Continuing the Effort

We are entering a new phase of our development and are branching off in a new unchartered direction.  Ti-chee has just had our very first meeting regarding our new Native Children's Storytelling Project.  This project has been on our drawing boards for the past 6 months and is now being set in motion.   Upon obtaining a clear definition of what our objectives are we now completed our first RD meeting which was to meet with a professional storyteller in order to define the content of our first initiative which is fundraising.  Our first goal is to finish and submit our Kickstarter promo.

This is very exciting because this will be the first project about child abuse, sexual abuse, and family violence that will utilize storytelling in a parabolic way to raise awareness, lift the veil of indifference, and break the cycle of violence.  The first phase is to develop an awareness & education tool through storytelling in both virtual media and physical mediums i.e. storytelling/song/& dance.  The second phase will be the development of a prevention tool that will be incorporated with the use of the awareness/education tool for educators, victims of violence, family and social services, and law enforcement and will be proactive in dealing with the actual abusers.

We met with Doug Banner who has been a storyteller for over 30 years and who now plays a key role in the development of our project.  We are very fortunate indeed to have been introduced to Doug and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Scott Bertani the Asst. Director of Evergreen AIDS Foundation who introduced Ti-chee to Mr. Banner.

It's great to be back and working with a project that is extremely important for every child around the world.

Till next time, stay focused and be productive.

Ken Lamb

Back Again - Ready for the "T"?

First off I want to apologize, I've been extremely sick for the past 4 weeks with one of those super colds, ewwww! so now I'm back and I've got some really exciting news.  As you know we are going to be co-authoring an exciting new children's story telling project with Gene Tagaban and now we are going to create a promo video for an online fundraising project.  We have decided that our initial project is too narrowly focused and should meet broader messaging content expectations so we will be working on three additional storytelling projects which will contain messages pertaining to the prevention of STIs (sexually transmitted disease), Alcholism, and Substance Abuse.  This on-line strategy will be focused on obtaining money to fund this project and hopefully generate additional funds to pay for more fundraising.

Stay tuned for more updates, it's starting to become very busy around here...

Ken Lamb

Consultants become Teachers

Greetings from the Beautiful Northwest,

Great and exciting news, Ti-chee has been asked to develop 3 1 hour lessons for a Substance Abuse and Sexually Transmitted Disease for the Lummi Youth Academy.  We are in the process of developing 3 lesson plans to teach 12-19 year olds what Ti-chee knows about these topics.  As this is what we do, we are having no difficulty in coming up with topics of interest and import.  however, a problem we are facing is craming all the vital topics into a 1 hour session.  It is unfortunate that we aren't able to do more than this, but we have to abide by the time parameters established by the Lummi Youth Academy.

We feel this work is of incredible importance as most Tribal K-12 schools are faced with a severe problem of  cultural bias when sexuality is concerned as there exists no human sexuality courses and there for no push for STD prevention.  Although of late the Health Clinics do have testing events at the schools for Chlamydia.  We are pushing for a reform in the way the Education Administration thinks regarding this issue. 

Case in point, as recent as 2 weeks ago it was reported that an 11 year old girl had given birth.  Therefore we say that sexual education in the schools is way past due.  This has to stop!  Our next big push is to help educate these children in the best way possible to stop this incredible ignorance.
WE CARE!!!

Thats all for now,

Ken Lamb | Project Lead

And Then There Were More!!!

Sorry, I've been out of sorts, but here's everything in a nutshell for the last couple of weeks.  Ti-chee has a new Board of Directors and we will be working closely with those new associates who will be working with the community and their contacts to began the process of developing a new fundraising campaign.  As for our plan for an ongoing fundraising event to be held on a weekly basis, we are still waiting to hear from our Board President on an agreed upon physical address for the event so that we can apply for a not for profit gaming license from the State of Washington. 

We will be having our first Volunteer Rapid HIV Tester Training on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in preparation for National Native HIV AIDS Awareness day on March 20, 2012 which we will hold in the building 10 offices at the Northwest Indian College.  We will be training our 4 new volunteers in our Volunteerism Project and hopefully a couple of people from the Women's Wellness Institute at the Northwest Indian College.

We are very excited about the direction that Ti-chee is headed and I am looking forward to another rewarding and fantastic year in 2012.

Thats all for now,

Ken Lamb
Managing Director | Ti-chee

Growing Pains

As we transition from a Community Based Organization to a Multi-faceted Service Agency we are having to make drastic changes due to the necessity of seeking Foundation funding rather than Federal support.  We made to discovery last year that very rarily will a federal grant cover general operating expense including salary and services.  In our journey through life we have encountered several different people and organizations that have actually offered their assistance in guidance to more funding.  We asked Potlatch Fund out of Seattle WA to come and hold a short training entitled 'Journey to Successful Fundraising' and we were very surprised at just how helpful they really are.  Not only did they give you a very basic "fundraising for Dummies" scenario, but it is a successful scenario that anybody can use to apply for Foundation Grants.  In the progression of this training we actually got to write a mini-grant to Potlatch Fund and they offered real up-to-date resources of local, state, regional and national foundations that support organizations like Ti-chee.

That being said, now comes the painful part.  As part of this transition we have encountered some speed bumps.  Many of the funding foundations out there in the world require an 'audited financial statement' which may cost as much as $5000.00 for a licensed C.P.A. to complete.  That's alot of clams for a small organization such as ours.  The second speed bump is that in order for Ti-chee to be compliant with foundation requirements we have to re-organize our board of directors.  As difficult as this sounds it pales in comparison to the trials and tribulations Ti-chee has been through in order to get this far.

All in all, we are happy with our direction and new role in Indian Country.  It's a small price to pay for the satisfaction of saving just one life... let alone several.  We are blessed.

Ken Lamb | Project Lead & Managing Director - Ti-chee

Moving Right Along

Hi all,  time for another round of what's what.   We are moving along with our work with the Indian Health Service grant.  We are awaiting a meet with Gene Tagaban so we can move forward on our Coast Salish Children's story project.  I'm very excited about our turnout with regards to our volunteerism project.

Last week we had a Volunteer Orientation Luncheon and we successfully recruited 4 people into our volunteerism initiative.  This week we received an unsolicited call from another individual which wants to become a volunteer and so we've set up an individual volunteer orientation scheduled for next week.  That will bring our volunteer numbers up well past 60 and these newest volunteers will become the core group for our field testing events.  Each volunteer receives a free Rapid HIV Tester's Training and will become an integral part of our Rapid HIV Testing Initiative.

We will be focusing on finishing out our commitment with the Indian Health Service and our work with them will be coming to an end in July of 2012.  It's really exciting watching the growth of our organization and a very amazing amount of people who are actually willing to help in the sustainability of Ti-chee.

We are heading in a new direction which I am confident will see us through the next decade and beyond.

Thats all for now, till then,

Ken Lamb | Project Lead /Ti-chee

Back Again w/out the Snow

Hi All!!!  just back from the freezing snow, icy roads, and the sumas snow blizzard that shut down Fraser Valley in B.C. Canada.  Today is the start of a new week and we are proud to be holding our first volunteer orientation this Thursday, Jan 26, 2012.  During our official Ti-chee update event we received 7 new volunteers in our Rapid HIV Testing Initiative and Office Support Dinner.

The new volunteer force consisting of a core group of 4 volunteers will be handling all our correspondence, social networking, and general office support.  In addition each volunteer will be trained as a Rapid HIV Tester and HPC Counselor so that they can support our annual Testing Events... the Nation Nation HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and National HIV Testing Day.  An additional 3 volunteers will be trained as the Core Rapid HIV Tester group which will be put in charge of the logistics of all Rapid HIV Testing events over the next couple of years.  This will include National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and National HIV Testing Day.

It is our greatest hope that this core group will encourage volunteers from Nooksack, Upper Skagit, Swinomish and Tulalip to join so that Ti-chee can manage a 5 tribe testing event during the regular annual testing schedule.

We are drawing near the completion of our Expanded Rapid HIV Testing Initiative with regards to the implementation of Rapid HIV testing in the 5 tribal clinics Universal Testing Process.  We are awaiting to hear from Swinomish for their Training for Trainers and then once completed, we will pass off the last of our Rapid HIV 1&2 test kits and a Rapid HIV  Tester's Kit.  This will complete that part of our grant.

It is an exciting time for Ti-chee because the only thing left for us to do is grow and perservere.

Thanks for tuning in and Gung Hei Fat Choi!

Ken Lamb
Project Lead - E.R.H.T.I.  Ti-chee