UPDATE: This year’s NICWA Membership Meeting is going virtual. Despite the new setting, we will join together as members, vote on board nominees, hear from leaders, and win prizes. Like in previous years, members will vote on a slate of nominations for the NICWA board. As members, your voice is important, and we rely on your support to help guide our mission.
Each year, NICWA hosts the largest national gathering on American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) child advocacy issues. With over 1,400 attendees—and growing every year—this four-day conference has become the premiere national event addressing tribal child welfare and well-being. Keynote speakers range from federal officials at the highest level of government to youth with lived experience in child welfare systems.
NICWA provides meaningful programming to conference attendees, creating a space where participants can learn about the latest developments and best practices from experts in the field and from one another. Participants represent a cross-section of fields and interests including child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice service providers; legal professionals; students; advocates for children; and tribal, state, and federal leaders.
Our conference goals are to:
- Highlight successful strategies for developing effective services
- Reveal the latest and most innovative child welfare and children’s mental health service delivery practices
- Highlight tactics and strategies for financing and sustaining services that impact children
- Showcase strategies for involving youth and families in developing services and policies that lead to systems change
- Create peer-to-peer networks that will assist each other in the work toward permanency for all AI/AN families
- Share the latest research on the well-being of AI/AN children and effective child welfare and children’s mental health services, practices, and policies
Year after year, attendees share their enthusiasm and the value of their time spent together during the NICWA conference.
