Mission Community Forum
Information: In the late 1990's, the Umatilla Tribal Police Department took a group of tribal members to a "Developing Tribal Community - Policing" teams training in Reno, NV. Members of the original group included: Betty Burke, Chief Ron Harnden, Kathryn Brigham, Adele Guyer, Rosenda Shippentower, Officer Williams, and later Etta Scott and Art McConville attended.
The course provided a forum for tribal community members, police and tribal government leadership to learn about community policing principles, concepts and techniques. They were taught how these principles could be used to address problems impacting their communities.
The curriculum was designed to teach the community philosophy of providing a foundation for team building, facilitating change, partnership development, problem solving and action planning.
Participants came as teams of two to eight people. Ideally the teams are a diverse mix of citizens, government and law enforcement representatives, including Tribal Council members, informal leaders and police management.
Out of the training, the Mission Community Forum came into being. The group is a loosely organized group of people who come and go according to their commitments. Everyone is welcome to attend. Everyone is welcome to bring issues to the meetings. Everyone is welcome to get involved in the discussions and ask questions or just come and socialize.
