Transcript Agenda - Ayazuta.com

An Introduction To:
A u t o m a t e d I C WA C o m p l i a n c e
28th Annual "Protecting Our Children"
National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
From Opportunity to Reality: Honoring Our Dream
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Content
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The Dream
Practical Problems - Notice
Honoring the Dream
Introducing Ayazuta.com
• ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
• Automated ICWA Noticing
Honoring the Dream
Current Status
Ayazuta Future
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The Dream
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Indian Tribes, People, and Traditions are fundamentally respected
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Tribes have a right to exist
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Tribes have a right to their history and traditions
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Indian People have a right to pass those traditions forward to their children
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Indian Tribes have a right to intervene when their children are being
removed from their parents, separate from any parental rights
When coming into contact with care agencies, the child has a right to:
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Professional, diligent, involved, and documented investigation of their
Indian heritage
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To have requirements for Notice, Active Efforts and Placement Preferences
systematically respected
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Involvement of experts to ensure cultural appropriateness of actions
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Proportionality and fairness
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Practical Problems
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Claims are mostly of historical Tribe membership rather than of Federally
recognized tribal government, and many Tribes are not Federally recognized.
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There is poor Federal mapping of Historical to Federally recognized tribes.
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States may require all possible Tribes receive notice of all hearings, and one
historical tribe could have 20 Federally recognized tribal governments.
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The Tribal ICWA contact address published in the Federal Register can be out
of date.
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FACT 1 - This generates the bureaucratic nightmare of Case and Social
Worker time spent administering Notices rather than supporting children
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FACT 2 - There is variable and in some cases poor compliance
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FACT 3 – BIA receives 20,000 notices per year, Los Angeles County reports it
takes about 8 hours to notice a hearing, with 4-6 hearings per case per year
plus countless hours and costs in appeals from failed noticing
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Assertion 1 – The process and paperwork are at the center of the system –
not the child
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All of these issues work against the best interests of the Indian child
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Honoring the Dream
The notice process, as is:
Difficult or impossible to comply
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Heavily paper based
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Poor audit trail
Largely manual
The process needs to be:
Compliant and Self Auditing
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Meeting Court and Tribe reporting
requirements
Supportive of the Case and Social Worker
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Few if any supportive systems at a State
or County level
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All available information in one place and
easy to use
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Time consuming, expensive, and fraught
with the potential for error
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Fully Automated, with a target Notice
production time of 8 minutes
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8 hours average to produce notices for 1
hearing
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Fast, accurate, repeatable, with little
potential for error
Partial support from Federal Government
Nationally Available, up to date Data
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Variable Federal to Historical Tribe
mapping
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Maintained Federal Tribes to Historical Tribes,
keyword and State mapping
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Aging of contact information
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6 Month review cycle
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Not responsible for noticing
Distrust between States, Counties and
Tribes
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Poor statistics, measurement, analysis
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History
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Trust based on Verification
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Statistics, Process measurement
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Consistent verifiable compliance
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Introducing Ayazuta
www.ayazuta.com
1. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Live and being used
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Links…
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Illinois Administrative
Office of the Courts
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NICWA
2. Automated ICWA Noticing
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Demo System
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ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments
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Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database
Keeps Tribal contact data up to date
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Maintains the address published in the Federal Register
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Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information
A well defined
verifiable process…
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ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Maps Historical Tribes to Federally
recognized Tribal governments
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Name, keyword, and State mapping in a
single database
Keeps Tribal contact data up to date
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Maintains the address published in the
Federal Register
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Multiple contact points if appropriate, and
ongoing validation of information
Tribal confirmation by an
authorized representative…
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ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments
Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database
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Keeps Tribal contact data up to date
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Maintains the address published in the Federal Register
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Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information
Resolving issues with the
Federal Register…
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ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments
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Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database
Keeps Tribal contact data up to date
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Maintains the address published in the Federal Register
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Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information
Serving an increasing
number of users….
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Tribal ICWA Contacts Database
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ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Problem – Mapping Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments
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Ayazuta Solution – Public and free mapping of Historical Tribes, Keywords, States
to Federally Recognized Tribes, available on the internet 24/7
© H7 interactive, llc 2010
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Introducing Ayazuta
www.ayazuta.com
1. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup
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Live and being used
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Links…
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Illinois Administrative
Office of the Courts
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NICWA
2. Automated ICWA Noticing
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Automated ICWA Noticing
– Allows storage of the relevant case information
• Tribal Claims related to a child
• Investigation information
• Notice information
• Tribal responses
• Notice/Response audit trails and Court documents
– Automates production of notices
• Relating claims of historical tribal membership to appropriate Federally Recognized
Tribes
• Automated prompting and production of notices
• Automated update of responses from Tribes
– Nationwide Coverage
• Up to date Judicial Council forms from all customer states
• Updates of contact information from all entities
– Audit Trail
• All access and changes to records recorded
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Automated ICWA Noticing
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Compliance
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Problem – Variable, and in some cases, poor compliance
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Ayazuta Solution – Full audit trail of all activities, changes and Notices
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Social Worker Time
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Problem – Social Services time consumed in paperwork
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Ayazuta Solution – Automated Notice, more time to concentrate on the Outcome
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Relationship Between
Tribes, States and Counties
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Problem – Variable relationships
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Ayazuta Solution – Focus on the Child – collaborative implementation of a
structured solution increases trust
Federally Recognized Tribe
Court
- Receives compliant notice audit trail
- Potential for Court notice
- Fewer notice based Appeals
Child
- Receiving clearer communication
from States and Counties
- Tribe has data to exercise jurisdiction
- Easy notice response
- Benefits from more accurate Notice
- Higher probability of being reconnected with
the tribe
- Higher probability of being dealt with
in a culturally sensitive way
Social / Case Worker
- Enters Case Informaion
- Investigates Heritage Claims
- Enters Results of investigation
- Retrieves/Updates hearing details
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- Retains ICWA Case Information
- Maintains map of Federal to Historical Tribes
- Maintains up to date ICWA related Forms
- Prompts Notice and Hearings
- Produces Declarations and Notices
- Stores responses to Notices and Investigation
- Produces an Audit Trail of Notices and all changes
- Keeps Federal Tribal Information Current
- Reduces costs at every stage of an ICWA enquiry
- Reduces tribal workload
Bureau of Indian Affairs
-Updates Tribal ICWA contacts
-Facilitates ICWA notice oversight
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System Structure
- Business Context Diagram
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Honoring the Dream
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ICWA helped define the Dream
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There are lots of “practical” and “real” reasons why the
ICWA Dream was only ever partly realized; the conditions
for compliance are not in place
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Without technology, the Dream cannot be delivered (after
32 years we can conclude that the manual way does not
consistently work)
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Tribes are universally capable of adopting technology, and
overwhelmingly and vocally support improvements in the
administration of ICWA
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Honoring the Dream
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Cost Benefits
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Reduced cost of maintaining accurate Tribal ICWA contact information
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Fewer Case and Social Worker hours in Notice, Administration and Hearing
Preparation.
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Reduced hours preparing for Appeals
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Reduced cost of Notice production, USPS confirmations
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More effective tracking and responses from tribes
Social Benefits
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Better relationships between Tribes and States
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Better handling of the child’s welfare through more accurate notice
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Children with Indian heritage are more likely to be identified and reconnected
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More people, focused more of the time, on better outcomes
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Current Status
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Tribal database is built and usable now
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Validation process continues, all Tribes contact information will be validated every 6
months.
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Fee based service for State, County and Commercial organizations to download the
database and get updates monthly
Community driven design
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Ayazuta to be developed by the community of users through a collaborative process
that builds positive relationships between courts, social services, tribes, and Indian
supportive services.
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Tribes and tribal support groups will have free access to system
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Great reaction from all interested parties
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Plan for system to be completed and rolled out to initial customer Q3/Q4, 2010
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Ayazuta Future
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Capabilities to support
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Phase 1 – Tribal Contacts Database
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Phase 2 – Automated Notice production
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Demo produced to drive the design
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Getting the system delivered
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Tribal ICWA worker access
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BIA access
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Phase 3 – “Active Efforts” support
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Phase 4 – Placement Preferences
Technology to support
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Print production and distribution of notices
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Digital confirmations and responses to digital notices
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Closer integration with Bureau of Indian Affairs
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Closer Integration with Tribes
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Incrementally reduced cost of ICWA compliance
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What Can You Do
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If you're a connected to a Tribe
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Check the contact details on the site
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Tell your Social Services agencies about the site and ask them to use it
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Give us a letter of support
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Add a link to Ayazuta from your website
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Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter
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Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial
If your connected to Social services
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Use the contact details database, add its use to training materials
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Add a link to County and State court and social services department websites to
Ayazuta
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Tell your State DSS and Courts, you want accurate, up to date Ayazuta data in their
systems
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Get the people who do noticing to look at the Ayazuta demo
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Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter
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Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial
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Questions & Answers
Kevin Hughes
Principal , H7 interactive LLC
Creators of Ayazuta.com
[email protected]
1 (310) 403 5565
© H7 interactive, llc 2010
Heather Zenone
Director of Indian Child Welfare
Indian Dispute Resolution Services
[email protected]
1 (916) 803 1919
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