The City of Sioux Falls recently renewed its partnership with South Dakota Urban Indian Health.
Officials say one of the benefits to that is the continuation of street outreach services to the city’s homeless population.
As summer kicks into gear, concerns over people not living in homes grows as the high temperatures can pose health risks.
Monica Bailey is the project manager of the Wóokiye project. The project is a part of the Urban Indian Health, and Bailey said that allows them to serve homeless individuals both Pierre and Sioux Falls.
“We can provide primary healthcare services, behavioral health services and cultural health services. Something very special about Urban Indian Health, is that we are grounded in Indigenous values. Especially in Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ, which means we are all related. So anyone and everyone that we serve we call our relative and we treat them as so," Bailey said. "That’s something we really prioritize as the Wóokiye project. And Wóokiye means to help or assist in Dakota and Lakota. And that’s ultimately our goal for our outreach team is to help all of our unhoused relatives regardless of their background or where they are at on their journey."
According to the South Dakota Urban Indian Health Street Outreach Report, the Wóokiye project helped over 200 people last year, including placing 20 in housing.
Bailey said what they do on a day-to-day basis varies, but some days they walk around and drive to connect with people to ensure they have their needs met.
“Other times, we’re responding to calls. So, low-risk, non-emergency calls, or community calls concerning our relatives downtown. So we provide an alternative to calling the police. And we aim to connect people to existing social services, community services and we work with other partner organizations to remind them of their appointments," Bailey said. "And we transport them when we’re able to. Although we want to do everything we can to help individuals, our main goal is to really connect folks in a compassionate way to housing, treatment and other supportive services."
The goal of calling the Wóokiye program is to lessen the load on law enforcement with calls about unhoused individuals.
You can call them for non-emergency situations at 605-809-5636.
