Understanding Indigenous Resiliency
Wednesday, February 19th, 12:00 – 1:30 pm Mountain Time
Presented By: Gina Lopez, Rural & Indigenous Communities Specialist, Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault
It is with the specific experience of providing advocacy and coordinating care services for Indigenous survivors of crime across State, Tribal and local communities that Understanding Indigenous Resiliency extends this insight to provide better advocacy for all survivors through the dynamics of walking in two worlds. The world of Tribal communities, holding beautiful heritage and complex governing obstacles, and the Westernized world. Where these worlds meet can hold great strengths within one another to give important ways for survivors to design their own vision of resiliency.
Gina Lopez is the Rural and Indigenous Communities Specialist and is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Working remotely from the Ute Mountain reservation, Gina provides training and technical assistance to agencies and providers to bridge the barriers between communities in order to strengthen advocacy and other important services to survivors of sexual violence. She was born and raised in southwest Colorado, completed her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Philosophy at Metro State University, then returned home where she took the position of Program Coordinator and Crime Victim Advocate for the Ute Mountain Tribe’s first comprehensive victim assistance program before coming on board with CCASA.