Part of Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s mission is to promote family development and self-sufficiency, and the Family Services Department provides a spectrum of opportunities for strengthening families and promoting child wellness. The department has earned an excellent reputation for its quality of services and rapport with the Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services, the Alaska Court System, and other community agencies serving Anchorage families.

Recently, through grants provided by the DFYS and the Alaska Court System, Family Services expanded to provide home visitation, parenting education, supervised visitation, and mutual exchange services. Three programs offering these services relocated to the Muldoon Mall: the SAFE (Support, Advocacy, Family Strengthening, and Education) Child; supervised visitation; and supervised access programs. The new location, at 1251 Muldoon Road, Suite 114, is easily accessible by public transportation. A collection of other services is available at the same location, such as a job center, Northeast Community Center, substance abuse treatment services, and vocational rehabilitation services.

One-year-old Aliysha Santana was among 30 children to visit with Santa Claus during a special December holiday open house held at Cook Inlet Housing Authority’s new Strawberry Village Cottages in Anchorage. CIRI shareholder Bob Juliussen, CIHA’s construction and maintenance manager, rode in on the community’s new John Deere Tractor and served as Santa Claus. He explained that, with the winter’s first major snow storm, a tractor was a more reliable way to travel.

In addition to the open house and visit from Santa, Cook Inlet Housing Authority staff coordinated the purchase and delivery of food baskets for residents of the Housing Authority’s rental properties. A $2,000 grant from First National Bank Alaska allowed the Housing Authority to provide all Strawberry Village residents with a Holiday Food Basket complete with turkey and all the trimmings. Thanks to a $2,500 grant from Wells Fargo, each resident of the Housing Authority’s elder community received a ham to prepare as part of their holiday dinner.

“It’s amazing the outpouring of thanks you will get from a single mom or dad struggling to provide a nice Christmas for his or her kids,” said Jeff Judd, the Housing Authority’s director of operations and asset management. “As an organization, we’re very thankful that First National Bank Alaska and Wells Fargo made it possible for us to give our residents just a little extra help during a time of year when everyone is feeling more financially strained than usual.”

A few homes are still available at Strawberry Village Cottages. Applications are being accepted. For information, call (907) 276-8822 or stop by the Housing Authority’s offices at 3510 Spenard Road, Suite 201.

The Eighth Annual Koahnic Broadcast Corp. Alaska Native Art Auction is scheduled for Thursday, March 6, at the Hilton Anchorage Hotel. The event will begin with a 4:30 p.m. reception and viewing, and the bidding will start at 7:00 p.m. Koahnic’s Alaska Native Art Auction has become renowned for featuring the work of Alaska’s most noted Native artists.

Last year, the live auction featured a piece by award-winning artist Rebecca Lyon, a CIRI shareholder. Her work titled “oh, baby of mine” is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Athabascan baby belt in copper, glass and mixed media. Lyon was selected by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian Native Arts Program for a Research Fellowship in 2002. CIRI shareholders Lalla Williams and Madeline Kroll also contributed works showcased last year. These selections and others from last year’s event can be viewed on line at www.knba.org.

The auction is a fundraiser for Koahnic Broadcast Corp., the Anchorage-based Native broadcasting center whose mission is to be a leader in bringing Native voices to the region and the nation. Proceeds from the auction benefit Anchorage public radio station KNBA 90.3 FM, the only Native-owned radio station broadcasting to an urban area; National Native News, the country’s only daily Native news service that reaches more than 500,000 listeners across the United States and in Canada every week; and the KBC Native Program Fund, a permanent endowment supporting the creation and distribution of Native radio programming for the region and nation.