Recipient Organization
STONE CHILD COLLEGE
RR1, BOX 1082
BOX ELDER,MT 59521
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Stone Child College's Shelterbelts Project is designed to effectively address the community-wide issue of insufficient non-formal, natural resource management, education and it practical applications on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Located in north central Montana, our rural location creates geographic barriers that limits access to non-formal education and rural commerce. Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation was established by Act of Congress on September 7, 1916. It is the smallest of the seven Indian reservations in the State of Montana. The total number of enrolled tribal members is more than 6,000. The original reservation consisted of approximately 55,000 acres. In later years, surrounding land was added until the reservation reached its present size of more than 122,000 acres. Nearly 80 percent of our community's total land base used for farming or ranching, which supports our agricultural based economy. The closest neighboring towns include Havre, with a population of 9,575 at 28 miles away and Great Falls, with a population of 59,251 at 96 miles away. The effects of this insolation, coupled with our economy's reliance on agriculture has created a critical need to care for and protection our environment.Our small size and detachment from the mainstream populace has created a gap in our progressive environmental practices and continues to foster much of our chronic, community-wide poverty. According to a report conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, April 2007 report,entitled Indian Service Population and Labor Force Estimates, "The Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation has a staggering unemployment rate of 70 percent." This is nearly ten times the unemployment rate of the State of Montana and eight times the unemployment rate of Hill County. This study goes on to state that, "Of a potential workforce population of 3,989, only 398 or 10 percent earned an annual income exceeding the Health and Human Services (HHS) Poverty Guidelines." Furthermore, the 2000 U.S. Census shows that Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and off-Reservation Trust Land has a median income of $22,474. The Chippewa Cree Tribe's financial constrains prohibit sufficient, community-wide, natural resource management education and practices, such as educating community members on effective, environmentally sound, landscaping and gardening as well as developing shelterbelts.Furthermore, our community's topographic composition and geographic position encourages extreme weather conditions. The flat plains and cleared farm and ranch lands yield little protection from unusually high speed winds. This weather has most significantly impacted our community by eroding top soil, damaging property, and decreasing the energy efficiency of our homes and tribal buildings.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Stone Child College Shelterbelts Extension Special Emphasis Project Goals will improve the quality of life of the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and its residents,improve knowledge of participants in gardening and shelterbelts, provide technical assistance, workshops, and expertise to community residents in developing, planting, maintaining shelterbelts; and develop and implement sustainable shelterbelts in cluster housing sites. SCC Project will recruit and retain students to serve as Assistants to the project, who will be responsible for planning, planting, and maintaining shelterbelts, receive training and technical assistance from the National Resource Conservation Service.The main purpose of this Project is to improve the quality of life in our community by offering workshops designed to increase community members' knowledge of environmentally safe gardening and landscaping practices, as well as development of effective shelterbelts. The Shelterbelts Project will work directly with these participants to increase their understanding of gardening and landscaping, as well as develop two, one tiered, shelterbelts in two, low-income, housing cluster sites on the reservation.The project will provide stipends for two students to serve as Assistants, who will be responsible for helping to develop, plant, and maintain shelterbelts. Project delivery details are listed below are local, low-income homeowners, as well as area farmers and ranchers will be provided non-formal, natural resource management, eight-week,workshops, two times per year, stakeholder input, workshop evaluation results, and direct participant feedback will be used to determined specific educational topics within the categories of landscaping, gardening, and shelterbelts. Families will be encouraged to participate, with a focus on building capacity among youth, participants will be provided hands-on training in topics such as soil evaluation and planting techniques. The purpose of this Extension Special Emphasis Project's activities are to sustain this rural community's economy by providing the Chippewa Cree Tribe with non-formal, natural resources management, education and shelterbelts and to increase awareness of environmentally sound, natural resource managemen. The Shelterbelt The Project will recruit and train local, low-income, homeowners, as well as area farmers and ranchers.To provide structural, environmentally sound, protection from extreme weather conditions,this Project will develop two (2), one (1) tiered, shelterbelts in two (2), low-income, housing clustersites on our reservation. This will be accomplished by planning the developments in Project Year 1 and implementing these plans in Project Year 2. Technical assistance concerning specific location,soil composition, plant species, plant arrangement, planting, and regular maintenance, including an irrigation drip system will be provided by the Natural Resource Conservation Service.These shelterbelts will be designed and built according to the guidelines provided by the United States Department of NRCS, Hill County, MT Electronic Field Office Technical Guide, Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment.
Project Methods
The Shelterbelts Project training and development will positively impact low-income,American Indian people living on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Through non-formal, natural resource management, education and the development of shelterbelts, this Project will increase the knowledge of gardening and landscaping practices among community residents as well as area farmers and ranchers. Furthermore, it will provide residents of low-income housing sites structural,environmentally sound, protection from extreme weather conditions. Stakeholder input will be gathered primarily from two sources: 1) participant and stakeholder evaluations and 2) direct public contact with the Project Coordinator via phone, email and/or in person. This input will be used to improve the quality of services, ensuring that all services offered are of interest to our community, and are culturally appropriate.Stakeholder contact will be logged by the Project Coordinator. Workshop surveys will be provided to participants at the end of each session. The results of these contacts and evaluations will be summarized and reported to the Project Director on a monthly basis. Trends in responses will be tracked in order to assess which topics/items are of particular concern to the stakeholders. The regular, monthly review of stakeholder input will provide continuous means for assessing and utilizing this feedback.To provide for continuous evaluation, the design will include the following four reactive components: Determine the project's effectiveness through performance feedback on a continuous basis to allow project staff to modify the activities as needed; Assess each objective with the appropriate instruments, methods for analyzing quantitative data, such as the number of participants in classes; Examine the effectiveness of project implementation strategies and determine the impact of the project on the participants receiving services based on the expressed intended outcomes.This evaluation will include determining the quantity and quality of services and attainment of intended outcomes of the project by reviewing monthly reports, participant records, and other pertinent documents. The internal evaluator (Foundations and Research Director) will make recommendations for improvement and/or modifications at the end of each evaluation, enabling the Project Director to effectively modify activities as necessary in order to meet each objective. The Project Director will conduct internal, formative evaluations on an ongoing basis. These results will be reported to the SCC President and Board of Regents. The methods to analyze evaluation data are in place at the present time and provide the College a method of evaluation for examining the effectiveness of project implementation strategiesthrough the use of objective data. These methods include the monthly monitoring of project activities (implementation strategies), internal formative review, and monthly recommendations from staff regarding project implementation strategies.