SDSU partnerships with Fort Thompson groups seeing positive growth

A soccer ball. Water bottles. A new freezer. Kitchen countertops.

If you look at the individual ways SDSU Extension has helped its partners in Fort Thompson through its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention High Obesity Program funds, they seem small.

"Individually they’re small. But without those things you can't enhance physical activity, or opportunities for nutrition," said Lindsay Moore. "Without those little things the big goal doesn't get achieved."

Moore, SDSU Extension Community Health and Obesity Program Director, said CDC HOP's goal is "to enhance opportunities for nutrition and physical activity in communities." Through that grant funding, administered by SDSU Extension, Moore said the program supports communities looking to grow their capacity.

"If you don't have the capacity to put out a program or to run a food pantry, you can't serve the community well," she said. "I think that is a huge thing we’re doing here, is helping the community to build capacity to serve."

One of the most recent examples is the Tokata Youth Center in Fort Thompson, which serves Native American youth on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. Started in 2014, the Tokata Youth Center's early locations only had space for 25 youth. In September, Tokata – which means "future" in Dakota – opened its new facility, which now averages 65 to 75 youth per day.

"The youth center has tripled the amount of kids we served and doubled our staff, and SDSU Extension was a big help in that," Aaron Vaughn, the youth center's program director, said. "What I’m really excited about is that I think it's something that's going to be here for generations to come, and really have a multi-generational positive health impact."

Tokata Youth Center's new 7,500-square-foot facility has a teaching kitchen that serves a meal every day, a gymnasium/cafeteria, recreation area and space for educational programming. Vaughn said the majority of the center's physical activity equipment was purchased through grant support – things like balls and bats, nets and hoops, hula hoops and jump ropes – anything to encourage the youth to be active.

Having SDSU Extension's support also bolstered the youth center's fundraising efforts, particularly in securing grants, Vaughn said. Moore said that's something unique SDSU Extension offers as a partner – not just expertise and leveraging grant dollars, but help in finding other avenues.

"It's been a really neat and rewarding project, just to see them come from where they were to where they are," Moore said. "They’ve always served well, but they have the capacity to do more now."

Tokata Youth Center will build a new outdoor space this summer, designed by members of the SDSU Landscape Architecture program. Vaughn said the team's input made important environmental changes that would have been overlooked otherwise.

"Just the whole mindset and help from the entire college really has been making a difference in our whole community," Vaughn said.

SDSU Extension also works with wellness coalitions on the Crow Creek reservation, including the Crow Creek Wellness Coalition at the Crow Creek Tribal School district.

When the wellness coalition implemented a school-wide water-drinking campaign, SDSU Extension funded eight new water fountains with water bottle filling stations for the school, along with a new water bottle for every student and staff member. The water bottles stay at the school, so SDSU Extension also provided equipment to clean and sanitize the water bottles. After a needs assessment, SDSU Extension also funded portable sports equipment for elementary and middle schoolers.

Another arm of Moore's work is with community food pantries. When a breaker tripped and a Crow Creek food pantry lost all the items in their freezer, SDSU Extension helped secure funding for a new freezer with a monitoring system. When they needed new countertops, SDSU Extension helped meet that need, as well.

Moore said, "We just slowly chip away at it until the dream is realized."