MONIQUE GUEVARA-HUDSON, ADVOCATE: As an advocate, we never know how the day is going to go. We have walk-ins coming in from all doors, we get phone calls, we can schedule intakes. Indian country is very small.
You can have somebody that calls, and says that they don't want to come to the office. We can meet them in their house, or anywhere that they choose.
MARSHA JACKSON, PROGRAM MANAGER, EASTERN BAND OF CHEROKEE INDIANS: The numbers across the Nation show that, Native Americans are at a higher rate of domestic violence and sexual assault, than most ethnicities. The Tribal Financial Management Center is responsible with helping the people that receive the grants, like myself, understand the financial pieces and the reporting requirements.
SHEREE HUKILL, SENIOR TRIBAL LIAISON/TRAINING CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: The Tribal Financial Management Center was set up by the Office for Victims of Crime when Congress authorized a Tribal set-aside from the Crime Victims Fund and the program is designed to provide individualized training and technical assistance for all the Tribal grantees who receive funding from OVC to implement victim services within their communities.
We know that each one of your programs is different and each community in which you live is very different.
MONIQUE GUEVARA-HUDSON: It is intimidating. You can be afraid to ask questions when we need help, or be afraid to reach out and ask for help.
Seeing the voice that we hear over the phone, face-to-face and they're smiling, it makes it much less intimidating and much like we'll be willing to pick up the phone now.
By sending that financial advocate in there, the Center definitely is helpful because it allows us to continue to do the much needed day-to-day work.
SHEREE HUKILL: Having this cadre of highly trained financial specialists, in the Tribal Financial Management Center, that can really be there and answer questions for them immediately and serve as a liaison between that Tribal program and OVC grant managers, we feel that this is gonna be a very efficient way to get questions answered and victims served more quickly.
LIBBY GRAY, VICTIM SERVICES MANAGER, THE OSAGE NATION: The financial support is huge because Tribes have a lot on their plate. They're trying to save their languages. They're trying to save their elders. They're trying to save young families.
There's a need out there and I think a lot of times we get mired down in the bureaucracy and the paper work and we forget that there's a woman somewhere in a car with her children, driving in circles because she doesn't know where to go for help and we have a parking place for her, and she can come in and I've got some snacks for her kids.
