Collections, Programs and Services
Workshop
Jennifer Attocknie
Coordinator, Native American Student Services
Lawrence Public Schools USD 497
L.Marie Avila, MLS
Library Services
Native American Student Services
Native American Student Services (NASS), which encompasses the Title VII and Johnson O’Malley grants that serve the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in Lawrence Public Schools in Lawrence, Kansas, is a unique office whose main purpose is to facilitate the educational success of the inter-tribal population of students. Mentoring, tutoring, family liaison between schools and Native families, as well as family literacy and cultural programming are the main foci of NASS.
In addition to its full-time endeavor to create programming for the inter-tribal community of Lawrence Public Schools, which is 5% of the total district population, over the past decade, NASS has been consciously developing its Indigenous-centered collection. Reflecting the inter-tribal community and diversity within the small Native population, the dual purpose of the library collection is to serve both the families of NASS and the mostly non-Indian teachers who teach the students. This 1,000+ title collection supports curriculum development within the school district, contains classroom sets of Indigenous-authored novels, and is used by AI/AN families to support their own literacy goals and research.
The workshop session will familiarize participants with adaptive leadership solutions used to guide efforts in developing solutions in culturally relevant contexts. Framed from an Indigenous point of view, small group work will be used and intentional mini-communities will be formed, connecting struggles and successes.