By Supporting teachers, starting group housing, and fostering long-term community growth.
Supporting Teachers
Teaching to Jana was much more than just coming in for the 8-10 hours every day and then leaving her classroom and students behind. Her passion for each individual child shined in all the small details. Her personal investment in the kids was evident in things like monthly cake baking with the class to celebrate birthdays, to staying after for hours with a small group of kids who struggling with the math lesson that day. Her actions showed the kids that they did matter and going the extra mile was non-negotiable. Her philosophy was simple, invest in the kids. Helping kids on the Reservation is much more than investing in new textbooks or fancy learning software. Helping kids is all about standing in the gap with students that struggle with issues that most American kids will never experience. More one-on- one time with kids that don’t have parental support at home, more out of classroom interaction, more emotional and spiritual support, and more giving than taking. Want to apply? Click the button below, fill out the form, and email it to help@repairourworld.org
Starting Group Housing
Tikkun Olam is focused on ‘repairing our world’ on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. For the world on the Reservation is unlike most places here in the United States where social and economic conditions have created an environment where many of our children are not given the chance to achieve like most kids in the United States. Many of our children do not have a secure family unit where a father and mother provide for a safe home, where education is stressed, where a job provides for a stable income and where their futures are only limited to their imaginations. Life for many of our kids is a daily struggle to find a safe home to sleep in, to get to school in time to have breakfast and struggle to keep up with what is being taught. Not many have the advantage of someone waiting at home caring about their grades, reading with them at night or working on math problems at the kitchen table.
Drugs on the Rez are common place and kids are exposed to them at a young age. Alcohol and drug abuse touches every individual on the Reservation and many children live with aunts or grandmothers because their parents are struggling with drug or alcohol abuse, are in jail or rehab, dead or simply ‘gone’. With troubles that extend beyond the classroom many children just need a safe place to sleep, a warm meal and someone who will let them be kids.
Children in some families face some of the most harrowing conditions imaginable necessitating that they be removed for their protection. Tikkun Olam is working with donors to fund a group home for foster care parents who could come to our community and provide a safe home for kids while their parents get help or until other suitable living environments are identified. A ‘group home’ operated by foster parents is the ideal way of keeping troubled youth on the Reservation while providing living arrangements that focus on their spiritual, physical, educational and social needs. We believe that by providing a group home environment, our kids will enjoy safe living conditions on the Reservation where they are allowed to see their families and friends all while getting the appropriate professional help and support focused on their individual well-being.
Tikkun Olam has already acquired land to construct the group home on and is seeking donors who can help support the construction of the living facility necessary to help these kids. For those donors who have seen the benefits of foster parenting and understand the need for this kind of help we encourage you to get involved and help. Donate or contact us now!
Fostering Long-Term Community Growth
As part of our holistic approach to repairing the world on the Reservation, Tikkun Olam is seeking long term occupational opportunities for our kids once they get out of school. While it is not inconceivable that our Native American children could grow up and leave the Reservation for good paying jobs it is not something that is promoted within the community. Ideally, if we could create jobs here on the Reservation which our kids could participate in, where our kids could grow into adults interested in making a change for their People and where they could provide the change from within to help the next generation of kids. Our community has many resources and opportunities that are unlike anywhere else in the United States. We have millions of acres of land and natural resources that can provide agricultural and sustainable energy alternatives that are unrealized and a population waiting to go to work. Tikkun Olam is looking for those individuals or organizations who think big, who have a heart for making a difference and want to be a part of making history on the frontier with our First Americans. If this is you, if you have more to offer please let us know. Contact us here.
We at Tikkun Olam understand that the 'more' that is described above is difficult and something that needs to be nurtured. If you’re a teacher who wants to play a influential role in the lives of kids and who is interested in teaching in a community that needs your help then Tikkun Olam can help make that happen. If you’re interested in a life that is unlike your friends' or family, if you want to live a lifestyle a bit different than what you grew up in, or want to influence change and would like an opportunity to teach on the American frontier then we’d like to share our vision with you. Let us speak with you about how your passion and energy can transform not only the lives of children, but the lives of a People.
The story of our lives is being written every day; some live a life that could be characterized as common and secure, ordinary but safe. If you’d like your life’s story to read more like a great adventure where you lived on a Native American Reservation where your backyard consists of 2 million acres of rich historical significance and living with a Native American population with a unique heritage that includes the likes of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. Would you like your life’s story to include fishing, hunting or horseback riding, canoe or kayaking the Missouri or Yellowstone Rivers, hunting for dinosaur bones or attending the world famous Wild Horse Stampede and Rodeo? The Ft Peck Reservation is just a day’s ride from Yellowstone National Park or Glacier National Park or maybe you’d like to visit Banff National Park near Calgary, Canada. Being located in northeastern Montana, we’re just a short drive to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Custer Battle Field, Mt Rushmore and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The rugged Badlands of the Missouri Breaks team with animals that captured the imaginations of Lewis and Clark and sustained a Native American culture for centuries. If you want to see more and be more than you are now, if you’d like your life’s story to include things that most Americans just read about then we’d like to invite you to join us on as we write our stories.
If you’re a ‘Story Writer’ that would like your story to be unique and have a heart for helping those who need help then we’d like you to become one of us. Tikkun Olam is looking for teachers that have a heart for kids, and a desire for doing the “more”. It is our goal to provide ‘rent-free’ housing for those who want to help our children, who want to Repair Our World and who want to join our community and make a difference.
What we envision for our teachers is a situation where we could get energetic individuals who are interested in living at the speed of life. Teaching school during the day, maybe being a volleyball coach after school, or a tutor for those who need help in reading or math. We see them taking our kids on hikes, planning an extra field trip for the class, or teaching them to raise a garden at home. We believe that our teachers should commit to a 2 year obligation in order to get fully assimilated into our community and get to know our kids and the lives they live. After 2 years we recognize that many of our young teachers will want to return to their communities and start a different chapter in their lives. Teaching on a Reservation can be challenging and we’d like to ‘rotate’ in new teachers to keep the ministry's attitude fresh and positive, allowing 'veteran' teachers the opportunity to return home with stories that will last a lifetime.
The federal government also has tuition forgiveness programs available for teachers willing to work in low income school districts. Tikkun Olam is more than willing to help teachers apply for these program as well as any other development opportunities that might be available. Because of this, a portion of our budget will go directly to developing our teaching staff. We will work hand-in-hand with the school district on the Reservation in trying to identify and hire the most qualified teachers from across the country who are willing to work with our kids and Repair Our World here in northeastern Montana.
If you or someone you know is interested in applying for this teaching opportunity please contact us.
For those who are in a position to financially support one of our teachers or kids on the Reservation we would love your support. If you would like to honor a husband or wife who loved teaching or would like to remember a teacher that made a difference in your life please consider helping us to make a difference. If you’re a person of faith who would like to do more with the resources God has provided you we would love to have you join us in making a difference. If you are retired and would like to come to the Reservation and just ‘stand in the gap’ with a People that have suffered for generations we would like to invite you to visit us, there is much work to be done. If you believe that repairing the world starts with little efforts like we are doing here then we would like to invite you to be a part of Our World. Join us in writing a story of your life that would be a blessing. If you can support a teacher, a classroom or children’s program please donate now.