| Projects Work 2006-2010: |
| Project Outlines: |
Youth Leadership Camp:
We have taken youth from the communities we are working with into a
wilderness setting aimed at personal empowerment and learning life skills.
The purpose is to give youth who have been affected by gang violence an
opportunity to be a part of fulfilling projects such as an orchard restoration,
wood hauling for elders, graffiti removal, painting of a healing mural, and
natural building projects. Through these activities we connect youth with
the elders in an effort to build rapport, exchange traditional and modern
knowledge, and provide an atmosphere of respect and understanding.
Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop/Music Tour:
Utilizing the power of music, the Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop
Tour project offers positive musical performances to school and
universities through out the Southwest to educate on the true meaning of
hip-hop, offer ideas of healing and inform about the misuses of hip-hop.
Often mainstream hip-hop is used to promote drug and alcohol abuse,
misogyny, drug dealing, violence, and lavish/materialistic lifestyles. The
Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop Tour takes us back to the origins of
hip-hop as a people’s movement – that voiced the concerns of the ignored,
the seemingly invisible members of our society - when nobody was
listening.
Speaking and Listening Tours:
“Speaking and Listening Tours” is what we call our visits to communities.
This is because we feel we don't only offer our words but offer our ears to
hear each communities unique situations and also share the commonality
we share as Native peoples learning how to live in two world: our traditional
worlds and the western world.
We share our experiences of how we deal and maintain in this age and
share our stories of hope and overcoming the many unique struggles we
face as young Native peoples. The fall 2008 Speaking and Listening Tour will
feature Gabriel and Somana Yaiva, husband and wife speaking on traditional
and balance male and female roles in our communities.
Sustainable Construction Apprenticeship and Learning:
Through a partnership with the Tloh Kin Building Project, a non-profit
sustainable construction initiative, we will be giving youth we work with in
the Peace and Balance project an opportunity to learn alternative
construction skills such as Straw bale home building, bread ovens,
carpentry and more.
The idea is to train youth with life skills that can give them job skills of
tomorrow. “Our youth are let into the world with job skills from yesterday, we
need to equip them with job skills of tomorrow and the world is moving
toward sustainability and green jobs” said Mary Francis- Grey Hills High
School Life Skills Counselor.
School Programs:
Our goal is to build rapport with youth in schools, facilitate talking circles
and listen to their stories. In the past we have found that allowing a space
for youth to talk and have someone listen to them will empower them to
solve their problems constructively. Along with this we will be doing
presentations on the Peace and Balance project and offering opportunities
to connect to our programs through our development of junior and high
school curriculum based around the framework of holistic approach to
prevention and sustainability. This is an on going project with the goal of
having our curriculum in a local school by the fall of 2009 and a dozen
schools in five years.
We have taken youth from the communities we are working with into a
wilderness setting aimed at personal empowerment and learning life skills.
The purpose is to give youth who have been affected by gang violence an
opportunity to be a part of fulfilling projects such as an orchard restoration,
wood hauling for elders, graffiti removal, painting of a healing mural, and
natural building projects. Through these activities we connect youth with
the elders in an effort to build rapport, exchange traditional and modern
knowledge, and provide an atmosphere of respect and understanding.
Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop/Music Tour:
Utilizing the power of music, the Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop
Tour project offers positive musical performances to school and
universities through out the Southwest to educate on the true meaning of
hip-hop, offer ideas of healing and inform about the misuses of hip-hop.
Often mainstream hip-hop is used to promote drug and alcohol abuse,
misogyny, drug dealing, violence, and lavish/materialistic lifestyles. The
Educating and Healing Through Hip-Hop Tour takes us back to the origins of
hip-hop as a people’s movement – that voiced the concerns of the ignored,
the seemingly invisible members of our society - when nobody was
listening.
Speaking and Listening Tours:
“Speaking and Listening Tours” is what we call our visits to communities.
This is because we feel we don't only offer our words but offer our ears to
hear each communities unique situations and also share the commonality
we share as Native peoples learning how to live in two world: our traditional
worlds and the western world.
We share our experiences of how we deal and maintain in this age and
share our stories of hope and overcoming the many unique struggles we
face as young Native peoples. The fall 2008 Speaking and Listening Tour will
feature Gabriel and Somana Yaiva, husband and wife speaking on traditional
and balance male and female roles in our communities.
Sustainable Construction Apprenticeship and Learning:
Through a partnership with the Tloh Kin Building Project, a non-profit
sustainable construction initiative, we will be giving youth we work with in
the Peace and Balance project an opportunity to learn alternative
construction skills such as Straw bale home building, bread ovens,
carpentry and more.
The idea is to train youth with life skills that can give them job skills of
tomorrow. “Our youth are let into the world with job skills from yesterday, we
need to equip them with job skills of tomorrow and the world is moving
toward sustainability and green jobs” said Mary Francis- Grey Hills High
School Life Skills Counselor.
School Programs:
Our goal is to build rapport with youth in schools, facilitate talking circles
and listen to their stories. In the past we have found that allowing a space
for youth to talk and have someone listen to them will empower them to
solve their problems constructively. Along with this we will be doing
presentations on the Peace and Balance project and offering opportunities
to connect to our programs through our development of junior and high
school curriculum based around the framework of holistic approach to
prevention and sustainability. This is an on going project with the goal of
having our curriculum in a local school by the fall of 2009 and a dozen
schools in five years.
During the year of 2006 and 2010, we have conducted high school and grade
school substance abuse prevention presentations through out the United
States and parts of Canada including: Lummi Islands, WA, San Diego Indian
Health Center, the Hoopa Indian reservation in northern California,
Kamloops, British Columbia, plus Grey Hills High School in Tuba City, AZ, the
Cultivating Unity for Mother Earth youth conference in Kykotsmovi, AZ to
name a few events.
We have also facilitated and sponsored summer youth leadership camps,
life skills trainings including cooking and traditional foods and herb
gathering education, youth trainings to teach straw bale construction and
sustainable development technologies, youth artist mural projects plus
have presented our project and approach to dozens communities through
out the United States and Canada all with in 2007/2008.
We have a 5 year plan to develop curriculum surrounding a holistic
approach to prevention incorporating indigenous knowledge of balance,
peace, conflict resolution and sustainability to be taught in several local
schools begining in the fall of 2009. We have also begun developing a
healthy cookbook of Native foods and recipes to educate and teach life
skills.
school substance abuse prevention presentations through out the United
States and parts of Canada including: Lummi Islands, WA, San Diego Indian
Health Center, the Hoopa Indian reservation in northern California,
Kamloops, British Columbia, plus Grey Hills High School in Tuba City, AZ, the
Cultivating Unity for Mother Earth youth conference in Kykotsmovi, AZ to
name a few events.
We have also facilitated and sponsored summer youth leadership camps,
life skills trainings including cooking and traditional foods and herb
gathering education, youth trainings to teach straw bale construction and
sustainable development technologies, youth artist mural projects plus
have presented our project and approach to dozens communities through
out the United States and Canada all with in 2007/2008.
We have a 5 year plan to develop curriculum surrounding a holistic
approach to prevention incorporating indigenous knowledge of balance,
peace, conflict resolution and sustainability to be taught in several local
schools begining in the fall of 2009. We have also begun developing a
healthy cookbook of Native foods and recipes to educate and teach life
skills.
| Speaking and Listening Tour: Yaiva nd Kelvin Long have visited over 70 schools in the last year and over 200 in the past three years. They have dedicated themselves to the Speaking and Listening Tours for the past several years for several months out of each year. They are sharing their stories, struggle, perseverance, faith and triumph to lead balanced and successful lives as young Native American men. |