Weekend Hours at Chief Seattle Club to improve health outcomes for homeless/low-income American Indians/Alaskan Natives

Grantee: Chief Seattle Club
Timeframe: July 2016 – June 2019 | Total Amount: $428,000

Year 1: July 2016 – June 2017. Amount: $138,000
Year 2: July 2017 – June 2018. Amount: $145,000
Year 3: July 2018 – June 2019. Amount: $145,000

The Chief Seattle Club, currently open five days a week, will expand its service hours to include two more days, from 7am to 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays. This expansion will allow members to attend the club and utilize their services 7 days a week, thereby reducing the use of alcohol and drugs that many turned to during the break in services. Members will come to the Club and eat continental breakfast, a hot meal, and receive a sack lunch to address their nutritional needs. They will be able to take showers and have their laundry washed to address hygiene issues. A nurse will also provide health services to address health and hygiene issues. In addition, other activities include Tai Chi, Art Classes, and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. Chief Seattle Club will contract with a Traditional Healer/Community Mental Health Practitioner to provide a Talking Circle (akin to group therapy) and one-on-one sessions.

Chief Seattle Club currently has two MOUs with community partners that will expand services within their club on the weekends. They have a partnership with the University of Washington to implement their “Teeth and Toes” program. Teeth & Toes partners with the Schools of Dentistry, Nursing, and Medicine to provide foot care and oral exams at the Club. This will be a new service at the Club, since students are only available on the weekends or holidays. They also have a partnership with Seattle Indian Health Board to provide a nurse for 20 hours a week. This project would expand their existing partnership and Chief Seattle Club anticipates paying for a contracted nurse during the first year, before SIHB can develop expanded funding (current nurse is paid for through Seattle-King County Public Health’s Health Care for the Homeless Federal Grant). Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) also has a Chemical Dependency Professional at the Club 3-5 days a week to make assessments and referrals to SIHB’s Thunderbird Treatment Center and to the Northwest Indian Treatment Center at Squaxin Island Tribe. During the contract term, the Club will negotiate an MOU with Cowlitz Indian Tribe to provide outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment off-reservation in Tukwila.

The Club will utilize a Native lens throughout every level of the agency and incorporate a Native context to all of their policies, practices and programs, i.e. food choices, how meetings are run, referring to clients as “members” or “relatives.” In 2015, the Club formed a Spiritual Integrated Health Committee comprised of board, staff, members, elders, and traditional healers. The Committee has grappled with how to help their members become healthy (sobriety, physical and mental health) and sustain those changes. They fundamentally believe physical and emotional health are intertwined with restoring their spiritual selves. In order to improve their members’ health outcomes, they will integrate treatment with traditional and cultural elements of healing.