Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing

Stakeholder meetings are instrumental to us achieving our goals. The tribal organizations that we are trying to get buy in from have directors who are interested in the activities that are specific to our grant objectives so they have a stake in its success. Keeping our stakeholders informed is the best way to keep them engaged and up-to-date on topics that have a potential impact on their programs. We want to involve our stakeholders in the decision-making process and communicate with them regularly through meetings and other outlets, it will be easier to get their approval for new ideas and their support if problems do arise. We have used stakeholder meetings as an effective resource and will do so throughout the duration of the grant. We have had three meetings to date and with each meeting we built a sense of trust amongst the stakeholders as well as a sense of direction. We have also sat in on some of their meetings to help us identify the need within their respective programs so that we can incorporate this into the overall scope of work.

Research is another a critical component that we are utilizing. Research is important when considering services for our stakeholders for two reasons. First, we can show what types of public works entities have been shown to be effective. Second, for something to actually be effective, it has to be used and shown to work effectively. We can use the research to demonstrate public works entities that have been used effectively. It helps if everyone believes it can work because this will help the staff with the day to day activities. Processes that are deemed effective are more likely to succeed. Through research we have been able to study materials and organizational structures from other public works entities already in existence. This will help us establish facts and possibly establish an overall entity that works and incorporates some of these processes that are already in place, thus improving the overall outcomes of the public works entity. We also want to use the research to formulate appropriate strategies and identify deficiencies. To date we have researched five other tribal public works entities and a couple of urban municipal public works departments.

Focus groups are another outlet that we will incorporate into our planning sessions. We want to gather qualitative data from groups of people within our service area. Their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes toward our idea is critical. If our focus groups are well executed it will help us create an accepting environment for our purpose. We have contracted with an organization that has successfully administered focus groups and they are planning to hold a series of focus groups on behalf of our project.