PROGRAM INITIATIVE
Community Education
Community Youth Land Education
A Community Youth Educational Program
By partnering with youth organizations, we provide learning opportunities for young people on plant medicine, Indigenous teachings, land relationships, self care, and trauma healing.
By using a variety of methods: hands-on projects, multimedia, field trips, Indigenous modalities like deliberative democracy; restorative justice, business planning and implementation; we facilitate an interactive and participatory learning environment.
“I truly appreciate the way your work threw into relevance some things the children had no knowledge of - as you shared the sanctity of our earth and its water with them.”
- Teacher from the Ithaca City School District
“Remember and Continue Being Strong”
Why is the Community Education Program Important?
Young people are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. This program is one of the most direct ways to make a connection with the benefits of nature and the larger interconnectedness of ecosystems.
By working with already established groups the youth have a pre-existing bond which makes it a wonderful foundation for when partners want us to support programs which focus on trauma healing work.
Given our current formal education system, children can be left not learning and understanding about healthy contemporary Native people, but see them only as something from history books, yet they live in an environment surrounded by culture and ancestral knowledge.
By building relationships between local people with diverse backgrounds, both native and non-native participants learn together. Having this common experience helps non-native youth learn that native people and knowledge are still alive and important.
Community Education Project News
Program Partners Include
“We are blessed to collaborate with OJI:SDA’ and are excited to keep learning about environmental justice from an Indigenous perspective!”
KHUBA International
“I learned along with the kids. We learned plants and herbs that we can use to help us feel better and to be intentional and use water to wash away negative thoughts. And that so many simple herbs help and heal so much.’
Lehman Alternative Community School
“Thank you for sharing with the kids!!”
Enfield Elementary School
Collaboration
We partner with Organizations, After School Programs, Community groups, home schooling classes and similar groups.
If you would like to learn more about partnering with the Community Education Program please reach out!
We would love to expand who is benefiting from our Community Education Program.
This can range from single engagement with the youth to long term programing that we responsively build
Programming can be at our location or in other spaces