As the project manager, she supervises direct-service staff and ensures that grant monies are allocated in a fiscally responsible manner, in compliance with Federal guidelines. She is responsible for helping staff and community understand Federal regulations that affect the grant.
Awarded in four-year grant cycles, the program has progressed through a variety of transformations through acts of Congress. In the 1970s, the grant was distributed through the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA). In the 1980s, it was known the Job Training Placement Act (JTPA) and later, the Workforce Innovation Act (WIA) in 1998. During the Obama administration, grant funding became part the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
Taking on her current role at the Denver Indian Center represents a lifelong journey in community service. As a child, Lauren frequented the Denver Indian Center, participating in many Native American gatherings and programs. When she graduated from the Center’s Seventh Generation program for indigenous youth, she developed a clear vision for the future.
“I was 9 when I told my friends that I wanted to work here at the Denver Indian Center, because this is where the leaders are in the community,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to come back to serve our community. I have no regrets about what it took to get here, and what it means to be here now.”
After obtaining her undergraduate degree in Contemplative Psychology at Naropa University, Lauren decided to continue her graduate studies in mental health counseling.
“Being a woman of color, I realized that I was coming into an industry that has very little awareness of Native people. It was during the latter part of my undergraduate career when I heard anyone who is non-Native mention ‘historical trauma,’” she says.
“That was the light switch for me: Seeing that people in positions of power are becoming aware of experiences of our experiences as colonized people.”
As an Eastern Shoshone tribal member, Lauren received scholarship funds to pursue graduate studies in Somatic Psychotherapy from Naropa University, where her studies focused on the body encounters and processes trauma.
“I’ve come full circle. I thank the tribe for funding my studies, as I am now making a positive impact in assisting the community,” she says.
Addressing Historical Trauma
In her work at the Denver Indian Center, Lauren applies counseling skills that she harnessed while working in mental health. A Colorado Registered Psychotherapist, she brings a deep understanding of historical trauma and its role in healing the community. “People need sustainable work that’s also personally meaningful. In this way, career counseling is counseling. Counseling itself is also career counseling,” Lauren says.
Beyond job placement services, Lauren and her team provides advice and guidance on a wide variety of issues related to sustaining meaningful work. This ranges from high school equivalency requirements to finding resources for college or a certificate program; and from buying textbooks or bus transit. Others need assistance to pay for portions of rent or buying outfits that are appropriate for job interviews. The Career Services team helps candidates with developing or refining their resume or cover letter, as well as conducting mock interviews.
“Most of the people we see qualify for services. We haven’t had to turn away anyone,” says Lauren.
When a Career Services participant presents with mental health issues, Lauren can determine the level of assistance needed and refer out the individual to appropriate services. Being a registered psychotherapist, she is able to help people work through certain issues.
One of the most important lessons in helping people on the journey of resolving trauma is that it could be a challenging and painful process.
“You have to go through pain to undo pain, whether it’s physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual pain,” she says. “If you want to overcome the experience, it will hurt. A scar will remain, but it is a reminder of the journey that was undertaken in order to heal.”
Important Lessons
For Lauren, doing her job well means providing space for people to tell their story in a way that honors their authentic narrative. “I learned that when I’ve allowed my story be what it is, that is when I’ve been allowed to surprise myself,” she says.
Community members are required to be sober when seeking services from the Denver Indian Center. With her training and experience working with people in recovery, Lauren understands the challenges faced by people on the journey toward sobriety.
“Sobriety is ultimately difficult for anyone who is experiencing trauma. Within the community, I’ve heard elders say ‘Do you want to be an Indian, or do you not want to be an Indian?’ Because the native way is sobriety,” she says.
“Everytime I see someone in this community get sober, it changes their lives in the most beautiful way.”
In her everyday service at the Denver Indian Center, Lauren personifies the values of her traditional Shoshone ways. In her indigenous tradition, smudging with sacred cedar represents prayer and best intentions. Smudging several times daily with wood harvested from the cedar outside her home helps her to create and inhabit the psychic space required for her to do the work effectively.
“I am a praying woman. I learned to smudge and pray when I was young. Before colonization, this was the way of my family and ancestors. When I smudge, I get to embody my ancestors that came before,” she says.
“I am my ancestors. I can call forward that essence in my genetic memory when I smudge. Now, people come to find me to ask for smudging when they need to pray.”
Lauren is cognizant of various traditions that exist among Denver’s diverse Native American communities. While smudging is akin to prayer in the Northern Plains, there are communities that don’t hold the sacred practice. “I am respectful of the traditions of others, and we serve many people from different tribes and clan systems.”
Acknowledging Privilege
In conversations with partner agencies, she learned that many did not know the history and current situation of American Indians. For example, someone said they thought there were only 12 Federally recognized Indian tribes, when in fact, there are about 566 Federally recognized tribes as well as State recognized tribes within the United States. Other tribes are present outside of the United States as well.
“In that regard, I also serve as an emissary of the community, being able to communicate in ways that are understandable to people outside of the community. Being able to communicate with people who are in positions of power, and in positions of poverty is really critical in this work,” says Lauren.
Her work involves addressing systemic issues, such as the lack of awareness among mainstream service providers about the lived experiences of Native people living in abject poverty. Advocating for the community and helping others understand the reality of poverty and the lingering effects of trauma.
“Many people outside the community need to be educated about the impact of historical and personal trauma. What happens is that someone gets placed in a job, and they have the resources to know that it’s not the right fit. They leave the job and we assist them with another placement,” she says.
“On the back end, we have to start asking the questions about why it didn’t work out. We would talk to HR (human resources) people and find that there’s a lack of cultural competency.”
Lauren says that cultural competency speaks to the systemic issues related to the reality of the healing and helping professions. “It’s very easy for people in positions of privilege to intellectualize poverty,” she says. ”For someone like me who has a lot of relative privilege in community, I’ve realized that I cannot speak to that experience in a way that fully honors that reality because I don’t come from that world.”
To serve community members in a respectful and dignified way, Lauren values the lessons of self-awareness and humility, while taking seriously the responsibility of speaking from a position of privilege to people in poverty.
“Being able to see and receive someone who sits on the opposite side of me and not overwhelm them with my privilege, to not overwhelm them with what the [Denver Indian Center] can offer,” she says.
“What you put into something is generally what you’ll get out. I am proud of the people who – despite being in desperate states of poverty – are engaging with us and our services in a truly meaningful way.”