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Continued grant for É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native food, energy sovereignty

Oct. 5, 2021

CRCD was awarded $1 million to continue the work of the Drumbeats É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Consortium and to implement the Invigorating É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native Food and Energy Sovereignty program.

The UAF College of Rural and Community Development was awarded $1 million to continue the work of the Drumbeats É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Consortium and to implement the Invigorating É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native Food and Energy Sovereignty program. 

The grant comes from the USDAÉ«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ™s National Institute of Food and Agriculture É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program. CRCD has been operating USDA NIFA ANNH awards for over 15 years, working through the rural campus to provide meaningful education in food and energy sovereignty for É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native communities. CRCD also currently maintains the Investing in Sustainable Stewardship award of $1.5 million.

The goal of IANS is to invigorate É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native community practices to enhance food and energy systems, security and sovereignty through educational equity, through the following objectives:

1. Enhanced wild and cultivated food systems, including É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native stewardship and traditional and customary practices, through place-based education; 
2. Increased sustainable energy system development through place-based education; 
3. Strengthened É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native student and participant leadership in community food and energy systems; and
4. Incubated partnerships and coordinated use of resources expand educational equity in food and energy educational programming.

IANS works to enhance educational equity in underserved É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native communities by bringing higher education and experiential learning in sustainable energy, ethnobotany, high-latitude range management, tribal governance and stewardship, and food security and sovereignty. 

CRCD campuses employ place-based Indigenous and Western knowledge to design and deliver curricula that engage students and improve student recruitment and retention in food, agriculture, and natural resource sciences. Together, CRCDÉ«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ™s five federally recognized É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Native-Serving Institutions will collaborate to enhance local food sovereignty and energy sustainability in communities served, while connecting academic classroom experience with leadership roles and organizational activities.

Visit the Drumbeats É«ÊÓƵÏÂÔØ Consortium programs for more information, or contact Carrie Stevens at cmstevens@alaska.edu.