As the 2012-13 fiscal year drew to a close on June 30, the Cheyenne River Youth Project®
announced that it was able to provide community members with a variety of much-needed special programs thanks to grants from Alexandria-based Running Strong for American Indian Youth®. These included the Heat Assistance Program and Home Improvement Program, offered through CRYP Family Services; scholarships to assist groups with renting CRYP facilities; and a food grant for youth snacks.
The Heat Assistance Program ran from February 1 to April 15 this year. According to April Bachman, CRYP’s finance manager, the 25-year-old, not-for-profit youth project was able to assist 210 families with their propane and electric bills or with their firewood purchases.
Through this program, Cheyenne River families may request matching grants up to $100 to help cover the cost of propane when they most need it. CRYP processes the requests and works with the local propane provider to ensure that each family receives assistance as soon as possible. All a family member needs to apply for the matching grant is a $25 minimum contribution and an annual membership in CRYP’s Family Services.
Next, in this year’s Home Improvement Program, the youth organization was able to assist 17 families with the Running Strong grant for home repairs. This program provides grants up to $1,000 per family for making basic repairs, which might include repairs to plumbing, heating units and water heaters, as well as replacing doors and windows.
“This year, we replaced doors and windows, painted the outside of homes, conducted electrical work and made bathroom repairs,” Bachman noted.
According to Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director, the Cheyenne River reservation has an acute housing shortage, which results in families living with eight or more members in a single home. She says wear and tear is nearly double what it might be in a more typical household arrangement of four or five people, but many homeowners don’t have access to the resources they need to repair and maintain the building.
“This program allows us to address immediate quality of life issues, and it means a lot to our families,” she explained. “For so many of them, they just need a little help getting started, and then they can perform much of the work themselves. Our volunteers can provide assistance if necessary, and if the home was built by Habitat for Humanity, then Habitat can assist as well.”
The Heat Assistance and Home Improvement programs are offered through CRYP’s Family Services Program, created in 2002 to manage the increasing amounts of donated supplies that the not-for-profit youth project provides to local families year-round. To participate in the program, all local families need to do is pay a $30 annual membership fee. That small one-time payment covers all family members for the entire year, and the proceeds support the program infrastructure so Family Services can remain a reliable community resource in the years to come.
Although the annual membership fees cover many of the department’s operational expenses, Garreau advised that CRYP wouldn’t be able to offer such critical services as heat matching and home improvements without Running Strong’s support.
“The Running Strong grants allow us to offer these programs year after year, and we’re deeply grateful,” she said. “Matching grants can mean the difference between staying warm and freezing during a brutally cold South Dakota winter. And the home improvement grants give families the help they need to really take ownership of their homes and feel good about where they live.”
Outside of Family Services, Running Strong grants also support rental scholarships to cover fees for using CRYP facilities. As Garreau observed, in remote north-central South Dakota, facilities for large-scale group meetings, special events, workshops, seminars and sports camps are in short supply. That’s why CRYP makes its state-of-the-art, 26,000-square-foot Cokata Wiconi teen center available to other organizations.
The youth organization relies on rental fees to help support its ongoing programming, services and day-to-day operations, Garreau said staff members also recognize that other community groups, particularly not-for-profits, might not have room in their budgets for such fees. Enter Running Strong — in the last year, its scholarships have allowed the grassroots youth project to accommodate a variety of local groups who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to conduct their classes, camps and special events.
“Thanks to the Running Strong scholarships, we’ve rented our facilities to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s Headstart program for recess and powwow, and to the White Horse Headstart for lunch,” Bachman reported. “We’ve rented the dance studio for the Native Step dance team; the Internet cafe to the Mni Indigenous Water Summit; the classroom for a money management class; the gymnasium for the CRST Health Education Day of Champions, as well as to the Hamilton Baptist Church and the Good Healing Voice Restoration Ministry for their basketball camps; and the whole building for the two-day ‘Land+Water=Food’ summit.”
Cokata Wiconi’s facilities include a full-size gymnasium, a formal dance studio, a large library, a computer lab, a classroom and the Keya Cafe, which provides Internet access and a commercial kitchen. CRYP also has a large movie screen and projector for presentations. Groups may rent all or some of the available facilities, depending on their events’ parameters. The nearly 5,000-square-foot Main youth center also is available for rental.
“We’re so happy that the Running Strong scholarships allowed these groups to use our facilities,” Garreau said. “We’ve always intended Cokata Wiconi to serve as a gathering place, and as a shared resource, for community organizations and groups here on the Cheyenne River reservation and throughout South Dakota’s West River country.”
Finally, Running Strong’s food grant supports CRYP’s ongoing efforts to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for snack at the Cokata Wiconi teen center on a daily basis.
“Once again, we’re profoundly grateful to Running Strong for the grants that allow us to meet so many needs in our community,” Garreau said. “ With their assistance, we’re better able to support our families and our children, and we’re looking forward to continuing all four programs in the 2013-14 fiscal year!”
To learn more about the Cheyenne River Youth Project and its programs, and for information about making donations and volunteering, call (605) 964-8200 or visit
www.lakotayouth.org. And, to stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, follow the youth project on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The Cheyenne River Youth Project, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.