(Photo Caption: Women from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community on a recent group walk for the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women)
In keeping with WAM’s double philanthropic mission, we are thrilled to announce that a portion of the ticket proceeds from KAMLOOPA will be given to the Family Services Center of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.
As you might have heard in our land acknowledgement, WAM Theatre is based on the Ancestral homelands of the Mohican peoples who, despite tremendous hardship in being forced from this land, are now based in Wisconsin and known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. Throughout the process of Kamloopa, we have been in conversation with members of the Stockbridge-Munsee community. We were humbled and honored to host Mohican Ceremonialist Shawn Stevens, who began our Opening Night performance with some historical context and music to ground us. There will be a free screening of WAM’s production of Kamloopa at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community next week.
Kori Price, the Family Services Manager at Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans, is organizing the screening and will be using the donated money towards “healing for the females in our community.” Kori answered the following questions in order to give a fuller picture of the Family Services Center and how the money will be used.
Can you describe the day to day function of the Family Services Center and the role it plays in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community?
We provide virtual activities to our community on self-care, domestic violence, independent living skills education, alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse, HIV/AIDS education, and some family fun activities daily. Community members who participate receive door prize tickets for a chance to win small prizes. We provide an after school program for grades K-12 called the Youth Education Program: we provide snack, culture lessons, crafts, movies, outside fun, and lessons on alcohol tobacco and other drug abuse. The Family Services Program provides two homeless shelters for those members who are in need of housing. They can stay in the homes for 60 days, and the program helps them with job skills, housing, and employment searches.We also have a domestic violence and low income program where we provide the resources to help clients heal and move towards self-sufficiency.
Can you tell us a story about someone or a group of people who have particularly benefited from your work?
Being in this program for 8 years, I have seen families just needing a little bit of help, such as paying for their drivers license and putting new tires on their car so they can continue to work, to helping them obtain their documents such as SSN cards and birth certificates so they can obtain employment. Some clients we help one time and they never have to come back, and some clients we provide some type of services to help them reach their goals every month, but it is helping them become one step closer to being able to provide for themselves and/or their children. I really don’t have one success story, because I feel all the stories are successful
How will our donation help?
We wanted to focus the donation we receive from WAM on healing for the females in our community. So social gatherings with the females such as: tea parties, mediation and sharing groups, self-reflection sessions, reiki sessions, painting/art classes, etc. We would also like to provide personal hygiene bags to the women.
Kamloopa will be streaming November 1-7, tickets are now on sale here.