Although we’re perhaps best known for the Cokata Wiconi teen center and The Main youth center, the scope of our focus extends beyond the teens and young children who flood through our doors on a daily basis. Since 2002, we’ve also has offered an extensive Family Services program for community members.
For a $30 membership fee, which covers an entire family for one year, Family Services provides much-needed household supplies, including baby items; assistance with home improvements; heat-match funds for winter propane; and access to large distributions throughout the year, which include school supplies, winter clothing, shoes and the long-running Christmas Toy Drive. Family Services memberships are available to anyone who lives on the 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River reservation, not just those who live in the city of Eagle Butte.
“We’re now welcoming our second generation of children to CRYP, and we learned long ago that one of the best ways to support them was to help ease the burdens of daily life for their families,” explained Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “Our reservation comprises two of the nation’s poorest counties, and there’s no question that our children are exposed to adult stresses early on. They have to grow up fast.
“So if we can make things a little easier for the care-givers, we can improve our kids’ quality of life,” she continued. “We also can help protect their childhood — their innocence and freedom — just a little bit longer.”
CRYP’s Family Services program will host three major 2013 activities in the coming weeks. On Friday, February 1, it will start providing heat assistance to member households, offering matching funds to purchase propane. On Saturday, February 2, it will host a massive rummage sale at Cokata Wiconi. And on Wednesday, February 6, it will host a distribution of winter coats, clothing and shoes, and all member families are invited to attend.
The entire Cheyenne River community has access to Family Services. Simply stop by the office on East Lincoln Street in Eagle Butte to fill out an application and pay the $30 annual membership fee. Effective immediately, new members may take advantage of the program’s many benefits.
Surveys have shown that most member households use Family Services once per quarter, although a sizable group does come in once per month. Most also participate in the organized distributions — including the Christmas Toy Drive, which served 1,200 children in 20 reservation communities this past year.
All proceeds from membership fees and fundraisers such as the rummage sales support the Family Services program infrastructure. This includes staff, administrative hardware and donation/inventory management tools.
“We want to make sure that community members understand how their funds are used,” Garreau said. “We started Family Services a decade ago because we needed a way to manage the huge amounts of donations that we would receive throughout the year. We also knew we needed to manage those donations in a responsible, transparent manner — and to do that, we need dedicated staff and professional management tools. That’s how we ensure that Family Services will remain a reliable, far-reaching community resource in the years go come.”