The Moodfuel Changemaker for November 2024, Diné leader Jolene Holgate, confidently guides her organization's efforts to support Native families, preserve cultural heritage and build community resilience
A searing 2023 report from History Colorado confirmed a piece of historic genocide in our state that Indigenous neighbors already knew. Dozens of their children entrusted to Native American boarding schools more than a century ago died without ever returning home.
The report reaffirmed the critical mission of Denver Indian Family Resource Center (DIFRC). Founded in 2000, DIFRC helps Tribal Nations heal from the trauma of American Indian child removal, including practices such as transport to far-away facilities, discriminatory adoption policies and inadequate enforcement of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act. Through case management and advocacy, the agency has an 89% rate of successfully reunifying and preserving Native families.
Holgate brings expertise in advocacy and programming to DIFRC’s mission
In 2024, Jolene Holgate was named the executive director of DIFRC. She uses her extensive experience in addressing gender-based violence, sex trafficking, murdered and missing Indigenous women and championing legislation to support the social needs of Tribal leaders. As a Diné woman, she leads with an understanding of human interconnectivity and a commitment to collective responsibility to restore and uplift Indigenous children and families.
In this interview, she shares her vision for creating pathways to healthy and sustainable foundations for Indigenous families so they may practice resilience.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hello, Relatives and Allies! I am a Diné woman from the Four Corners region (and) the beautiful lands of the Navajo Nation. I grew up in a small community called Shonto, Ariz., and when I became school-age, moved to the border town of Flagstaff, where I went to grade school and high school. We maintained our reservation homestead where I have fond memories of reservation life, most especially the summers with my grandmother and cousins.
How has the Diné culture shaped you as a leader?
My Diné culture teaches us to be committed to a vision of healthy communities where all our people enjoy life and prosper. Our lifeways affirm our Diné principles of K’é (kinship) so that we may continue to journey in Sá’ah Naagháí Bek’eh Hozhó or The Navajo Beauty Way of Life. This is how we restore and uplift one another by carrying on these core values that keep us balanced and in alignment with Mother Earth, her natural elements, non-human Relatives and our bodies’ connections to the land.
These teachings are things I implement as a leader and (they) keep me grounded in the movement towards healthy and safe communities for Native children and families. We are all interconnected and have a collective responsibility in how we show up for our Relatives in need and how we share resources so the safe communities we envision become reality. These core values along with my grandmother’s teachings have allowed me to lead with love, compassion, and integrity.
What drew you to DIFRC and what about its mission is most important to you?
I was drawn to DIFRC’s mission because in 2023 the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was under attack. Native communities understand how critical it is for us to take action and protect our children and cultural ways of life. I wanted to be a part of that movement to continue to advocate for ICWA and support Native families who can identify with the people who are helping them and understands their needs.
You are new to Colorado. What have you noticed since moving here and working at DIFRC that has surprised or excited you?
Since starting at DIFRC, it was surprising how much history was behind this organization and the realness of the ebbs and flows of a Native nonprofit organization in Denver. DIFRC has seen tough times and many good times, and it has all been positive learning in all the best ways.
Now, as we have re-strategized our services and rebuilt critical service delivery areas, our staff and board continue to push DIFRC forward with a lot of love, grace and intention. I am so thankful to be surrounded by Relatives and community who are with us on this journey!
What do you want people to understand about the history and impacts of injustice faced by Indigenous Peoples, especially regarding child removal?
Native people in Denver and all over Colorado understand the history and oppression that Native Americans have experienced for hundreds of years in this country – and we know survival very well. The systemic barriers and gender-based violence affecting our communities are symptoms of what history left behind and the negative cycles Native women are entrenched in.
Despite the history we know, and the injustices (we) have experienced, DIFRC is committed to breaking those cycles through culturally connected services and centering the strengths of mothers, caregivers and kinship providers in the child welfare system.
Our very existence is resistance to the impacts history has left behind.
How does DIFRC prioritize safety, respect and dignity?
Many Native women have utilized the services of DIFRC because we take a trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach to their needs. In the social work field, it is women carrying child welfare work, regardless of where they come from, and it is the same in our Native communities.
Native women helping Native women creates a safe space for our clients because they can see themselves in us. Folks on our staff have also lived experiences of being foster kids themselves or kinship providers for their relatives. This mutual understanding between our clients and staff have allowed us to develop a positive rapport with the Native women we work with through trust-building and sharing in cultural knowledge.
We recognize there is a need for connection to Native culture and Relatives in the Denver community, and we are proud to fill that need for our clients. The services we provide come from a place of non-judgment, community care and love for one another.
We want to see one another succeed and that spirit is rooted in our values of kinship, support and being a good Relative. We will continue to strive to ensure our space at DIFRC centers our families and children so they receive the best support possible and they feel seen and heard.
How does DIFRC bring an intergenerational lens to its work addressing Indian child removal?
Grandmothers in Tribal communities, and even urban Native communities, are the backbone of our survival, existence and resilience. It is not uncommon for Native American homes to have intergenerational dynamics in the household where grandmothers are the bonus caretakers of their grandchildren. They hold important knowledge passed down to the children and their love is shown in nurturing ways that honor the development of our Native children and youth.
Moodfuel is proud to partner with the Women's Foundation of Colorado in recognizing the innovative practices of Jolene Holgate to reconnect and support Indigenous families. As our Changemaker for November 2024, Ms. Holgate received from Moodfuel an honorary certificate and a small stipend for her organization. If you would like to contribute to her essential work, please donate during the Colorado Gives fundraising period, now through Dec. 10, 2024, so your donation will be boosted by a $1 million incentive fund.
The Denver Indian Family Resource Center strengthens vulnerable Indigenous children and families through collaborative and culturally responsive services and programs in the Denver area while advocating for reunification of Native families involved in the child welfare system. DIFRC has established a strong reputation in providing wraparound services to struggling AI/AN children and their caregivers.
Since their launch in 1987, the Women's Foundation of Colorado has been the only statewide community foundation focused on dismantling barriers to women’s economic prosperity. More than 91,000 gifts from generous donors have fueled their work to release 30 research reports, assist in the creation of dozens pieces of legislation and grant nearly $23.5 million to small, nonprofit organizations throughout Colorado.
