Fiscally Sponsored Groups

1. Native student enrichment
2. Reimagine STEM education
3. Orca and salmon conservation

As the climate crisis intensifies, environmental destruction negatively impacts our natural resources. The current STEM education model does too little to empower our youth to tackle the existential threat of climate change. We hope to mitigate the effects of climate change in the Salish Sea by involving native youth in ongoing salmon and orca conservation efforts and empowering them as problem solvers.

Local mentors, teachers, and guides help students explore the complex sciences and politics that impact salmon health. Students engage with monthly learning opportunities culminating in a sustainable solution to a current salmon threat.

Salmon Strong was established thanks to a $50,000 Dreamstarter® Gold grant, a program launched by Running Strong for American Youth. The grant recipient, Reil LaPlant, MA, Blackfeet Nation, was one of five $50,000 Dreamstarter® Gold grant recipients, their largest grant amount.

“I want these urban Native youth in Seattle to recognize their own power as Indigenous people. By creating a community, driven by purpose and tradition, I hope to water seeds of belonging and self-empowerment.”    Riel LaPlant, MA

Unkitawa is proud to support the nationally recognized Salmon Strong program and empower our native youth to discover solutions to urgent local issues.

Learn more about the Dreamstarter® Program for native American youth and how Running Strong for American Indian Youth® is cultivating the next generation of Native leaders at https://indianyouth.org/dreamstarter-gold/.

Giniw Collective is an Indigenous-womxn, two-spirit led frontlines collective formed in June of 2018, in Anishinaabe territory (northern Minnesota). We believe in carrying our prayers into action, in humility as a practice. To be a land defender, one must know the land as a relative.

Giniw is committed to empowering all those who seek to mend what was broken and build together. Reclamation of lifeways and land that have sustained our people for generations, learning how to protect the sacred and uplift wellness shapes our work. Traditional foods and cultural knowledge are practices steeped in ecosystem — 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is in Indigenous hands and we honor our place in the web through living in mutuality.