Over the past 18 months, the VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Center for Family Involvement has partnered with the Chickahominy Tribe to build trust, expand culturally responsive disability and family support resources, and create pathways for tribal voices.
Alt Text: A close-up photo of Dana Yarbrough, she has short hair that is bright pink on top and light blond on the sides. She also has a small nose stud and is smiling and she is wearing a gray shirt. The background shows blurry green plants outdoors.
Over the past 18 months, the Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Center for Family Involvement has worked to strengthen relationships and trust with the Chickahominy Tribe through community-informed partnership and shared learning opportunities. Building on a connection with a self-advocate member of the Tribe, initially established by a former director of Midwest and Southwest UCEDDs, Virginia’s UCEDD developed a contractual partnership with this tribal member to support the Center for Family Involvement’s efforts to build bridges with indigenous communities.
Through this collaboration, the Center for Family Involvement and the self-advocate coordinated and supported a series of trainings for tribal members on topics including Social Security benefits, Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver services, mental health awareness, Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) resources, and Special Education 101. Trainings were presented virtually in partnership with Virginia’s Parent Training and Information Center, UCEDD staff, and Title V partners. In addition, this partnership expanded this self-advocate tribal member's opportunities to participate on a Center for Family Involvement cultural broker panel with the Va-LEND program.
Importantly, this relationship-building work has opened doors to additional partnerships and connections, including engagement with the Governor’s tribal ombudsman and collaboration with another Chickahominy tribal member who received UCEDD support to present at the AMCHP conference. Tribal members have also expressed interest in bringing additional trainings back to the community later this year for a broader audience.
A key lesson from this work has been the importance of honoring trust-building at the pace determined by the tribe itself. The ongoing partnership reflects the UCEDD’s commitment to cultural brokering, relationship-centered engagement, cross-system collaboration, and creating pathways for historically underrepresented communities to shape disability and family support systems.
Dana Yarbrough
Associate Director, Partnership for People with Disabilities,
Virginia Commonwealth University Director, Center for Family Involvement
[email protected] I 877-567-1122
