Ep. 23: Service to the People with Kateri Harris

In this episode I invited Kateri Harris (Tohono O’odham) to the studio to talk about the work she does in the community as the Domestic Violence Advocate for the Domestic Violence Prevention Program at the Tucson Indian Center located in downtown Tucson. Her work surrounds providing support for individuals dealing with domestic violence situations, while helping assist clients who are in need of services such as in-take support, case management, transportation for appointments, assistance with protection orders, resources for domestic violence classes, etc. The grant program she is currently working on also provides opportunity to develop programs and activities with youth and elders to learn more about domestic violence. Kateri is also a part of the Community Coordinated Response Team, which is a group that works on certain events and meets on a monthly basis to bring awareness for domestic violence, sexual assault, missing and murdered indigenous, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, child maltreatment, are examples of a number of topics this group is tackling and working on to provide information and understanding to the community.

During our conversation Kateri opened up about her family history and her journey as a young woman to her career experiences that eventually led her to fulfill her ultimate dream which was to join the United States Marine Corps. She talks about her grandfather Frank Harris (bat) born April 08, 1925 – Nov. 18, 2010, who served in World War II and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. She remembers his stories he told her about his experiences and the beauty of the landscape. For Kateri, once she joined the Marines she showed interest in also being stationed in Okinawa, and was happy that she had that same opportunity to see it for herself. Tune in to hear more about her journey in the Marines and how she still carries that same purpose to be of service to the people.