Rural
America Initiatives
Building successful futures for Lakota Youth through education since 1986.
Rural America Initiatives is preparing to open the Wakháŋyeža Child Care Center, which will provide care for children ages 3–5. The program is separate from RAI’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs and will offer fee-based child care, with state child care assistance available to families who qualify. The project responds to the continued need for accessible early childhood care within the Rapid City community.
We were grateful to join KOTA Territory News to discuss the project and the support provided by the South Dakota Community Foundation.
Our Activities
Are alcohol and chemical dependence free (ALL ACTIVITES/ALL STAFF).
Provide role models demonstrating success for Native Families.
Strive to support the Seven Lakota Values:
- Respect (Wauonihan)
- Generosity (Wacante Ognake)
- Wisdom (Woksape)
- Humility (Wahwala)
- Compassion (Waunshila)
- Service (Wawoihakikte)
- Honesty (Wowicake)
Why Rural America Initiatives
One target population for RAI is the “transitional” families, those who move from area reservations to Rapid City looking for greater opportunities for their families in the City.
For many of these transitional families, the opportunities they hoped to find in Rapid City aren’t there for them. Many are one paycheck, one health crisis or one bit of bad luck from disaster. If this happens, these families are at risk to end up in shelters, living with several families to a motel room, on the sofas of friends or relatives, or on the street. They can fall between the cracks of traditional services, and may be the most at-risk for alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence, teen pregnancy and lifestyle-based preventable diseases such as childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes.
A priority is to serve children who are homeless, handicapped or in foster care. Almost 50% of the children in our programs are homeless.
Between RAI’s Early Head Start, Head Start and Ateyapi programs in the elementary and middle schools, we serve children from pregnancy through High School and their families.
These are the families, and the children, that Rural America Initiatives serves.
How Does RAI Serve?
Through educational programs that address the needs of the whole family: early childhood development programs Head Start and Early Head Start, serving poverty level children prenatal through age 5 and their families, and Ateyapi (Lakota for “fatherhood”), a positive role modeling mentorship program in Rapid City’s middle schools.