TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The Cherokee Nation held its annual Community & Cultural Outreach Conference recently with over 800 Cherokee Nation citizens across the United States taking part in the event either in person or virtually.
Leaders from 61 CCO organizations, both on the Reservation and at-large, participated in the conference and learned more about the history and culture of the Cherokee Nation. Attendees also had the opportunity to learn how to operate their organizations from a leadership standpoint, whether through grant writing, volunteer recruiting, crisis management or other organizational efforts.
“These CCO organizations are important to their communities and will be called upon whenever there are times of crisis or need. That’s one important role of a community organizer, and it is a role that is absolutely indispensable to the prosperity of the Cherokee Nation,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “There are dozens of organizations under the CCO umbrella, including 11 new organizations that have been added since 2019. All of our Cherokee community organizations have more than bettered the communities they serve on a regional level, and in a broader sense the Cherokee Nation as a whole. I know they will only continue to do so.”
Through CCO community organization efforts, 15 community buildings are under construction or have been completed in the past year. Across the Cherokee Nation Reservation, there are currently 43 community buildings.
On top of that, Cherokee Nation has either completed or is in the process of completing more than 20 solar panel projects for Cherokee community organizations. Installation of solar panels is providing energy savings for community groups and is making positive environmental impacts.
Cherokee Nation has also provided 75 Community Impact grants to participating CCO community organizations, totaling more than $1.1 million combined. These one-time payments of up to $25,000 for CCO organizations are being used to assist Cherokee communities with food security, public outreach, community needs surveys, overhead costs and support for volunteer in-kind assistance.
“As Cherokee people, we want to stay connected and help each other and take care of each other,” Deputy Chief Bryan Warner said. “These CCO groups are out there working in that spirit of gadugi to bolster our tribe, and coming together each year gives them even more ideas and collaboration for future projects. We look forward to their growth and progress through existing and future programs, including the Community Impact grants that will help Cherokee community organizations grow and prosper.”
Community and Cultural Outreach’s mission is to assist Cherokee community organizations’ ability to increase their effectiveness, enhance essential services to those most in need, build upon the organizational capacity of each community, diversify resources and create collaborations to serve those in Cherokee communities. The program was designed to facilitate opportunities for partnerships and to provide educational and technical assistance, empowering communities to utilize their own abilities in securing and administrating general and federal funding opportunities.
“For me, I feel more connected to my own heritage just being here on the Cherokee Nation Reservation,” Cherokees of the Greater Central Valley Chairperson Melissa Morales said. “I feel a sense of belonging. I’ve been embraced here in the Cherokee community. I have friends here and I’ve even reconnected with some family that I’ve found here. And also I’ve been able to network.”
Every year, CCO brings together Cherokee community leaders from the 14-county tribal jurisdictional area as well as some two dozen satellite communities across the United States for two days of learning, networking and interaction. The conference consists of capacity building, Cherokee culture, Cherokee history and youth leadership sessions, all led by professionals from across the country.
This year, dozens of Cherokee community group leaders from around the country also participated in cultural enrichment opportunities across the tribe's reservation.