“I’m going to rest from being on call 24/7,” she said a few days later. “I’m going to stay involved and continue sharing what I’ve learned about children and families at risk, but I am also going to step back a bit and reassess my priorities and try to get more balance in my life,” she said, mentioning time with family and friends as a big priority, as well as exercise.

While enjoying retirement, she is already beginning to fill her time with things that look like work, mentioning a webinar she just signed up for. “I need to figure out how I can continue to be a contributor, and the first thing I need to do is to stay current on family and children’s issues, because if I don’t, I will quickly become irrelevant,” she says.

Until 1978, it was routine for Indian children to be removed from their families and put in foster care or up for adoption. In 1978, U.S. Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona sponsored the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. Sadly, more than thirty years later, Native children remain disproportionately represented in the foster care system and are in non-Native foster homes.

Prior to joining the DIFRC staff in 2012, Lucille worked for 12 years as an Indian Child Welfare Strategic Advisor for Casey Family Programs. During those years, she worked with many in Denver’s Native community to bring about the formation of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center with Casey Family Programs as a founding collaborator.

Lucille says she moved to Denver a few years after ICWA was passed and decided she needed to become more involved in community. She adopted a seven-year-old Native child who had been in foster care for five years. Lucille credits Jewel Marie Little Soldier for teaching her firsthand most of what she has learned about the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. “Parenting Jewel was both challenging and wonderful,” she says.

Lucille has served in leadership positions and on numerous boards over the years, including for the Denver Indian Center, Native Americans in Philanthropy, National Museum of the American Indian, Child Welfare League of America, the American Indian College Fund, Council of Energy Resource Tribes, and the George Bird Grinnell American Indian Children’s Fund.

She was instrumental in bringing the boards of the Denver Indian Center, DIFRC, and Denver Indian Health and Family Services together for their first ever joint meeting this past January, a meeting that has led to closer working relations among the organizations. The groups recently worked with JVA Consulting to develop a joint marketing plan.

She says the community owes a big thanks to Kresge Foundation and First Nations Development Institute for grant support to further enhance collaborative efforts among the three community organizations.

The Indian community in Denver, she says, has grown through the years and become more cohesive. What is especially gratifying, Lucille says, is that the emphasis on education has paid off, with Native students increasing their graduation rates both from high school as well as college. Also of note, she sees that Native individuals who graduate from college are becoming more engaged in community work, which will assist Denver’s Native community to be even more cohesive and stronger over time.

“I learned as a child—from my parents and from my tribe—that when you are given an opportunity, you need to take advantage of it, and then you need to give back to your community. That’s what I’ve tried to do,” she says in discussing the roots of her involvement.

“It is important that you walk your talk. Some give more than others, but everyone can give some, and it is important that everyone gives as much as they can,” she says.

“Sometimes I realize that I know more than I think I do, and I realize the value of what I have to give, and when I give, it always comes back. That’s for sure,” she says.

DIFRC is currently accepting applications for executive director. Isabelle Medchill is serving as interim executive director.