager database, found under "Tribal Resources" on SmallWaterSupply.org.  If you are a provider or tribe interested in knowing who your partners are, you can search the database for a list by organization, then click on the specific office to get to their contact information.
 
The technical assistance provider (TAP) meetings are ongoing.  I have been fortunate enough to participate in these meetings, so far, in Arizona and Nevada, and its clear that this approach is providing the service providers with a new, improved paradigm with which to develop services. Region 5 is holding its next TAP meeting next week, we are already seeing the providers sharing information in advance of that meeting.
 
Communication and coordination are always crucial pieces of any service program.  Formalizing an approach that takes advantage of everyone's strengths is already providing dividends for the providers. We are excited to see the long-term value of these coordination meetings come to light as tribal services become more consistent, efficient, and effective.
03
 Now that the Tribal Resources page is active, we thought it would be a good time to go through some of the best ways to search our site for tribal events and training.
 
The Tribal Difference
Tribal water and wastewater operators have a different process for certification.  They follow the certification requirements for the National Tribal Operator Certification program.  Because this certification doesn't follow any state boundaries, a tribal operator can't easily find training nearby using the "State" search in our event calendar, even though one of the options is "National Tribal Operator Certification"  If you select State=National Tribal Operator Certification, your results will include tribal events from all over the country. 
 
How The 'State' Criteria Works In the Event Search
Our database and search program uses both the location of the event and the state offering CEU's as criteria when you search by state.  So, if you search by State=Arizona, then all events in Arizona, including tribal events, will be displayed.  Any training in a different state that is accepted by Arizona for CEU credit will also be displayed. 
 
Our System Narrows It Down For You
The best approach for finding tribal events near you is to use a series of conditions.  For instance, if you are in Arizona, then first select, 'State=Arizona", then use the 2nd filter select button to choose 'Category=Tribal'.  You could also put 'tribal' in the key word filter, or if you were searching for training from a specific organization, like the Indian Health Service, you could use the 2nd filter select button to choose, 'Sponsor=Indian Health Service', and only IHS events in Arizona would be displayed.
 
Be Creative
Searching for information is all about the words you use.  If you are looking for a specific training, say about arsenic, you can use the 3rd filter select button to narrow the search down even further to only those tribal events in Arizona that have a component of the training dealing with arsenic.  Or you could select 'State=National Tribal Operator Certification', and then 'Category=Arsenic' in the 2nd filter. Most of the time you won't need to get that specific, there aren't so many events on the calendar that you have to use the 3rd filter, but sometimes it can happen.   
 
Here's a what a search would look like after applying all three filters:
 
 
 
Most importantly, if you have any trouble finding events, or documents of interest for that matter, call or email us.  We will gladly assist you in searching for information, or even walking through a short tutorial over the phone to answer your questions and help you find what you are looking for.
 
30
2012 Americorps Planning Grants
 Intent to Apply due: Dec. 15 (via email to: americorpsgrants@cnc.gov)
Applications due: Jan. 18, 2012
 
Americorps has three different grant opportunities available: Indian Tribes Planning Grants, and State and National Planning Grants. These planning grants are meant to assist and better prepare organizations who hope to compete for an Americorps grant in the next grant cycle. The six areas that grant competion will focus on are economic opportunity, disaster services, healthy futures, education, veterans & military families, and environmental stewardship. Applicants may apply for up to $50,000, but the applicant must not have previously received an AmeriCorps grant.

Technical Assistance and Training Grants for Rural Systems (USDA Rural Development)
Apply by: Dec. 31

Grants are available from USDA Rural Development to help non-profit organizations in rural areas with a wide range of issues relating to the delivery of water and waste disposal service. Please see http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/UWP-wwtat.htm for more information.
 
FY 2012 Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) - HUD
Apply by: Jan. 4, 2011
 
The ICDBG program from HUD is offering single-purpose grants which can be used for a wide range of infrastructure, housing, and economic development purposes, which includes (but is not limited to) water and sewer system development. Go to this page  for more information. Please note that Congress must still appropriate the funding for the FY 2012 program. HUD's SWONAP staff is conducting two ICDBG Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) workshops (one in Phoenix on Nov. 30-Dec.1, and one in Albuquerque on Nov. 30) designed principally for tribes, tribal organizations and individuals directly involved in the preparation of ICDBG Applications. To register for the Phoenix workshop go here. To register for the Albuquerque workshop go here  
19

Last week President Obama announced that fourteen projects would be expedited through the review and permitting projects, as part of his jobs creation program. The Navajo-Gallop Water Supply project is on the list.

From Circle of Blue...
"The 280-mile pipeline network would deliver San Juan River water to the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla-Apache Nation, and the city of Gallup, N.M., weaning those areas from unsustainable groundwater use."

In other news, the USDA Rural Utilities Service is moving forward on implementing of the Substantially Underserved Trust Area ("SUTA") provisions contained in the 2008 Farm bill. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says this "will provide those located in Trust Areas with better access to infrastructure funding to serve tribal communities seeking to build modern utility infrastructure."

Posted in: Tribal Systems
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