A welcoming, healing space

This most recent post is written by Simply Smiles Clinical Director Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP. Hallie outlines the therapeutic support services available to youth in our care, the foster family households, and biological family and kin at the Reservation Children’s Village. With the success of our 2021 Keep Hope Alive virtual fundraiser, we will soon be breaking ground on our therapy and wellness building, where these therapy services will be offered.

The primary intention of the therapeutic center on the Reservation Children's Village campus is to provide a safe, welcoming space for children to receive individual, group, and family therapy, as needed.

When a child first arrives at the Children's Village, an assessment is completed in order to determine the strengths and needs of each child, who in their world is most important to them, and how clinical staff at the Village can best use this information to support their healing. For some children, that healing can be best achieved through trauma-informed, child-centered individual therapy.

Circle of Courage®. Click the image to learn more.

Cultural components incorporated in therapy include being in nature, storytelling, planting, making music, beading, dancing, horseback riding, and other Lakota-centered approaches that promote healing. As a foundational resource, we view our clinical work through the lens of the Circle of Courage, “a model of positive youth development based on the universal principle that to be emotionally healthy all youth need a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity.”

Family therapy may also be provided at the Children’s Village, if it is determined to be clinically appropriate. An example of this might be that a biological parent and child participate in family therapy sessions in order for the child to safely express their needs prior to reunification. Another example might be that the child and the foster parent participate in family sessions in order to help build trust and articulate needs and expectations within the shared foster home.

Many of the children who will come to live at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village have experienced similar types of trauma: abuse and neglect, domestic violence, substance use exposure, death of or separation from loved ones, and other adversities. One of the best sources of support that children with these experiences can receive is the solidarity, normalcy, and comfort that comes from group therapy with peers. These groups typically have areas of focus, such as: social skills building, expressive arts, coping skills enhancement, and understanding trauma, to name a few. These groups are tailored to the specific needs of the children and teenagers living at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village, facilitated by our clinical staff.

On-site therapeutic resources also include support groups, coaching, and training for foster parents, as well as for birth family and other important people in children's lives, as needed. In order to truly meet the needs of the children in our care, it is essential that our clinical team is also supporting the adults closest to them: their birth family and the Foster Parents caring for them at the Children’s Village. Support groups for biological caregivers and for Foster Parents may be geared toward topics like self-care, understanding trauma, techniques for managing challenging behavior, among others. The therapeutic center is a welcoming, inclusive place where these groups and training can take place.

At the Simply Smiles Children's Village, we prioritize maintaining safe, meaningful connections with the people who are most important to the children in our care. When visits take place with birth parents, siblings, grandparents, or other important people, they occur at the therapeutic center. This home-like setting allows for family to cook a meal in the kitchen, watch a movie in the common area, play outside, and be together in a way that doesn't feel institutionalized or cold, but rather, warm and home-like. This important component of our philosophy and work led to designing a therapeutic center that included these communal spaces.

The Simply Smiles Children’s Village was designed intentionally with clinical support on-site so that whether a child experiences an emergency and is in need of immediate mental health support, or if foster parents would like to have an impromptu chat to share about a recent concern or strategize ways to help children at home, our clinical staff are a phone call and a few minutes away.

a village of foster homes:

An architectural rendering of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village, including four foster homes, a common building, and a therapy center. Click the image to take a virtual tour!

Sunset at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village on the Cheyenne River Reservation, overlooking two of our foster homes.

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Take action: Make trauma-informed resources available in our communities!

Written by Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP, Clinical Director of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village

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I recently joined a national trauma-informed organization called the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice. The Campaign's goal is to educate Congress about what science has taught us about trauma, and to make them aware of the trauma-informed resources present and lacking in our communities. This is an imperative for children who are growing up on the Cheyenne River Reservation without adequate support to heal from traumatic experiences.

In order to ensure that kids have access to counselors, doctors, teachers, and other helpers who understand how to best treat the effects of trauma, we must implore Congress to create legislation that recognizes the importance of trauma-informed policy.

Recently, I reached out to South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson to ask him to consider joining the bipartisan House Trauma-Informed Care Caucus. The Caucus' goal is to identify opportunities to tether trauma-informed care efforts to federal legislation and operations. Sending him the email was a fleeting moment, but the impact of getting involved has stayed with me all week.

At a time when so many of us feel helpless, stuck, and separated from the kids we care about, what an opportunity to do something tangible, together, for kids everywhere.

The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice has to be a national effort because childhood trauma is a national problem. Bigger than that, it's universal. It is present in every community, town, city, state, and country. It is present in the absence of a pandemic, and child welfare experts know that it is exacerbated in the presence of one.

So, if you're up to it, here's my invitation to you: Send an email to your congressional delegation and encourage them to join the House Trauma-Informed Care Caucus. Get involved! 

What an amazing notion, that during a time when our unbelievably dedicated Simply Smiles community is unable to come together in person, we have the opportunity to speak collectively on behalf of the kids we know and the kids we don't. Because every child deserves to feel safe.

Ensuring safety, security, bright futures for children during times of stress

Written by Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP, Clinical Director of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village

With this worldwide pandemic comes uncertainty for all of us–especially children. History teaches us that during times of a global crisis, children experience greater suffering.

For parents, loss of jobs and suspension of wages means stress. Stress means a limited bandwidth for caring for children. When caregivers are stressed and don’t have access to the support and tools they need, we see an increase in child abuse. We also see an increase in substance use. And in domestic violence. 

Many children depend upon their school environment for basic needs like safety, nutrition, and connection. The closing of schools means food insecurity. It also means an absence of adequate supervision. As a child therapist, I have asked many children over the years who their “safe person” is. In other words, who do they feel they can turn to when they have a problem? Countless times, kids and teenagers have told me, without hesitation, that it’s their English teacher. Their school nurse. Their guidance counselor. Their best friend, who they sit with every day at lunch. 

In light of school closings, social distancing, and mandatory quarantine, these protective relationships are absent, leaving many children vulnerable and without the support they need to navigate an increasingly unpredictable day-to-day reality.

COVID-19 impacts children currently living in foster care. Foster parenting is, for all intents and purposes, a volunteer job. While foster parents receive a stipend for things like clothing and daycare, many of the day-to-day expenses of parenting fall on them. In light of so many of these caregivers being unable to work, losing their primary sources of income, child welfare providers are anticipating disruptions in placement. This means children being moved from the homes that have become familiar to them, enduring more trauma. 

The first home in the Simply Smiles Children’s Village on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

At the Simply Smiles Children’s Village, we provide safety, predictability, and love at a time when children need it most. In spite of this pandemic, and especially because of it, our work must continue. With our first of six village homes built, and with the support of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the state of South Dakota, our primary focus is in securing Native caregivers on whom the children in our care can count.

To our Native partners, to those who have been behind our effort since the beginning, and to those who are just learning about the work we do–we need you now more than ever. 

To those of you who have always contemplated becoming a foster parent, and to those of you who may be considering such a commitment for the first time–we need you now more than ever. We need Native adults who are willing to dedicate their love, time, and energy to the next generation. Please consider joining our initiative.

We can think of no better way to spend our minutes together on this earth, than by securing bright futures for our children.

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Healing and Reunification

Written by Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP, Clinical Director of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village

Our role at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village is two-fold. First, we help to ensure the safety of children in our care. This is paramount. Second, we work to support the healing of parent-child relationships.

For some, this might seem like a paradox. How can we honor the relationships children in our care already have with adults who have struggled to keep them safe or even hurt them? Because just as caregivers can hurt children and still love them, children can love those who have let them down. And they do. Because our family is our family. 

Our experience loving and caring for children began in Oaxaca, Mexico, where we continue to provide safe and loving homes for children in need. At times when children have had nowhere else to turn for safety, we have been there. And at times when children have been able to return home, we have had to say goodbye. These goodbyes are painful. They are bittersweet. And they are so important. With each goodbye, we are helping children to understand that goodbyes aren’t always a bad thing. They are sometimes a sign of healing, of growth, and of hope. Certainly, there is an emotional impact on our team. And so we work hard to support one another during those transitions, and to manage a balance of loving children in our care fiercely, while maintaining the perspective that successful reunification is always our goal.

In Indian Country, we have a legal and ethical obligation to keep Native children with Native families.

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The first home of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

When parents are well and able to provide safe, loving care for their children, then wherever they are is exactly where those children belong. When this isn’t possible, other family members stepping in to care for these children is the next best option. And when this can’t be achieved, the most we can do for children is to keep them safe with their siblings, and find them shelter with someone from their tribe–a member of their kin. Reunification is critical to cultural preservation.

This is why the mission of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village is so essential to Indian Country. It is a response to decades of misunderstanding–or refusing to understand–the specific needs of Native people based upon the atrocities committed by our non-Native ancestors, and the injuries that continue. “Entire generations of American Indian families have been disconnected as a result of relocation and systematic practices of child removal” (1). In Indian Country, we have a legal and ethical obligation to keep Native children with Native families. And, we have a legal and ethical obligation to help reunify children with their biological caregivers, whenever it is safe to do so. “Reunification is an essential component to rebuilding American Indian communities after efforts of forced assimilation, removal and relocation” (1).

We must do everything we can to ensure that during times of crisis and instability, we find homes for children that they can recognize as their own, and that they can count on. 

Frequent moves damage the trusting relationships that children work to build with new caregivers–sometimes beyond repair. Each move to a new home risks disruption of their physical environment, their daily schedule, their school, their friendships, and perhaps even their proximity to their siblings and parents. These disruptions can prevent the healing that children and their biological families need.

Every time a child is removed and placed in the care of another adult, the voice inside their head that tells them, “Don’t get too comfortable, this could all change soon” becomes louder. Often, after too many moves from foster home to foster home, children come to expect these disruptions. They don’t bother to attach, as a means of self-protection. They act out to speed up the process of disruption. And when they are misunderstood, given up on, and relocated time and time again, they receive the message that they are not worth holding onto, that they cannot count on anyone, and that feelings of safety can never last.

So which do we prioritize: keeping children with their kin, or ensuring as little movement as possible? Both. The Simply Smiles Children’s Village offers the unique opportunity for Lakota children from the Cheyenne River Reservation to remain on the Reservation, to be raised by kin in their community, and to remain connected to their biological families while those family members work to repair their relationships with their children, learn parenting strategies that are rooted in Lakota values, and ultimately heal.

Cultivating healthy relationships is a practice. The work of our Native foster parents at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village will be to nurture this practice with children and their biological caregivers, using the traditions of Lakota culture and child rearing traditions. Because the Lakota people have always known what many communities are now only beginning to understand: children are sacred beings.

The Simply Smiles Children’s Village provides a long-term home for children–a place they can count on for as long as they need. For children who need a safe place to land, we will be there. For parents who need the support to repair fractured relationships with their children, we will be there. And when children are able to return home to their biological caregivers, we will be there, providing support to those families for as long as they need–becoming an extension of their family, remaining their tiospaye–their extended family. 

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Source(s) referenced:

1. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/181762/Landers_umn_0130E_17073.pdf?sequence=1

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We repeat what is not repaired

Written by Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP, Clinical Director of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village.

The belief that it is every child’s right to grow up in a safe, supportive, and culturally rooted environment is what guides our work at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village.

For far too long, Indigenous children have been overrepresented within child welfare systems. For child survivors of trauma growing up in Indian Country today, these adverse experiences of family separation compound a multigenerational history of abuse and neglect endured by Indigenous people.

Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, a Hunkpapa/Oglala Lakota social worker, associate professor, and mental health expert, first defined historical trauma experienced by the Lakota people as “collective emotional and psychological injury both over the lifespan and across generations, resulting from a cataclysmic history of genocide.” The impact of the historical and present-day trauma that has been inflicted upon Native Americans manifests itself as unresolved emotional trauma, depression, high mortality rates, high rates of alcohol misuse, significant problems of child abuse and domestic violence.* 

In other words, we repeat what is not repaired.

It is crucial that we differentiate the reasons why Native children have traditionally been removed from their biological families. On the one hand, there are failures on the part of the dominant culture to regard traditional Native practices of child rearing and to acknowledge resource limitations perpetuated by systematic genocide. On the other hand, there are incidents in which adults, who undoubtedly love their children, are also unable to safely care for them. Parents can love their children and also hurt them; these facts are not mutually exclusive. We repeat what is not repaired.

In response to a congressional investigation that concluded that American Indian children residing in the US had been unjustly removed from their homes, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 sought to create standards within the child welfare system that would ensure the prioritization of Indigenous children in foster care being placed with Native kinship (foster) parents. While this determination was vital and long overdue in order to support the preservation of Native culture and the survival of tribes, ICWA promised on paper what society has been unable to deliver in practice. This is largely because of the absence of an infrastructure that supports and empowers Native American caregivers to raise their communities’ most vulnerable members—Indigenous children. 

This is our mission: to provide exactly that infrastructure (safe housing, kinship parent support and training, access to therapy, education, social and emotional wellness) that empowers Native adults to care for Native children.

While only the Tribal Court of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe can determine placement for a child who is removed from their home, our role at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village is to then provide these identified children with the safe, supportive, long-term care of Native kinship parents. Simply Smiles also prioritizes the reunification and maintained connection between siblings in foster care, as well as biological family support whenever possible. We believe that trusted relationships with Native caregivers will serve as the greatest healer for children in the care of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village.

Resilience, or the ability to survive and even thrive in spite of (and because of) adversity can be understood through the role of a Takini, or a survivor, one who has been brought back to life (Brave Heart). Lakota values and traditions will guide us in our efforts, while keeping in mind that historical trauma is not what defines the Lakota people. It is a condition that, with support, can be healed. Calling upon the warrior spirit will be the remedy.** Our kinship parents, Elders, and the Reservation community that has welcomed our initiative will be our greatest teachers in how we, the Simply Smiles Children’s Village team, support children and families of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

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Source notes:

* Chavez, Nora. NM Cares Health Disparities Center. Shouldering Grief: Validating Native American Historical Trauma. https://hsc.unm.edu/programs/nmcareshd/docs/story_heart.pdf

** White, Kenneth Jr. The Warrior Spirit. A How-to Handbook on Creating Comprehensive, Integrated Trauma-Informed Initiatives in Native Communities. http://www.ignitingthewarriorspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Trauma-Informed-How-To-Handbook-For-Roundtable-20190328_105823.pdf

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