Administration for Native Americans Equity Statement

The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) believes community members are at the heart of lasting, positive change. ANA’s philosophy of Native self-sufficiency is based on the following core beliefs:

• A Native community is self-sufficient when it can generate and control the resources necessary to meet its social and economic goals and the needs of its members.
• The responsibility for achieving self-sufficiency resides with Native governing bodies and local leadership.
• Progress toward self-sufficiency is based on efforts to plan and direct resources in a compre­hensive manner consistent with long-range goals.

ANA’s commitment to equity is rooted in ensuring the diverse Indigenous communities, we serve have equal access to ANA, ACF, and HHS resources. We achieve this through receiving input from and advocating for all the communities we serve.

In November 2021, ANA coordinated Tribal Consultation and Indigenous community listening sessions to receive input on the Administration for Children and Family’s (ACF’s) Equity Action Plan. ANA weaved in the feedback from the consultations and listening sessions to our equity action plan, including elements central to ANA’s goals to:

1. Lessen the burden of applying for a grant and strengthen support for applicant success.
2. Raise ACF staff awareness on American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AIANNHPI) equity issues.
3. Strengthen ACF’s support for the public health approach to violence prevention and respond to the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP). AIANNHPI peoples experience disproportionately higher levels of violence, which can partially be attributed to historical trauma but is also preventable. It will take collective action to address MMIP.

ANA made progress in advancing equity by:

Goal 1: Lessen the burden of applying for a grant and strengthen support for applicant success.

• Collecting and analyzing survey results from panel reviewers and grant applicants to identify areas to streamline and clarify ANA’s Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs).
• From March to May 2022, ANA hosted six focus groups to engage and receive external feedback from individuals to learn how ANA can make its funding more equitable, including ideas to simplify ANA NOFOs. Organizations and individuals were aggregated into the following groups to participate in this data collection:
  • Unsuccessful applicants
  • Recipients who have other federal grants
  • First-time ANA recipients
  • Reviewers/chairpersons
  • Recipients who had back-to-back grants

• • Interested potential applicants who have never applied

Goal 2: Raise ACF staff awareness on AIANNHPI equity issues.

• Launching a pilot Working with Indigenous Peoples 101 training series for ACF staff in partnership with the Office of Child Care (OCC). The topics were informed by feedback collected from staff surveys issued to ANA and OCC office staff. The training series included the following sessions:

• Working with Tribal Nations Foundational Training (May 12, 2022)
• Historical Trauma and Generational Effects Overview (June 9, 2022)
• Trauma-informed Training: Working with Indigenous Communities (July 14, 2022)
• Real-life Application — How to Employ Trauma-informed Trainings in our Work (August 30, 2022)

Goal 3: Strengthen ACF’s support for the public health approach to violence prevention and respond to the Crisis of MMIP.

• Participating in the White House Council on Native American Affairs (WHCNAA) Public Safety and MMIP Committee Meetings (ongoing).
• Hosting MMIP-focused plenary and workshops sessions during the ACF Indigenous Peoples Conference (March 2022).
• Participating in the ACF Tribal Advisory Committee meeting sessions focused on MMIP (February and June 2022).
• Releasing Episodes 1 and 2 of the podcast series Keeping Us Whole: Preventing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People to raise awareness of MMIP and increase the focus on prevention (May and June 2022).
• Appointing ANA Deputy Commissioner Hope MacDonald Lone Tree to the Not Invisible Act Commission to assist with federal, state, and tribal policy and resource coordination to address MMIP and human trafficking (June 2022).
• Contributing to the development of a comprehensive Health and Human Services (HHS) Plan to Strengthen Prevention, Early Intervention, and Victim and Survivor Services as outlined in Executive Order (EO) 14053 (August 2022).
• Developing concurrent ACF MMIP Implementation Plan (August 2022).
• Participating on multiple workgroups with subject matter experts, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to coordinate efforts under EO 14053 (ongoing).

Going forward, ANA will:

Goal 1: Lessen the burden of applying for a grant and strengthen support for applicant success.

• Further analyze the feedback and identify ways to incorporate findings from focus groups and panelist and applicant surveys to proactively provide applicant and grant recipient training and technical assistance for FY 2023 applications (September 2022-March 2023).
• Compile, analyze, and apply focus group feedback to inform future NOFOs.  Additionally, an ANA staff representative will continue to participate on the ACF Customer Experience (CX) Workgroups to enhance customer experience on ACF-wide program and grant initiatives.

Goal 2: Raise ACF staff awareness on AIANNHPI equity issues.

• Conduct Part 5 of the Working with Indigenous Peoples 101 training series for ACF staff, Overview of ACF’s MMNA Framework and MMIP Implementation Strategy (September 8, 2022).
• Develop a Resource List on AIANNHPI equity issues for ACF Program Offices and staff (December 2022). 
• Continue to host the ACF Tribal Advisory Committee (TAC) and ACF Tribal Consultation sessions, participate on the ACF Equity Advisory Group and provide input to ACF leadership on ongoing and emerging cross-program ACF initiatives in order to center Indigenous community voices and perspectives (ongoing).
  • The ACF TAC met in person June 22-23, 2022 and provided recommendations on integrating the following behavioral health considerations for ACF programming to further support Native communities in achieving self-sufficiency and building capacity to utilize available resources. These recommendations include:
    • Ensure development of a focused suicide prevention strategy for Native youth.
    • Address mental health stigma increased during COVID.
    • Revisit opportunities for behavioral health partnerships with sovereign nations.
    • Increase interagency coordination to address mental health.
    • Coordinate resources to be more comprehensive and cohesive.
    • Address sustainability of the behavioral health system (i.e., burnout of providers and staffing).
    • Increase support for Tribally-operated residential behavioral health services, especially for youth.
• Work with the HHS Behavioral Health Coordinating Committee to identify opportunities to implement ACF TAC recommendations noted above, and report out on the status and progress of the recommendations at future ACF TAC meetings (ongoing).
• Continue to support Tribes and Native American grant recipients recovering from the pandemic through outreach and communication using monthly meetings with ANA grant recipients, a weekly newsletter, and other methods as appropriate (ongoing).

Goal 3: Strengthen ACF’s support for the public health approach to violence prevention and respond to the Crisis of MMIP.

• Continue engagements with the Intradepartmental Council on Native American Affairs Missing and Murdered Native Americans Subcommittee, to ensure ongoing coordination across the department and provide quarterly updates for federal partners.

• Participate in the Not Invisible Act Commission meetings and public hearings and contribute to the Commission’s final report to Congress.

Please send any suggestions or comments on our plans to anacomments@acf.hhs.gov. We will provide a semi-annual status update.

ACF is committed to making equity a central part of how we operate and deliver our mission. In 2021, every ACF office committed to equity by creating an Equity Action Plan. Please click here to learn more.