CASS LAKE -- Staff, partners and community members and leaders gathered Tuesday to celebrate the grand opening of the Leech Lake Child Welfare Family Services Building.
"This is housing the majority of our family services staff," said Rose Robinson, director of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe's Child Welfare Department, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.
She said the new building is the result of a partnership between the band, the state of Minnesota and Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard and Itasca counties.
Under the American Indian Child Welfare Initiative, the Leech Lake Child Welfare Program is developing a comprehensive child welfare delivery service.
In 2005, the Minnesota Department of Human Services partnered with the Leech Lake and White Earth reservations to pursue authority to transfer child welfare responsibilities from counties to the tribes, said Vern LaPlante, tribal relations coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. As a result, the state Legislature passed legislation that year to provide more than $4 million for the development of child welfare delivery systems on the two reservations.
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For Leech Lake, the first phase of this development included hiring staff, training and acquiring space to accommodate the new responsibilities. Since November, at least 20 new child welfare staff members have been hired. Now, the new building is open.
The next steps, Robinson said, are completing memorandums of understanding with the four counties and signing a Title IV-E agreement, which is a funding mechanism for children in out-of-home care, with the state. She said Leech Lake has a high percentage of children in out-of-home care across the state.
"And one of our primary goals is to develop early prevention," Robinson said.
She said the hope is to complete the memorandums of understanding with the counties in a few weeks and the Title IV-E agreement with the state before the end of the year.
She noted that the four counties currently provide child protection services on the reservation in partnership with the band. Once the band signs the Title IV-E agreement, it will be fully responsible for child protection services on the reservation.
Lenore Barsness, director of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe's Human Services Division, which oversees the Child Welfare Department, said this is the first time the band is empowered to carry out its self-determination aspirations in child welfare.
"At the same time, it provides meaningful services," said Barsness, noting that the services were limited by funding and staffing in the past.
Leech Lake Tribal Chairman George Goggleye noted the positive relationships the band has developed with the partners involved. He said the band has a responsibility to invite collaboration with non-Indian entities.
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"There are some things that we have in common, and one of those is our children," Goggleye said.
"It reminds me of the way it used to be," said Robbie Howe, District I representative on the Leech Lake Tribal Council, recalling days when everyone was like a family taking care of the children in the community together. "If we just continue to work together, I think this is just the first step."
