2024 Q3 Newsletter
Quarter Three brought with it some great opportunities for collaboration, professional growth, and self-care!
July brought ample opportunity for educational activities both attended and hosted by Cahuilla Consortium. On July 10th, our program director was invited by the Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) to speak at the "Being Prepared Together: Developing a Tribal Community Response Plan for MMIP and Human Trafficking” conference. Updates on our MMIP Toolkit were given to fellow service providers and CCVAP staff were given the opportunity to learn about actions being taken in our community to combat the MMIP crisis. CCVAP staff also began basket-weaving lessons from Angela Bogner of the California Indian Basket-weavers' Association for cultural enrichment and self-care time. CCVAP plans to implement Cahuilla-inspired basket-weaving workshops for clients and community members in the coming months. Stay tuned! We were extremely excited to host our first educational workshop at our new Hemet Resiliency Center titled “Period Power” centered around sustainable menstruation, bodily autonomy, and putting the power back into your period! CCVAP partnered with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest to deliver a comprehensive presentation covering biological and cultural elements of menstruation for greater body literacy and empowerment.
CCVAP also had the pleasure of attending several community events and providing informational resources to community members. Thank you to Morongo Tribal TANF and Soboba Parks and Recreation for the opportunity to connect with the community at your Back-to-School and Health Fair!
Q3 also saw the launch of our CCVAP Shelf Care Book Club, an ongoing outreach and education event aimed to highlight issues of historic and generational trauma, the MMIP crisis, and resilience in tribal communities. Our first 3 meetings were a discussion on the MMIP YA Thriller, Looking for Smoke, by K.A. Cobell. Shelf Care Book Club members also have the upcoming opportunity to discuss the book with the author! The book club follows a hybrid model with one in-person meeting, one Zoom meeting, and a final in-person meeting per book. Our current read is Never Whistle at Night: an Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. If you are interested in joining, please contact us!
CCVAP has made strides in toolkit planning and will soon be reaching out to youth, elders, and other placed-at-risk demographics within tribal communities to create focus groups! More information to come.
We had a few opportunities to attend grant-funded trainings this quarter including the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) Specialty Institute and the Tribal Sexual Assault Services Program (TSASP) Institute. The NIWRC conference centered “Enhancing Indigenous Advocacy for Survivors of IPV Impacted by Trauma, Mental Health, and Substance Use” while the TSASP Institute focused on “Empowerment Through Advocacy.”
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. We will be meeting with tribal members from each of the consortium tribes for our “Protect Yourself With CCVAP” outreach campaign. Members are welcome to receive an umbrella, sunglasses, and information about our direct services for victims of Domestic Violence.
We’d like to express gratitude to our service provider partner, Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, for their DV Awareness month campaign materials on display at our Hemet Resiliency Center.