UNITY traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Annual Convention of the National Indian Education Association. The delegation composed of Male Co-President Jonathan Arakawa, Southwest Representative Derek Capitan, and UNITY staff, Greg Mendoza, Audri Mitchell, and Caleb Dash spoke to educators and students at the Marketplace to gain more interest and potential participation in UNITY programs.
In addition, UNITY conducted two training sessions. The first training was the Healing Circle where Native educators came together to find ways to support Native youth. The second training was Advocacy in Action where Native youth, mainly middle school aged students, were able identify issues and solutions in their communities.
There were so many productive discussions, UNITY staff and youth leaders were able to get a closer look into what concerns that the youth are focused on in their communities and lead them through solution based thinking exercises. We are always grateful for the opportunity to reach other audiences by attending conferences such as NIEA.