Awarded Grants

The ultimate purpose is to educate, empower, and work on positive youth development in order to prevent at risk activities youth have available to them now and in the future. The tools and skills gained will help the young women make positive decisions, avoid risky adolescent behaviors and promote an overall well-being as it relates to the girls development including physical, emotional, mental and social well-being. These will all help the young women set and attain goals while in high school and past high school in order to lead successful lives and help them be contributing members.

The purpose of the Kahua Waiwai Alaka`i Internship Program is to 1) create and institutionalize a multi-generational internship opportunity, 2) increase youth interns financial knowledge and retention by providing them an opportunity to teach culturally relevant financial literacy, and 3) leverage community partnerships to bring youth, children, parents and community organizations together to further an open dialogue around economic self-sufficiency and personal finance in the native hawaiian community.

The ultimate purposes of creating agricultural internships are to: 1) protect traditional cultural farming practices and empower youth to be both stewards of our land and essential to creating food sovereignty on Molokai; 2) create community strength by increasing the opportunities for local indigenous post-secondary students to return, then learn and contribute to their home community's sustainable growth; 3) leverage development of a larger sustained agricultural industry on-island, part of which is the creation of living-wage employment.

The purpose of this project is to launch a Northwest Native Plants and Foods Collective track focused on increasing youth participation in the innovation of sustainable cultural food systems. We aim to leverage youth as knowledge keepers of holistic wellness approaches for future tribal generations. Through educational community workshops, we will work with urban and rural tribal youth as part of a regional community of people sharing traditional plants and foods best practices and advocating for tribal food sovereignty. The project will also utilize a youth cadre of representatives in NNPFC strategic planning and a social media dissemination campaign.

The ultimate purpose of the Summit is to: 1) create a well-prepared next generation of Indian Country leaders in food and agriculture systems; 2) retain these young people in the important work of building Indian Country food systems throughout the years to come; 3) utilize and leverage existing FNDI-supported curriculum in the critical areas of financial literacy, food systems and food sovereignty assessment, and agriculture business planning; 4) improve decision-making in this important emerging leadership base for Indian Country food systems; and 5) increase our retention of their passions and energy in food systems.

The ultimate purpose of Nambe's Community Farm project is to provide healthy, locally grown produce while teaching youth and young adults the importance of sharing indigenous traditional knowledge of farming through hands-on training. Revitalization of abandoned farm land will increase farmed acreage and achieve our goal of making the Community Farm a self-sustaining entity. By educating and assisting the community to create family gardens and sharing the importance of growing heirloom produce, we will improve the health of Nambe. Including Nambe Elders teaches the next generation our history, tradition, culture, and retains our Tewa language to improve health and well-being.

The ultimate purpose of the Summer Turtle program is to: 1) increase our children's cultural understanding and appreciation and, thus, give them a heightened ethnic confidence and pride about who they are and how they fit into the world. 2) increase language fluency among our youth in order to ensure the long term sustainability and viability of our previously dormant language. 3) create and nurture values in our youth that yield physically and emotionally healthy children who will one day become adults who can lead in and serve their communities and families.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) create a bridge for our youth, especially those without other means of connection, to participate in a full cultural life on their homeland, increasing their sense of belonging and the access to healthy adults and elders; and 2) utilize creative and artistic means of expression to help youth develop confidence in their creativity, communication and leadership skills. In addition, this project will help us leverage other funding to help this all volunteer project develop to include a wider age range of youth involvement and to create capacity and sustainability for their youth club.

The ultimate purpose of the Zuni Youth Teen Mentors program is to increase the leadership skills and potential of teen mentors while building commitment to serving the Zuni community. Further, the program will increase cultural connectedness and spread traditional knowledge among teen counsellors and young campers alike. The program will leverage in-kind resources from many community partners, allowing the program to continue to grow and better serve our youth.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) increase the access of our Navajo community families and elders to healthy,locally grown and traditional foods, 2) to increase the participation of our Navajo students in the growing, preparation, and serving of these foods to the community, and 3) to contribute to tribal economic development in our area by demonstrating to our local tribal farmers, families and students how to utilize the certified community kitchen on our school campus to generate value-added products made from locally-grown produce.