Health and Social Services Commissioner Joel Gilbertson joined charter members of the Native Family Assistance Program at the Alaska Native Heritage Center
(Anchorage, Alaska) – Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Joel Gilbertson and Division of Public Assistance Director Katherine Farnham joined the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) and charter members of the Native Family Assistance Program today at the Alaska Native Heritage Center to celebrate the passage of Senate Bill 51. SB51 reauthorizes and expands Alaska’s Native Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that helps families move from welfare to work.
“The need to contribute in a meaningful way to society is one of the most basic aspects of human nature. We’re getting Alaskans back to work and once they do that, we’re giving them the services they need to help them stay there,” Gilbertson said. “Since 1994 we’ve been able to reduce our welfare caseload by 55 percent.”
Governor Frank H. Murkowski signed SB51 into law on May 19. The law reauthorizes and expands the pilot program created by the Alaska legislature five years ago allowing DHSS to award grants to Alaska Native regional nonprofit organizations operating TANF programs. The legislation also expands the program so that the 12 Alaska Native regional nonprofits and the Metlakatla Indian Community, as authorized by federal law, are eligible for the Native Family Assistance Program.
The charter members of this program in Alaska were the Tanana Chiefs Conference in the Doyon region, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes in Southeast Alaska, and the Association of Village Council Presidents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Cook Inlet Tribal Council is the latest addition to the Native Family Assistance Program, thanks to the new law, which began providing TANF services July 1, 2005. Cook Inlet Tribal Council now operates one of the largest Native Family Assistance TANF Programs in the U.S. The four non-profit agencies serve more than 1700 TANF families in Alaska, with CITC serving about 700 families.
“The Native Family Assistance Program pilot was a success because the Native organizations know their people, their economic needs and culture best,” said Division of Public Assistance Director Katherine Farnham.
In FY04, the three Native nonprofit TANF programs operating in Alaska at the time received approximately $8.7 million in NFAP grants. Cook Inlet Tribal Council began FY06 with a grant of nearly $4.1 million to provide TANF services.
Federal welfare reform afforded states the flexibility to design and operate their own unique programs, allowing American Indian and Alaska Native organizations authority, and access to federal funding, to operate TANF programs through their own native nonprofit organizations.
Event photos available at: http://www.hss.state.ak.us/press/2005/pr072205tanfphotos.htm