Longmont, Colorado, Jan. 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) has received a $500,000 grant from Kalliopeia Foundation in continuing support of First Nations’ Native Youth and Culture Fund (NYCF) grantmaking program for 2019. Since 2002, Kalliopeia Foundation has generously provided the bulk of funding for NYCF, which annually awards grants to Native American youth programs across the U.S. that enhance spiritual, cultural and language awareness, and promote youth empowerment, leadership and community building.
Thousands of tribal youth have been served through those innovative efforts over the years. These have ranged from culture camps and language nests, to business classes and financial education workshops, to agriculture and other food-based activities. Through year-end 2018, First Nations had awarded 399 grants through the program totaling $6.73 million. The NYCF continues to be one of First Nations’ most popular grant opportunities. (To see grantees from recent years, visit https://www.firstnations.org/projects/native-youth-and-culture-fund/.)
“The Kalliopeia Foundation has been a generous, visionary and longstanding supporter of our Native Youth and Culture Fund as well as other key projects, such as our Native Language Immersion Initiative,” said Michael E. Roberts, First Nations President & CEO. “Despite limited resources, many tribes, community-based organizations and Native-controlled nonprofits have been developing innovative, culturally-based youth programs and projects that play a critical role in Native communities by empowering Native youth and giving them the tools and resources they need to overcome many of life’s challenges. We applaud these community partners and, of course, the vision that Kalliopeia Foundation brought to the table back in 2002."
The application period for 2019 NYCF grants will open in February 2019. To be informed of when the application period opens, please regularly check the First Nations website, subscribe to First Nations’ emails at this link, and follow First Nations on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
About First Nations Development Institute
For 38 years, using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own – be they land, human potential, cultural heritage or natural resources – and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org.
About Kalliopeia Foundation
Kalliopeia Foundation is responding to a need — a global challenge — to take spiritual as well as physical responsibility for our common home. Our programs and those we support engage with contemporary issues at their root, with the understanding that ecological, cultural and spiritual renewal are interdependent.
We envision a future rooted in fundamental values, such as compassion, respect, dignity, reverence for nature, and care for each other and the Earth. Our work strives to embody the following core principles:
- Life is Sacred: Honoring all life as sacred; expressing reverence for one another, the Earth, and life as a whole.
- Interconnectedness: Approaching ecology, culture, and spirituality as inextricably interdependent.
- Innovation: Generating creative ideas and outcomes through simple, meaningful engagement with others and the Earth.
- Service: Embracing an ethic of care — the essential and natural aspiration to respond to needs beyond our own.
In 1997, Barbara Sargent founded Kalliopeia as an independent private foundation to help support people and organizations who are working to bring spiritual values into institutions and systems of everyday life and work. The name “Kalliopeia” means beautiful voice and refers to the first of the nine Greek muses. She is associated with heroic poetry, justice, and transforming lower qualities into higher. Visit https://kalliopeia.org.