AMERICAN INDIAN CHILD RESOURCE CENTER
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Mission Statement
AICRC is a multi-service agency in Oakland focused on promoting the success of American Indian Youth, inclusive of young adults and their families.
About This Cause
The American Indian Education Center is located in Oakland, CA. It was originally established to meet the social needs of American Indian families and young adults who were moved from their reservation homelands to large urban centers by federal policies meant to ease the extreme poverty and lack of employment opportunities in most American Indian reservations. The families and young people were not properly supported and left too early on their own in unfamiliar environment.Their fragile living conditions were further exacerbated by being in unfamiliar situations, living in heavily populated areas, usually in poor and high crime areas. Used to living in very rural, tribal communities surrounded by their families, traditions and ceremonies, many families suffered the social ills endemic to poor inner city communities; substance abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse (mostly neglect and lack of care because of substance abuse), crime, and poor school attendence and/or dropping out of school. Founded by American Indian nurses, the agency provided social services, case management, and counseling to families who desperately needed these services to navigate urban life. With the passing of the landmark federal legislation, the Indian Child Welfare Act, 1978, intended to protect American Indian children from being adopted to non Native families and breaking with the their culture, tribal affiliation and families, the AICRC established a Foster Family Agency (FFA). The FFA was created to assist counties with placing American Indian children in the foster care system with American Indian families, trained to provide foster children with culturally competent care, love, and respect for the child(ren)'s tribal affiliation and culture. In order to address the alarmingly high negative statistics forAmerican Indian students dropping out of school as early as middle school, low graduation rates, and poor grades, the Oakland Indian Education Center was established in the late 1980's to provide support to American Indian students and their families. We have a daily after school program, providing nutrition, physical activity, academic enrichment, tutoring, youth development and cultural activities, media and cultural arts, case management, and advocacy in school in obtaining educational supports and in school disciplinary matters. In the late 1990's, the center pioneered providing specific programs for older teens, out of school teens, and young adults. The programs intended to reengage older teens and young adults in to going back to school to gain their diploma, a GED, job training, or enrolling in post secondary education to become a self sufficient, successful young adult.Services provided include; case management goal setting, applying for tribal enrollment, obtaining, IDs needed for employment, assistance with reenrolling in school, obtaing a GED, applying for financial aid, finding a training program, and assistance in obtaining employment. The center provides a place for youth to meet, to celebrate their culture and identity, in an urban environment where you are few in number, a marginalized population. It is a place where you can come and feel welcomed and supported. Our services are strength-based and not focused on deficit models.