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8.4 NATIVE AMERICANS PROGRAMS

Program Description, Content, Legislative Intent, and Broad Program Goals

ACF's Administration for Native Americans (ANA) operates programs mandated to provide grant funding to the full range of Native American populations. ANA is the only Federal agency serving all Native Americans, including over 550 Federally recognized Tribes, 250 Tribes that are State-recognized or seeking Federal recognition, Indian organizations, over 200 Alaska villages, Native Hawaiian communities, and populations throughout the Pacific basin. All Indian and Alaska Native organizations, Native Hawaiian communities, and Native populations in Guam, American Samoa, Republic of Palau, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are eligible for ANA programs. This includes non-federally recognized Tribes, Urban Indian Centers, small communities in rural areas of Alaska and the Pacific Basin, along with many others such as Alaska Native villages, multi-purpose community-based Indian organizations and consortia. ANA provides grants, training, and technical assistance to eligible Tribes and Native American organizations representing 2.2 million individuals.

Promoting the goal of social and economic self-sufficiency through local self-determination is the cornerstone of ANA's program philosophy. Self-sufficiency is that level of development at which a Native American community can control and internally generate resources to provide for the needs of its members and meet its own economic and social goals. Social and economic underdevelopment is the paramount obstacle to the self-sufficiency of Native American communities and families.

In 1981, ACF collaborated with Tribes and Native communities to develop the innovative Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program. SEDS is based on the premise that a local community has the primary responsibility for determining its own needs, planning and implementing its own programs, and using its own natural and human resources. In initiating the SEDS approach, ACF developed a framework of three interrelated goals:

• Assist Native American leadership in exercising control over their resources;
• Foster the development of stable, diversified local economies which provide jobs, promote economic well-being, and reduce dependency on social services; and
• Support local access to and coordination of programs and services that safeguard the health and well-being of people, essential elements for a thriving and self-sufficient community.

Through this direct grant funding relationship, Tribes and Native communities have created administrative systems to operate their own social and economic programs, in much the same way as State and local governments. Support for the unique, government to government relationship that exists between Tribal governments and the Federal government is reflected in this approach. These funds will support self-sufficiency efforts by Tribes through economic development and governance projects. Increasing the number of grants awarded will increase the core outcomes that typically occur as grants are measured over time. Additional priority funding areas include native language preservation, recovery and enhancement, environmental regulatory enhancement, and environmental mitigation. The development of performance goals will take place within this context. The preliminary goals and measures below will be further developed through this partnership process, and will include data and baselines.

ANA faces unique challenges in formulating goals and measuring results. As a discretionary grant program funding projects designed and implemented at the local level, the differences between projects are considerable in terms of size, scope, community goals, and funding levels. Because Tribes and Native American communities set their own goals and priorities, ACF requests objective progress reports throughout the project period of the grant and an objective evaluation report once the grant has ended. This system provides information on goals and measures, but these are solely unique to the Tribe or community. Each grantee is at different stages of social and economic development. Administrative and organizational capacity varies greatly among grantees, making more difficult the prospect of developing more "conventional" measures.

Many ANA grants are aimed at capacity-building and infrastructure development for Tribes and organizations, particularly through the development of legal codes, courts systems, and the revision of existing Tribal constitutions. Capacity-building encompasses not only economic development (creation and expansion of businesses and jobs), but also efforts to create new programs as a result of welfare reform. This emphasis on capacity-building ties into the larger ACF goal to facilitate the changes effected by welfare reform by working together in innovative ways. For both economic and social development, capacity-building and infrastructure development are key factors. ANA will continue to work with its partners to develop meaningful GPRA measures, within the context of sovereignty, and available technical and staff resources at ANA, for job creation, economic well-being, and reducing dependency on social services across a diverse mix of project types, Tribes and Native American organizations.

Program Activities, Strategies and Resources

In prior years, ANA funded over 225 competitive grants annually totaling over $34 million in several grant programs, including Social and Economic Development, Environmental Regulatory Enhancement and Native Languages Preservation and Enhancement. ANA's grant award process is highly competitive; approximately one-third of applicants are funded each year. As part of our rigorous review process, individuals from all populations served by ANA are brought in to read, evaluate and score proposals. These ratings developed by the review panels, along with internal staff reviews and recommendations, provide the basis upon which the ANA Commissioner makes funding decisions. Once funded, projects' progress is monitored through required written progress reports, in-office meetings, and site visits. Consultation with all Native American Tribes, communities and organizations is conducted as a central programmatic activity and guides the Commissioner in formulating ANA priorities and goals. This approach directly supports local self-determination and the government-to-government relationship between Tribes and the Federal government. ANA also has established a Traditional Native Circle, made up of Tribal elders and spiritual leaders, to provide a more holistic perspective on issues facing Tribes and Native communities.

The FY 2001 budget increase provided the necessary resources of $10.6 million to fund an increase in grants under ANA programs. This additional funding will provide funds for an estimated 30 to 50 additional grants annually, depending on the type of projects approved under the competitive review process. Based on the rate of elders' participation in prior years, ANA expects to increase elder participation by approximately 10 new grant projects. The funding will expand training and technical assistance, increase grant application rates and awards to Tribes and organizations that have not received assistance in the past.

Program Coordination, Partnerships and Crosscutting Issues

ANA coordinates with all ACF program offices regarding Native American issues. These offices include Head Start, Office of Community Services (Tribal TANF), and the Child Care Bureau. ANA has provided a leadership role on a number of issues within ACF and throughout the Department, including the development of the DHHS Tribal Consultation Plan, Tribal Colleges and Universities Plan, and other initiatives involving Native populations. The Intra-Departmental Council on Native American Affairs (IDCNAA), located within ANA, coordinates numerous activities and initiatives with HHS agencies, such as the Indian Health Service (IHS), and external departments such as the Department of Interior (DOI). The Commissioner represents ANA as a member of the Domestic Policy Council - Working Group on American Indians and Alaska Natives, an organization that facilitates the development of new initiatives and program coordination across Federal agencies.

Program-wide Performance

ANA has exceeded its targets for FY 1999 and is confident that all targets for FY 2000 will be met due to the provision of consistent technical assistance and the emphasis on the role of Tribal elders in Indian communities. Elders play a key role in Tribal culture by protecting and preserving tribal cultural heritage including language, traditions and lifeways. They also play a critical role in providing guidance to youth. Increased elder participation (measure 8.4a) has occurred due to their inclusion in the native language grants awarded and to various SEDS projects that focus on culture. In 1998, with the addition of the Pacific region, the number of T/TA contractors increased from five to six. New contract performance requirements have led to all contractors expanding the variety of technical assistance delivery methods they use. In addition to on-site assistance, contractors are now offering walk-up, world-wide web, telephone, fax, e-mail and other state-of-the-art delivery mechanisms. Other initiatives under consideration include on-line chats and threaded discussions, electronic newsletters, and CD-ROM training programs.

ANA regularly selects new program goals and priorities. For example, in 1999, ANA: (1) initiated a new retirement plan policy in FY 1999 for all ANA financial assistance grantees that was modified for FY 2000; (2) played a key role in the Department's tribal consultation policy implementation; and (3) was the ACF lead organization in implementing the Tribal Colleges/Universities (TCU) Executive Order.

ANA's retirement plan policy that now strongly encourages such plans was developed, in part, to address socioeconomic trends indicating that American Indians are slipping farther behind the U.S. population. In 1979, 27% of American Indians were living in poverty compared to 12% of the U.S. population. By 1989, 31% of American Indians were living in poverty compared to 13% of the U.S. population. The U.S. economy contributes to this situation: because the least skilled and least educated earn less and find it harder to remain employed, ANA recognized that jobs created through grant programs could serve as a starting point for long-term individual benefits in retirement. ANA achieved 100% compliance in 1999 with all grant-funded employees under new grants receiving self-directed retirement plan fringe benefits.

Through the Tribal Colleges/Universities effort, ANA provided financial and technology assistance, in the form of grants and computer hardware, software and accessories, to the colleges and universities. ANA also modified its grant eligibility statement to allow TCUs direct competition for funding in addition to Tribes' eligibility.

While performance goals such as the retirement and TCU initiatives result in lasting, positive impacts on socioeconomic conditions for Native Americans, they are not suitable as GPRA measurements because they can be implemented and achieved quickly, typically within a year or two. ANA selected elder participation and training and technical assistance as performance goals to represent key, long-term, closely associated activities which require year-to-year continuous effort by grantees and the agency.

Data Issues

The primary source for data collection on the above performance measures is the Grant Award Tracking and Evaluation System (GATES). Funded grants are entered into these systems and a full description of the project as well as the goals and objectives. It will be necessary for ACF to design and perform systematic validation surveys of grant proposals regarding the types of projects and proposed participants, including trends and changes from other periods; potential applicants' use of technology; and training and technical assistance providers' outcomes and delivery levels. Such surveys will be reconsidered based on FY 2001 recruitment of professional staff experienced in Native American programs and trained on the use of new grant database systems for recording and analyzing information.

In FY 1999, ANA completed work with ACF's Office of Information Services to move all existing performance measure data from the former "Project Information and Evaluation System" (PIES) into GATES. ANA is one of the first offices to populate ACF's new Y2K compliant database with program performance measures and data. ANA will now begin to develop a strategy to validate data and determine if pre-existing data has value for GPRA performance measures. ANA will also work with other ACF programs to identify and develop standardized, cross-program measures.

Summary Table

Performance Measures	Targets	Actual Performance	Reference (page # in printed document)
PROGRAM GOAL: Support and encourage the role of Tribal elders in the community; promote efforts to involve elders in work as mentors with youth and children, e.g., teaching culture and language in Head Start and other child care programs.
8.4a. Increase the number of grants that include elder participation.	FY 02: 70 FY 01: 65 FY 00: 60 FY 99: 44	FY 02: FY 01: FY 00: 9/01 FY 99: 55Ö FY 98: 52 FY 97: 44	Px M-159
PROGRAM GOAL: Increase the provision of training and technical assistance services to the diverse Native American population, with particular emphasis on urban organizations, rural and non-Federally recognized Tribes.
8.4b. Maintain the number of TA visits per year to diverse Native American population, with emphasis on urban Native organizations, rural & non-Federally recognized Tribes.	FY 02: 1500 FY 01: 1500 FY 00: 1450 FY 99: 1400	FY 02: FY 01: FY 00: 9/01 FY 99: 1450Ö FY 98: 1190 FY 97: 1014*	Px M-159
FY 1999 data that were not available when the FY 1999 report was submitted with the FY 2001 CJ. Availability of FY 2000 data: ANA will report on FY 2000 performance in the third quarter of FY 2001. *ANA determined that the previous report of 1614 TTA visits for FY 1997 is insupportable and has provided the revised count of 1014 TTA visits.
Total Funding (dollars in millions) See detailed Budget Linkage Table in Appendix 6 for line items included in funding totals.	FY 02: $44.4 FY 01: $46.0 FY 00: $35.4 FY 99: $34.9	Bx: budget just. section H Px: page # performance plan

 

Performance Measures for FY 2002 and Final Measures for FY 2001

PROGRAM GOAL: Support and encourage the role of Tribal elders in the community; promote efforts to involve elders as mentors with youth and children, e.g., teaching culture and language in Head Start, other child care programs, and adult programs.

8.4a. FY 2001: Increase to 65 the number of grants that include elder participation from the 1997 baseline level of 44 grants.

FY 2002: Increase to 70 the number of grants that include elder participation from the 1997 baseline level of 44 grants.

Tribal elder involvement was selected as a key measure of program performance because the role of Tribal elders is essential in all aspects of Tribal and community life. Support of Tribal elders and providing a voice for their concerns has been an important emphasis area. Through the Tribal Elders Initiative, elders meet regularly with ANA/ACF officials and staff.

PROGRAM GOAL: Maintain the provision of training and technical assistance services (T/TA) to the diverse Native American population, with particular emphasis on urban organizations, rural and non-Federally recognized tribes.

8.4b. FY 2001: Increase to 1,500 the number of technical assistance contacts per year by Tribal T/TA contractors to the diverse Native American population, with particular emphasis on urban Native organizations, rural and non-Federally recognized Tribes.

FY 2002: Maintain at 1,500 the number of technical assistance contacts per year by Tribal T/TA contractors to the diverse Native American population, with particular emphasis on urban Native organizations, rural and non-Federally recognized Tribes.

Training and technical assistance delivery was selected as a key measure of program performance because of its "domino effect" and the cost-efficient aspects of field-based training. As individuals are given assistance, they are able to transfer the knowledge and skills to other key grant professionals at the Tribal office, train others and build a useful skill base. The T/TA contractors assist Tribes and Native communities in conceptualizing strategies for social and economic development, preservation of native languages, environmental regulatory enhancement, and environmental mitigation, translating them into viable applications for ANA funds.

For FY 2002, ANA expects training and technical assistance to potential and existing grantees to be maintained at the FY 2001 level of 1,500 contacts. The maintenance at 1,500 in the number of T/TA site visits is based on the level funding of these contracts. However, level funding alone does not assure sustained delivery of technical assistance year-to-year. To maintain a constant level of assistance, ANA must address client willingness to seek continued technical assistance after a successful or unsuccessful competition effort, encourage clients to consider projects aligned with ANA's national objectives, and recognize opportunities for additional grants when appropriations are increased.

Competition for ANA's technical assistance contracts occurs no less than every three years, and, when necessary, as frequently as every year to maintain performance standards. ANA is working to stagger contract competition cycles among the renewals and new contract competitions for the regions. For this reason, ANA has selected a three-year running average to measure performance since, in particular, new contracts have a start-up cycle that can affect delivery.

 

 

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