Restoring the spirit of Native youth
For the Next Generation
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Youth Council invites Native youth to join UNITY on November 18-20, 2022 for this free training at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. This three-day peer-to-peer training will cover the community readiness model, asset mapping, and building youth council support systems in 12 identified sectors. It will prepare youth councils with best practices in hosting difficult community conversations and the importance of service leadership in building relationships with your tribal community. UNITY Healing Circles are safe havens and accepting environments in which Native youth can explore how to empower our communities. Brought to you in part by our partners at Bank of America and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
This opportunity is only available for the first 100 Native youth and chaperones who RSVP your seats by filling out the online form: https://forms.gle/ocaCfG2R5rYRqgVq7
For more information on discounted hotel room rates, contact Events Coordinator Shaquanna Sebastian at ShaquannaSebastian@mptn-nsn.gov
Some meals will be provided by the host youth council.
In addition to the hands-on interactive training, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Youth Council invites youth to participate in evening socials including a formal Gala and Go-Cart Racing!
The dress code is casual for the training and formal/business casual for the Youth Gala. For more information please email UNITY at la.buford@unityinc.org
UNITY has been fostering the spiritual, mental, physical, and social development of American Indian and Alaska Native youth, and helping build a strong, unified, and self-reliant Native America through greater youth involvement since 1976. These Healing Circles come from the Healing Indigenous Lives Initiative created by the UNITY Peer Guides in support of the National UNITY Council’s Executive Committee’s 2022 Restoring the Spirit of Native youth Initiative. This national initiative is a call to action for all Native youth to overcome the difficulties associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic, and help rebuild their communities stronger than ever before. UNITY and its youth leaders are committed to empowering Native youth to revive their culture and traditions; restoring youth councils, in-person or virtually; fostering relationships between Native youth and tribal leadership, and identifying assets and resources within their communities.
Featured Native Artist: The flyer includes commissioned artwork by the National UNITY Council’s Vice President and Southeast Regional Representative, Evynn Richards. Evynn empowers others to use their gifts of poetry, dance, and artistic expression to broaden indigenous representation. We are grateful for her contributions and digital storytelling.
Evynn Richardson also called Ksé:hahiyé, is an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe of North Carolina and holds relations with the Nansemond tribe of Virginia. Being an active member in her community, she has served on the Red Earth Youth Council as Vice President and has held various positions on the North Carolina Native American Youth Organization, including Co-President. Through these positions, she has built many connections that have opened various opportunities for her, such as becoming an illustrator for the book, “It’s Homecoming Y’all: Nakoma’s Greatest Tradition.” This book project has allowed her to use her interest as a gateway to provide scholarships for the Native Youth of North Carolina. Other projects Evynn has worked on include the Remembering Our Sisters Fellowship through the Center for Native American Youth to promote the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit movement through media. Being a full-time student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she hopes to pursue her interests in non-profit management and art to give back to her community in whatever capacity she can.