Recently,
White Bison had the privilege to attend a networking meeting in Washington,
D.C. held by the Office for Victims of Crime, Training and Technical Assistance
Center (OVC TTAC) https://www.ovcttac.gov/. We were invited as
part of the grant award that White Bison received, to develop the Survivors of Homicide training
program.
While
there, we were able to connect with fellow non-profit organizations that are
carrying out remarkable work in their field.
All of the organizations in attendance were recipients of a grant award for
projects within the Office for Victims of Crime, and several also represent
Native American/Alaska Native communities.
The meeting was a great opportunity to begin collaborating with comparable programs. We were able to make several valuable connections
and hope to exchange resources to strengthen our program.
Many staff
members from the OVC TTAC attended, which proved very beneficial. In the course of several breakout sessions,
we were able to connect directly with the staff to ask questions, brain-storm
ideas, and get an overall sense of how OVC TTAC grant projects are coordinated. These sessions provided an opportunity for
open discussions between the staff and organization providers on common items
of interest dealing with grant projects.
Opportunities
such as these are so valuable for White Bison to not only expand our resources,
but to create a stronger awareness for the issues in Native
communities. Stay tuned for further
updates as we continue to work on our program development!
Carlos Rivera (Executive Director) and Molly Hepker (Project Coordinator)