Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education

Volume XII Summer 2001 Issue #4

Family Matters
Fort Peck Community College tests holistic approach to student success

By Peggy Mainor

Can involving families in college life strengthen student retention? Seeking to answer this question, Fort Peck Community College (FPCC) has created a unique program designed to strengthen and promote families' involvement in college activities. At the tribal college on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, college administrators and staff believe that a supportive family can significantly improve their students' academic and personal success.

The typical tribal college student is a single mother raising two or three children. Students who enroll in tribal colleges and universities look to education as a pathway to successful lives. Most of them have the desire to succeed. But whether they persist in their studies when they encounter difficulties often depends in large part on whether their families support them. In a recent survey by University of Minnesota doctoral candidate Iris HeavyRunner, student support services staff at four Montana tribal colleges named family support as their students' primary source of strength.

When a family is not supportive of the student's desire for higher education, however, academic success can be difficult, or at worst, impossible. According to Margarett Campbell, vice president for community programs at Fort Peck Community College, "Most of our students who leave college do so because of family problems." In surveys and focus groups, students and staff frequently cite family issues as obstacles to students' returning to school. One staff member explained, "What do you do when the baby is sick, and they can't go to day care, or the baby sitter doesn't show up?"

College staff recount many instances of families who failed to support promising students' efforts; some actively or passively sabotaged students' studies. Perhaps afraid of losing the student from the family, relatives used their energy to deter the student from reaching his or her goals. As one student expressed, "It was hard with my full time job and three kids to feed. When my mother got sick, my father didn't see the need for me to go to school." Without family support, the already difficult pathway to self-improvement can become a rocky road.

While educators personally might recognize the importance of family to Indian students, institutional student services do not tend to focus on the needs of the family. Tribal colleges often deal with students' family issues informally, but these efforts generally have not been sustained, coordinated, or research-based. Nor has there been much solid research about whether family services are helpful.

Strengths-based approach

In 1997, Dr. James Shanley, president of Fort Peck Community College, and Margarett Campbell created the Fort Peck Family Services Model program, with support from the W.K. Kellogg and Ford Foundations. Fort Peck's program is part of a Montana consortium's unique research and demonstration project that blends social work knowledge and educational practices to help students succeed and persist in their studies. The partnership includes the University of Montana, Fort Peck, and three other Montana tribal colleges that have also created and developed programs to support students and their families: Salish Kootenai College (Flathead Reservation), Blackfeet Community College (Blackfeet Reservation), and Stone Child College (Rocky Boy's Reservation). Collectively, they are known as the Kellogg Family Collaborative project.

Each college's approach is different, but all use a family strengths-based approach. Stone Child College chose to base its program on counselor outreach to students and their families. Blackfeet Community College created a peer mentor program. Salish Kootenai College contracted with the state of Montana to provide welfare-to-work services for its tribe, and the college is working with students and their families through that relationship.

The Kellogg Family Collaborative provides tested, research-based approaches to student services that place the tribal college student within the larger context of tribe, community, and family. The project adapted a Family Support Model that had been developed by Head Start. The project demonstrated that it could also be used by post-secondary institutions to improve access and retention for American Indian students, according to Project Coordinator Iris HeavyRunner, formerly an adjunct faculty member at the University of Montana and now at Fort Peck Community College.

This is groundbreaking work because HeavyRunner took well established ideas that have succeeded with Head Start children and demonstrated that the same approach is equally valid for students at colleges and universities. This idea is grounded in social work theory and research. The Head Start Family Support Model set the precedent for getting families more involved in their young children's education through parent councils and family activities. To adapt this model, Fort Peck had to go beyond children and parents to also include grandparents of students, children of students, and other relatives because this whole family network is necessary to the students' success.

The projects at all four colleges rely upon research supporting a "resilience" approach to strengthening families. This requires a shift from seeing individuals and families as "damaged" to understanding how families can survive and regenerate despite overwhelming stress.

Each program has four components, all designed to promote family resilience: cultural/family activities, counseling, mentoring, and life-skills. HeavyRunner likens the model to a tipi: the poles are the four components of the model; the person hired to run the program puts the canvas around the foundation; the pegs are the evaluation component; and the rope grounds the team solidly. When all components are in place, the model is extremely stable, provides protection for students, and can withstand anything.

Engaging the family

When Fort Peck began testing the model, Sylvia Ryan was the Family Services Model director. She conceived of endless ways to engage families and tempt virtually everyone to participate. All activities were designed to weave families into the fabric of the college in order to help students stay in school. They made it clear that the tribal college was part of the community and not a separate thing. Family members of all ages took part in the learning and the fun.

The Fort Peck Family Support Model sponsored round dances, pow-wows, storytelling, and the Omaha (Indian) Club. The club introduced all students to the college system and encouraged student participation in social and extracurricular activities. The Omaha Club held weekly get-togethers in the FPCC student lounge. A program for high school seniors enabled them to receive college credit by completing courses in traditional parenting and tribal identity. Native food and plant workshops, the FPCC Garden Club, and Farmers' Markets blended nutrition with cultural awareness through learning about traditional foods. All events were publicized extensively in the local tribal newspaper, Wotanin Wowapi.

The activities all had a cultural aspect because the importance of tribal culture in keeping American Indian families strong is well understood. Tribal colleges were created to ensure the continued vitality of Indian culture. The founders believed that tribal members needed a way to learn about their history and culture. Later studies confirmed what the founders knew: infusing culture in curricula builds strong self-images. The Family Support Model brings new, fresh expression to their vision.

HeavyRunner believes that resilience is strengthened when Indian people understand and practice traditional Native culture. She cites studies by Robert Coles, who demonstrated the power of moral and spiritual sources of courage to lift individuals above hardship. Emily Werner's 30-year study of 698 infants on the Hawaiian island of Kauai similarly showed that support from their mates and a strong religious faith helped many triumph as adults.

In addition to the culturally based activities, the Fort Peck program addressed issues that cause students stress. It linked to college and community programs, such as cosponsoring workshops with Head Start in stress management. The FPCC Family Literacy program added activities to increase family literacy and improve parenting skills. One workshop involved a three-day series entitled the "Seven Laws of Life": generosity, compassion, respect for others, patience, open-mindedness, humility, and courage. Other workshop themes have been anger management and starting a business.

The HeavyRunner survey demonstrated that in the past, students left college for reasons that seemed unsolvable, when in fact the problems could be solved, said Janette K. Murray, Ph.D., who worked with HeavyRunner on the project team. In addition to family problems, money was mentioned frequently as the reason for leaving college. On the Fort Peck Reservation, for example, the winter unemployment rate is 75 percent, according to tribal statistics. The average yearly income for Indians living on reservations with tribal colleges was only $4,665 in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The tribal colleges in the Kellogg Collaborative helped students address problems related to money by finding transportation, child care, alcohol and substance abuse counseling, and money to attend and pay for funerals.

Lessons for others

The Fort Peck model has implications beyond tribal colleges. "We found studies about other minority students trying to take care of children, parents, and grandparents. They are fulfilling roles in the community," Murray said. Their needs are different from those of a 21-year old living in a dormitory.

Colleges interested in adding a Family Support Model program should first profile their students to see if they resemble the students served by FPCC, according to HeavyRunner. Nationwide, the students at tribal colleges and universities are 70 percent women, and 50 percent of the women have dependents, according to HeavyRunner.

The second step is to look at the students' strengths and challenges. Family specialists are essential to help students build on their strengths and cope with their challenges. The family specialists under this model are, in reality, resource specialists. They advocate for families, not just students.

HeavyRunner said the project team plans to help other community colleges to replicate the model, including both tribal colleges and colleges in Appalachia and Hispanic communities. Like many tribal colleges, these institutions are geographically isolated, have limited resources, and are surrounded by close-knit communities. Before its conclusion, the team will conduct an evaluation, which will ask people about how the model has affected them. A monograph on the Kellogg Family Collaborative has been produced, and a video and training manual are planned to serve institutions adopting the model.

American Indian people have proven to be incredibly resilient. This model celebrates and supports the role of the strong family while relying upon that resiliency. "Once you stop looking at the family as a hindrance to the student's success and start looking at it as a potential source of strength, you can't ever think the same way again," HeavyRunner said. "It's a hopeful model. There are things we can do to support our students."