Progress report for ENC20-187
Project Information
The project is targeted toward Tribal agricultural, food, and cultural educators in the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest Regions. These educators include Tribal program and non-profit staff, state extension staff, and other professionals providing education and support to Tribal communities, including community-based educators.
The outcomes of this project include:
- Development and implementation of culturally-based education curriculum that will be available online but also hosted in-person when feasible
- Building increased capacity for existing educators to effectively teach essential skills within community settings
- Incorporation of appropriate cultural perspectives in educational curriculum. Most standard curriculum is not structured from Tribal perspectives and therefore is not engaging to most Tribal members.
- Creation of on online learning and networking platform allowing content creation from users. This platform will continue beyond the grant period
The first year will focus on planning and curriculum development with monthly online trainings for Tribal educators beginning in fall 2020. Given current challenges of in-person meetings, mosts work activity will be conducted remotely in the first year. Years two and three will feature in-person seasonally-focused workshops with hands-on education that will be recorded and compiled into virtual content.
This project will create a virtual library of educational curriculum available to Tribal educators in the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest Region. Much of that content will be new material developed through the hands-on workshops and other content-generation activities with partners, and some of the content will be compilations of existing resources developed for Tribal communities and the general public. Development of this information clearinghouse will be an enormous asset to Tribal agricultural educators and their communities who often struggle to find culturally-relevant material.
Wisconsin is the designated host state, but this project is really a regional effort stretching across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region that stretches from the Dakotas to New York. Conservatively, this project aims to engage Tribal educators from 30 Tribes with an average of 2 educators from each Tribe. Those 60 educators will in turn impact an average of 10 community members for a total reach of 600 directly impacted participants. While these estimated numbers are high, the actual impact will likely be much larger because there is a huge demand for these type of resources, as illustrated by the 700 participants at last year's Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit.
Existing partnerships will be strengthened through this project and new partnerships will be created as connections are expanded and the online learning and networking platform facilitates improved ability connect with one another.
Cooperators
Education
This project has begun by expanding connections and hosting small workshops to help lay the foundation for expanding workshops as pandemic conditions now appear to allow. While the number of participants has been limited for the initial workshops, content has been recorded and compiled to allow for more expansive on-demand content creation.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Host 3-4 in-person workshops per year
In-person workshops are particularly important in Tribal communities where interpersonal relationships carry added importance. These workshops are designed to focus on seasonal activities throughout the region
Participants have been able to experience hands-on learning with processing a deer hide, cooking traditional foods, touring diversified farming operations employing a variety of organic methods at various scales of production, learning about making corn mortars from logs, tapping trees and learning about making maple syrup. The schedule for 2022 is packed with additional, more compressive topics.
Develop a virtual, on-demand learning platform
Use the MightyNetworks e-learning platform to create a library of educational sessions on a range of topics
Participants have been able to learn through presenters and hands-on opportunities, which often facilitates the highest impact learning outcomes