“Partnering with Tribes to Identify the Strengths and Unmet Needs of Families with Young Children,”

with Michele Walsh and Violeta Domínguez.

Friday, November 1, 2013, 
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Room 332A of the Harvill Buidling

This discussion is hosted by the Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office.

Our presenters will discuss an ongoing project working with a number of tribes in Arizona to identify community strengths and unmet needs of families with young children. One goal of these assessments is to help prioritize funding decisions for programs serving children ages birth to five and their families in these tribal communities. They will describe the process of securing permissions and working collaboratively to gather publically available data, tribal data, and input from families across areas such as education, health, the early childhood system, and family support. They will also talk about some of the challenges they’ve faced in attempting to assure that they present information in an accurate and accessible way, and of the rewards they’ve found in partnering to produce reports that have proven useful to the volunteer community members who are tasked with using this information to support the youngest members of their tribal communities.

Michele Walsh, PhD, is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Arizona’s John & Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, affiliated with the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth & Families. She is an evaluation researcher with considerable experience in community-based participatory research, and has overseen the design and implementation of studies and program evaluations that address many issues affecting children and families. Dr. Walsh has been a visiting professor at the University of Mannheim where she taught courses in program evaluation and applied social measurement, and was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.

Violeta Domínguez, MA, is a Research Scientist at the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families, in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona. Ms. Dominguez has substantial experience conducting qualitative research on public health and other social issues, particularly among underserved populations. Since 2005, Ms. Dominguez has been part of the research and evaluation team led by Dr. Michele Walsh, where she has served as the tribal liaison. She has worked closely with tribal partners on various health-related projects. Currently, she is involved in a large project to conduct early childhood community assessments for tribal communities throughout the state.