Local Cultural Training Program Heading East Abenaki/

UVM Collaboration to Benefit Newport Youth 

Written by Jedd Kettler

“They’re on board. They’re ready to go,” said Lampman-Larivee of the Native community in Newport, adding that a similar commitment has been crucial to the Franklin County program. “That’s why it was successful – the people in the (Abenaki) community that open their hearts and minds to share what has happened.”

Because of that success, the Franklin County program will continue, and its curriculum will serve as a model in Newport. The curriculum was developed over the past six years as a collaboration between the UVM Department of Social Work, the Vermont Department of Children and Families, and the Missisquoi Abenaki community

“The training has been successful, and this is a mark that it has been successful,” said Gary Widrick, Chairman of the Department of Social Work at UVM. “We at UVM are very proud of it.”

The program is funded through a federal Title IV-E Child Welfare Grant and is unique nationally, in that it works with Native people not currently recognized by the federal government, Widrick said.

The program focuses primarily on training DCF and foster care workers, but many others – corrections, health, domestic violence, and mental health officials, as well as educators – have also taken part. The two-day workshops taught by members of the Abenaki community are taken by about 150 people annually, Widrick said.

“I think just about everybody in my office has been through the training,” said Dan Conder, DCF director of family services in Franklin/Grand Isle counties.

Trainees learn about Abenaki cultural and spiritual practices and historical issues, and visit culturally important lands.

The training has been widely praised for breaking down institutional and cultural barriers, and in doing so bringing better care and services to Abenaki foster children, students and families. Over 90 percent of those who have taken the training recommend it to others, Widrick said.

“The feedback and evaluations that we’ve done have ranked this training as overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “We’ve had people who have completely changed their thinking. It’s kind of life-changing.”

These insights have been instrumental in improving services to Abenaki children and building trust between the Native community and social service providers.

“These trainings are to educate social workers about the importance of keeping kids in your communities,” Lampman-Larivee told the Newport crowd last week. “I know the importance of having that voice get into people ... And they get it. They finally get it.”

She said hunting, trapping, oral history, arts, and the sometimes overlooked importance of extended kinship networks are all keys.

For all the successes of the program and positive feedback, there is still plenty of work to be done even in Franklin County, they said.

“We’ve made an impact. We haven’t realized perfection,” Widrick said.

The historical animosity and distrust built up between the Abenaki population and the social services and state government systems – caused in large part by the eugenics sterilization movement of the early 20th-century and a more recent tendency to remove Abenaki foster children from their home community and culture – have been a major obstacle to overcome.

Reversing this trend and bringing resources that are intrinsic to Abenaki culture into the mix have been clear benefits of the trainings.

“There have been many people in the past who have not trusted the state, but in general I’ve seen a change in their willingness to work with us in partnership,” Conder said. “We have been able to use the networking within the Abenaki community ... that we might not have been able to do before.”

Widrick also stressed the Abenaki cultural focus on extended kinship as invaluable.

“You don’t just look at the nuclear family. It’s helped the state to see the value of kinship care,” said Widrick. “It builds upon the strengths that Native communities have always had.”

“Some traditional service models really aren’t a good fit,” said Steve Broer, Director of Behavioral Health Services at Northern Counseling and Support Services. “I think it’s really forced us to look at our practices ... It creates a dialogue about what is our bias and what areas of our work need to be modified.”

The program built up in Franklin County will continue, even as it becomes the model for the Newport area, Widrick said.

“The workforce changes in human services is fairly high. There’s always going to be a need to train people in cultural competency,” he said.

With 12 DCF offices in Vermont, the training could eventually become much more widely used in the state.

“It’s conceivable that we could go to half or more of those offices,” Widrick said, adding that they will also need to be cautious about spreading themselves thin in such an expansion.

Widrick said the VCNAA will play an important role as they move forward.

“They will help point out other communities that have other concentrations of Native populations ... We definitely intend to work cooperatively with the commission,” said Widrick.

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