Thunder Valley CDC
Report date
February 2020
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The first activity that was instrumental in making progress was regular meetings with Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) Planning Office staff. This helped us both understand what were the goals and how I could provide technical assistance to the team. In 2018, the OST Planning office pulled together a team to begin discussions about a data center. Funds became available through one of the partners, the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens health Board to host planning sessions to gain insight from stakeholders and
The second component was flexibility. It was apparent immediately that the planning office staff was in turmoil and so the outcome of working on the entire Oglala Lakota Oyate Omniciye had to shift on what was of interest to the staff that were present. So the focus shifted to helping plan for a data center. In 2018, we advised the OST Planning office staff to pull together a planning team that could help with this data center planning and developing process. The data center planning team included: EpiCenter staff from the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens Health Board, Anpetu Luta Otipi Drug and Alcohol treatment Director, Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribal Housing Authority, Oglala Sioux Tribe Health Administration, OST President's Office, Missouri Breaks Research, and TVCDC.
Once it was decided to shift to the data center, TVCDC staff began trying to find resources and examples from other tribes that had data centers to share with the planning team.
Once it was decided to shift to the data center, TVCDC staff began trying to find resources and examples from other tribes that had data centers to share with the planning team.
The third was activity that helped facilitate progress was helping host and facilitate two planning sessions for the data center in 2019. In 2018, the OST Planning office pulled together a planning team to begin discussions about a data center. Funds became available through one of the partners, the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens health Board to host planning sessions in 2019 to gain insight from stakeholders and tribal leaders regarding the data center. Two planning session were held in the spring and summer. The Spring planning session was for the broader community and the summer planning session was for tribal leadership and tribal programs. From those two meetings, we were able to draft a plan to present to Council. That presentation will take place in December after completion of this grant.
Key lessons learned
One key lesson that we learned early on was working with who's in the room! Originally we thought we would be organizing an entire Planning Office staff around the Oglala Lakota Oyate Omniciye Plan but found a Planing office that was in turmoil. And really only had the interest of one staff member, the Statistician. We tried a couple of times to discuss strategies around the entire plan but it felt too large for her scope. So we changed our approach and asked her what her interests were and what would be the best assistance to her work and deliverables. Originally, she talked about data profiles. But later talked about creating an entire data center.
Our biggest lesson was flexibility and adjusting to what the needs were. To some it might have looked like a failure but for us it was adjusting to where the energy was and where we could advance work! As a result we got to be a part of a data center movement on our reservation. A coalition of people came together to rally behind this idea and carry it forward. Had we only focused on the Oyate Omniciye plan we wouldn't have gotten to experience the organic and natural progression of this.
Another lesson we learned is sometimes you are in the room only help facilitate the day and have to release control on outcomes! There were ideas on what I thought the path should be to planning the data center but partners had other ideas. So to ensure progress and interest continued it was best to sit back a little. Also, learned to allow others to be their own problem solver.
Reflections on the community innovation process
Looking at the diagram I would say the community resources of collaborative and resourceful were most important in completing our work. We recognized early on that building capacity around the entire Oglala Lakota Oyate Omniciye Plan would be to broad for the planning office staff. We met a divided staff and after the initial meetings only found one staff member interested in technical assistance and capacity building. In that, she felt her interest was in building out data profiles and her dream was a data center. Therefore, we shifted our scope and got to work on pulling together partners that would have in interest in a data center and would help in drafting a plan (Collaborative)
Financial resources for this process was limited but the planning team came together and donated time in0kind, grant wrote for a planning process, and pulled resources together that created a process for community and partner engagement, planning process, and drafting and presenting a plan for approval from tribal council (Resourceful).
Financial resources for this process was limited but the planning team came together and donated time in0kind, grant wrote for a planning process, and pulled resources together that created a process for community and partner engagement, planning process, and drafting and presenting a plan for approval from tribal council (Resourceful).
Progress toward an innovation
I believe the development of a tribal data center for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the region is closer to achieving an innovation than what we originally planned for. I also think a data center is more practical and has more tangible products that both the tribe, partners and communities can use to program plan, work towards community develop and advocate more strategically for resources in this area.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
The data center isn't fully operational and still in the planning stages. To reach that breakthrough or innovation we would need to see the data center functional with staff, space, technology, process and procedures. The plan is solid and supports exists, so now it's a matter of grant writing for resources and the lengthy process of identifying procedures for data storage, sharing, collection and reporting.
What's next?
The immediate steps are to solidify the data center through tribal ordinance and to identify additional resources to do some strategic planning. The strategic planning process would identify timelines and goals for the data center.
If you could do it all over again...
The advise I would give ourselves at the beginning is to be flexible, open-minded, and work with who's in the room. Had we not been any of those things and dug our heels in on working solely on the Oglala Lakota Oyate Omniciye plan, we would have missed the data center opportunity. It has been some exciting work and being apart of the emergence of this idea, the growth of the collaboration, the groundswell of support and feedback would have all been missed if we forced our idea on to partners.
One last thought
We would like to recognize the dedication and passion of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Statistician, Mary Tobacco. When we met with Mary she was frustrated and looking for a different job. This process allowed for us to work with Mary to garnish new ideas and approaches that kept her in the position but also working on ideas that she was excited and passionate about. Two years later, Mary along side collaborators are preparing to forlmailze the data center plan through ordinance with tribal council.