She became the resource she needed when she was a teen growing up in Fort Defiance

As a 13-year-old girl growing up in Fort Defiance, within the Navajo Nation, Dimitra McCabe's understanding of herself and her emotions were as complicated as any teenager. Being raised by her grandmother was difficult but rewarding, helping her understand her purpose.

Her grandmother, living off-the-grid, had her garden, where she taught McCabe how to harvest and the importance of food security. But challenge started early in McCabe's life as she found herself moving a lot, living with different family members.

Therapy helped McCabe find stability to overcome the obstacles of being a teenager and allowed her to realize she just wanted to be a good person. A question she frequently asked was, "Why can't we just be good people? And help out our own neighborhoods?"

"Everybody wants to be accepted and loved," she said.

McCabe realized she wasn't the only one who experienced trauma, and wanted to find ways to prevent pain for the next generations.

Youth in Indigenous communities can suffer from generational trauma stemming from issues in their community including poverty and substance abuse, and as consequence, many will isolate or be skeptical of the idea of being helped by others.

"Just like hurt people hurt people … Healed people heal people," she said.

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Finding Rez Refuge, a nonprofit helping people in Fort Defiance

McCabe never thought she wanted to work for a nonprofit, but when she was 29 and looking at jobs in Fort Defiance, she found Rez Refuge. Her determination and drive convinced Alexander Froom, board president, who interviewed her for the position of office manager back in 2014.

"I will never forget when during her interview she said, 'I know I can do this job!' and with knowing this particular position, the challenge of wearing a lot of hats, she met it with excitement and drive," Froom said.

Her new position created questions in her mind: Why is there scarcity in resources for the Navajo Nation? How could we provide after-school education and activities to our youth? Water, heat and food are necessities for life, so why does our community have a hard time acquiring these resources?

Rez Refuge is a nonprofit founded in 2007 by John Van Eyk with the intention to build a community center for the young in Fort Defiance, but now it serves a wide age group creating solutions to help the community.

The nonprofit's four pillars of focus are community enrichment, youth and teen development, wellness projects and water and food. The goal is to help anyone who needs it, no matter the need. Services have included electrical work, setting up internet access, installing a water tank for daily chores, teaching about musical instruments and art, and helping apply to trade school programs.

Her work inspired her to go to Arizona State University to study nonprofit management, and she worked her way up, eventually becoming executive director of Rez Refuge.

"I honestly consider Dimitra as a co-founder of Rez Refuge because she has been a driving force within the organization," Froom said.

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McCabe transforms nonprofit

A challenge that she faced as she started at the organization was a disconnect between the Navajo community and Christian outreach programs. There is historical trauma between western colonized religion and Native American spirituality, and McCabe wanted to bridge that divide.

She eliminated labels that defined the organization as "Christian led" or "for the Navajo community." She instead based it on being a good person wanting to help anybody that needed help. She admits it did take time, effort and trust to build that bridge. She said community members are more receptive to help from Rez Refuge now, in part because of their referral program.

This referral program allows people to let the organization know who in the community needs help. Then someone in the organization will go to their home and assist them.

McCabe, now 36, is focused on piloting a program to build affordable housing on Rez Refuge land, with the goal of promoting self-sufficiency without disrupting the rural lifestyle of the people she's trying to help.

Another of the nonprofit's goals is to lift up community members to be leaders so they can transform their homes. Like McCabe, others have started as youths in the program, then volunteered, and now work for the nonprofit.

Starting from a Christian mission-led nonprofit to now — having broken barriers and bridged a gap between non-Natives and the Indigenous community — McCabe has helped it become a blueprint of what other communities can do to help out their own people.

Reach the reporter at Ivana.Venema-Nunez@gannett.com or at 480-291-2226.

This story is part of the Faces of Arizona series. For years, people in Arizona’s diverse communities have said they don’t see themselves reflected in the newspaper, and that they want to see more good news about their people. These profiles are a step in that direction. Have feedback or ideas on who we should cover? Send them to editor Kaila White at kaila.white@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Faces of Arizona: Dimitra McCabe runs Rez Refuge in Fort Defiance