In honor of Native American Heritage Month, OPRE is pleased to share our newly established webpage: OPRE Research and Evaluation with Indigenous Communities.
Until 2003, very few research studies in OPRE focused on tribal communities. OPRE staff noticed this gap in 2003 but remained unsure of how to proceed in the federal context. OPRE staff were cognizant of the limitations of standard measures and standard approaches to experimental designs for tribal communities and also aware of community-based participatory approaches as an alternative approach. As the first step toward learning more, OPRE began a project to establish a research agenda for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start programs. This project convened a consultant panel; synthesized findings from previous research; and conducted a series of listening sessions with tribal leaders, elders, community representatives, parents, and staff from AIAN Head Start programs. Priorities that emerged from intentional listening throughout these activities included:
- Providing funding opportunities for systematic research and evaluation about early childhood with AIAN children;
- Focusing on long-term positive outcomes in education, tribal identity, health, and personal development; and
- Including individuals who are AIAN on research teams.
Based on findings from that initial project, OPRE funded the American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Research Center in 2005. This, combined with the 2011 Child Welfare Evaluation Summit and other ongoing federal efforts, created a timely context at ACF to articulate a vision for building credible, relevant, and adaptable evidence across tribal communities. This opportunity resulted in the call to action contained in the Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities, which includes both a white paper (i.e., the Roadmap) and graphic portions (i.e., the visual Roadmap).
The visual Roadmap brings together the components of the written Roadmap in one place (Figure 1). Around the perimeter of the visual Roadmap is the historical context of the old narrative on evaluation such as Intergenerational and community trauma. In small white boxes, the visual Roadmap presents an intentional set of individuals and groups to actively engage in program evaluation for tribal communities. At the top of the visual Roadmap, values that should guide evaluation practices are listed, such as Respect for Tribal Sovereignty and Cultural and Scientific Rigor. At the center of the visual Roadmap, the goals of the new narrative are listed, including System Improvement and Collaborative, Culturally Responsive Evaluation. The goals are surrounded by the priorities for action for the new narrative: Relationship Building and Knowledge & Skill Building. Listed underneath each priority are specific actions and indicators of progress towards these priorities.
Twenty years later, we are grateful to share our new webpage, which provides a list of research and evaluation projects with Indigenous communities. The projects described on this page demonstrate our collective effort across many ACF programs to enact the principles of the Roadmap in our work. For example, The Multi-Site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting (MUSE) uses a strengths-focused and community-engaged approach to examine how home visiting programs are operating across tribal contexts. The study uses mixed data sources and iterative analytic processes to ensure that the diverse Tribal Home Visiting grant award recipients’ voices are heard. The Tribal evaluation of the 2nd generation of Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) examines HPOG programs administered by tribal award recipients, specifically and intentionally embracing culturally appropriate approaches.
Most recently, we have released an interim report from the formative evaluation of the Demonstration Grants to Strengthen the Response to Victims of Human Trafficking in Native Communities (VHT-NC) Program. The projects funded by this program aim to build, expand, and sustain organizational and community capacity to deliver services to Native American people who have experienced human trafficking. The evaluation seeks to build on the importance of community context and embrace a participatory and culturally responsive approach.
Another project highlighted on this website is The American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (AIAN FACES), which provides descriptive, nationally representative information on the characteristics, experiences, strengths and needs of Region XI Head Start children and families; the cultural and linguistic experiences of Native children and families; and the characteristics of the Region XI Head Start programs and staff who serve them. The Cross-Cultural Understanding and Culture Humility: Training for Early Childhood Researchers Working with American Indian and Alaska Native Communities (CCU) was designed to ensure that all AIAN FACES study staff were rigorously trained on how to work respectfully with Region XI Head Start programs and AIAN communities. Although AIAN FACES focuses on research with a specific population (Region XI Head Start programs and the children and families in their communities), these facilitator training materials may be used as a resource for broader early childhood research efforts with AIAN programs and communities. The facilitator training materials that are now available reflect an ongoing commitment to fostering culturally responsive and respectful research.
This fall, we funded two new projects with the Administration for Native Americans and with ACF’s Office of Family Assistance’s Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Program that we look forward to highlighting in future blog posts. As Figure 2 shows, ACF’s portfolio of research in this area has expanded greatly over the last 20 years. We are proud of this progress and eager to continue to build on this work while embracing our commitment to equitable research practices, active engagement, inclusivity, and respect.
