Region Post: The Western Region

All of our sites are split up into four different region teams that work year round developing relationships in communities and working out the details for the summer. Regional Director Kate Kramer and Area Directors Jordan Sharp and Sarah Miller comprise the Western Region. This month Sarah gives us a closer look at one of the sites in the Western Region, Blackfeet, MT. 

The Blackfeet site is nestled next to Glacier National Park in northern Montana in the small town of Heart Butte. As you drive into Heart Butte you will pass a Catholic Church and the post office, other than that, there isn’t too much there. But to say there is nothing is missing the point. Heart Butte is full of beautiful people continuing to pass on their culture from generation to generation. Heart Butte is a very tight knit community where everybody knows everybody.

YouthWorks has been on the Blackfeet reservation since 1998. Since 2007 we have stayed at the Heart Butte Elementary School. We have had the opportunity to build lasting relationships with the school staff, the superintendent, and the school board. Within the last two years the school has gone through two major transitions, a new superintendent and a new principal. We have been lucky to have members of the school board and faculty advocate for YouthWorks and started a positive relationship with the new leadership. I (Sarah) can say personally when I first arrived in Heart Butte I didn’t need much of an introduction. People know and trust YouthWorks; I was met with praises from the past’s summers and ideas for the coming summer. The school is invested in what we are doing and more importantly the children of the community.

We have also been fortunate to partner with Jolene Vance and her family. Every Monday night during the summer Jolene talks to the participants at the Blackfeet site about Blackfeet culture. Her family then drums and sings for our participants. It is quite the experience. Jolene has taught us a lot about Blackfeet culture and her family is very generous to our staff living in Heart Butte for the summer.

This summer we are starting a new partnership, and it is a big one! This summer we are starting an Outrageous Sports Camp in Heart Butte. Outrageous Sports Camp, or OSC for short, is a summer long sports camp focused around good sportsmanship and the love of Jesus. We have been in Heart Butte long enough to watch our Kids Club kids grow into pre-teens. Now that they have “aged out” of Kids Club they were looking for something fun to do during the summer months. OSC aims to reach youth ages 10-14, the youth that are now too old to go to Kids Club. They will play Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, and get ono-on-on attention from our participants. We are thrilled to reach out to this age group and work with the staff at the school to make this program a success.