The Southwest Indian Relief Council provides program services that benefit Native Americans throughout the United States. Our mission is "To help Native American people improve the quality of their lives by providing opportunities for them to bring about positive changes in their communities." We work towards our mission in a way unique to most charities in the United States, and certainly unique to charities working with Native Americans. This methodology has eight guiding principles we call "The SWIRC Way".
We work with partners in the communities that we serve. SWIRC seeks the advice of Indian people living within their own community, to identify needs, arrange volunteer support, provide lists that identify the people in need of assistance, obtain facilities, and volunteer their own time to improve the community where they live.
We give preferentiality to remote locations without access to services and/or transportation. Many people living on reservations reside in extremely rural environments. They are not close to stores, medical facilities, or even basic utilities. Many don't have transportation needed to make the long drive to the nearest town or facility. These are the people that we identify to help.
We work with partners in the communities that we serve.
We give preferentiality to remote locations.
We define a group to be served and serve everyone in that group. A group may be defined by age, location, need, or other criteria. This makes the criteria for receiving our assistance very clear. This criterion helps us to avoid any feeling of unfairness or partiality within the community that could undermine our effectiveness and credibility.
We make clear our expectations to our program partners in writing. We depend heavily on the people who live in reservation communities to make our programs work. We clearly outline our expectations as to what the community needs to do, and what we will do for the community. Building this line of communication makes our programs more effective because everyone's expectations are clearly stated.
We define a group to be served and serve everyone in that group.
We insist upon program accountability.
We insist upon program accountability. We expect our program partners to care about the goods and services we provide to them as we would ourselves. Goods and services must go only to the intended beneficiaries. We fulfill our obligations to our program partners, and we expect our program partner to fulfill their obligations to us.
We give preference to the purchase of healthy and nutritious food. A great number of the people we serve have diabetes, and with this disease not controlled and on the rise, many will have diabetes in their lifetime. A healthy and nutritious diet is an important part of keeping diabetes under control. We do work with people taking into account the kinds of food they desire but we strive to balance this with providing them with healthy choices of food.
We give preference to the purchase of healthy and nutritious food.
We do not "dump and run".
We do not "dump and run". SWIRC will not deliver unwanted or inappropriate goods to reservation communities. The charitable community as a whole is particularly guilty of this act. We concentrate on what our program partners are telling us what they want for their communities. Unneeded and unwanted supplies will not be delivered by us.
We are respectful of all donations. Our money will be spent meaningfully and wisely. We have a limited budget and cannot solve all of the world problems. We are constantly rethinking our program strategies to get the most "bang for the buck". Whether it's feeding people the only meal they may get that day, or weatherproofing a house, we want our donors to know that what we do is going to successfully move us towards completing our mission.
