ONAC Conference A Success!
ONAC's 2017 Annual Conference was a success! This year, with our constituents' support, ONAC hosted our most-attended conference to date. On July 18th, 102 participants attended the conference. Special thanks to all the conference speakers and other conference participants. ONAC was grateful to the tribal leaders in attendance: Caddo Nation of Oklahoma Chairman Tamara Francis-Fourkiller, Governor Bill Anoatubby of the Chickasaw Nation, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes President Terri Parton, and Muscogee (Creek) Principal Chief James Floyd. ONAC would like to thank our conference sponsors: Chickasaw Nation Community Development Endeavor, LLC, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Osage Casino, Publishing Concepts, LLC, AARP Oklahoma, Tovar and Wheeler Consulting, LLC, as well as our conference donor, the OKC Dodgers Baseball Foundation.
ONAC Has Funded 438 CSAs to Date!
On July 19, 2017, ONAC and the Osage Nation Financial Assistance Department, located in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, met with parents to open CSAs for youth and young adults, ages 16-22, who are participating in the Osage Nation Summer Youth Employee Program, as well as accounts for siblings of the youth employees. A total of twenty-nine accounts were opened that night. The Osage Nation Foundation made a grant award to ONAC to fund twenty-five of those accounts for Osage youth up to age 18. The remaining accounts were funded with grant funds from First Nations Development Institute, with support of the Ford Foundation. A follow-up account opening event will be held on July 31, 2017, for the summer youth employees. It is anticipated that additional accounts will be opened that night. ONAC thanks the Osage Nation Foundation, First Nations Development Institute, and the Ford Foundation, as well as the Osage Nation Financial Assistance Department and the parents and applicants who completed account applications!
ONAC Presented About Children’s Savings Account Program at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education 2017 in Toronto, Ontario
Christy Finsel (Osage), ONAC’s Executive Director, was honored to have been selected to present a session at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPCE) 2017. The session, “Children’s Savings Accounts: An Asset Building Tool to Promote Reconciliation and Level the Asset Building Playing Field,” was held on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. The session focused on ONAC’s Children’s Savings Account program, which is being implemented by ONAC and the coalition’s sixteen tribal and Native nonprofit partners. ONAC shared the state of the field of Native CSAs, offered compelling research for CSAs in any community, facilitated conversation about similar savings programs, and explored ways in which attendees could offer children’s savings programs at home. The theme of WIPCE 2017 is “A Celebration of Resilience.” According to WIPCE coordinators, “the role and impacts of Indigenous Education in truth and reconciliation around the world is a key focus of the conference theme. In 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final report including 94 Calls to Action. The Truth and Reconciliation movement is international. The 2017 WIPCE conference will explore the ways in which Indigenous people around the world are interacting with similar movements and how resiliency is playing a major role in the revitalization of our diverse cultures.” For more information about WIPCE 2017, go to http://www.wipce2017.com/about2.html.
