Paula Starr, CIO Cherokee Nation speaking on Tribal Member Self Service Portals

Digitizing service offerings for the Cherokee Nation means giving citizens a space to log into and update personal and family information, apply for scholarships, clothing assistance, electric assistance and more.  Although the pandemic started this change for how the Cherokee Nation offers services, it is something that had been started on a smaller scale for the tribe’s Cherokee Warrior Database years earlier.  “Covid pushed us,” said Paula Star, CIO of Cherokee Nation.  “We had to get assistance to 400,000 citizens in a short period of time, and using a portal was the only way we could do it.”  When offering covid assistance via the Cherokee Nation Self Service Portal, 500 people per minute submitted applications during the first hour.  It was the single largest direct assistance program ever implemented by the tribe.  When asked about efficiencies the portal has made, Paula noted that before the portal was in place, the tribe provided assistance through their clothing assistance program to 4,000 citizens.  One year after the self service portal was in place, that number jumped to 27,000.  In year two, 80,000 applications for the program were processed.  “It was an unreal leap in just 2 short years,” she said.

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