Awarded Grants

This project will increase capacity for Bering Sea Elders Group with dedicated funding to implement strategic goals, including travel for Executive Committee trainings and upcoming Summit, communications planning and fund development planning, as well as items such as the creation of financial and other organizational policies.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Our current Executive Director (ED), Jewell Arcoren, has been involved with Wicoie for over a decade either as a Board member, advisor, parent, or in administrative and primary leadership roles within the organization. The current Director is planning on leaving the ED role in November 2023, Wicoie’s Board understands that succession planning is a risk management strategy that will ensure the sustainability of the organization. As such Wicoie’s governance committee has identified that they would like to promote from within the organization and have offered the position to their current Program Director, Fawn YoungBear-Tibbetts and the position has been accepted. Wicoie believes in mentoring younger leaders and this funding would allow the opportunity to hire and train the incoming Program Director earlier and offer a smoother transition for the Executive Director position.

General Operating Support

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) In our community, we were lacking speakers; we lost a lot of our elders who's first language was Aaniiih or Nakoda. In the Aaniiih Language today, there are no known first language speakers and multiple second language learners. In Nakoda, there is around 4 first language speakers and multiple second language learners. There is a need for language preservation here. If we don't learn and preserve it now our language will be lost in the future. Our unique languages are part of our identity as Native people.