Our programs share one idea: young people grow best when the adults around them are prepared, supported, and rooted in culture. Rather than running a single program ourselves, we work with schools, youth-serving organizations, families, and elders to design programs that fit their community, and we train the people who carry them out. Below are the four areas we work in.
Program area 01
Rites of passage
Growing into who we are.
Every culture marks the passage from childhood to adulthood. When a community stops marking those passages, young people often create their own, sometimes in harmful ways. A well-held rite of passage tells a young person: you are seen, you belong, and the community is ready to receive who you are becoming.
We design culturally grounded rites of passage together with schools, families, and community organizations. Each design is tailored to the age, gender, and ancestry of the young people involved. We then train the elders and mentors who will hold the circle: how to prepare young people, how to involve families, how to create safe and meaningful ceremony, and how to keep the relationships going after the ceremony ends.
Ceremony and ritual are also practices of healing. Young people today carry real stress from violence, loss, and constant exposure to harm in the news. Gathering in a circle with elders who know them gives that weight a place to go.
Who it servesYouth in upper elementary through high school, and the mentors, elders, and families around them
What it looks likeCo-design sessions, mentor and elder training, and a culminating community ceremony
How partners joinA school, congregation, or community organization invites us to co-design a passage for its young people
Program area 02
Art & cultural practice
Making space for our stories.
Young people learn who they are partly through the stories they are told about themselves. Our art and cultural practice work invites them to tell those stories in their own voices, through film, media-making, storytelling, and visual art.
Projects connect creativity with ancestry and reflection. Young people interview family members and elders, gather oral histories, document family recipes and traditions, and turn what they learn into short films, exhibits, and performances. Along the way, they practice real creative skills: interviewing, writing, camera work, editing, and presenting to an audience.
We support teaching artists and educators who want to bring this work into their classrooms or programs, offering project designs, facilitation guidance, and training in culturally responsive arts practice. Finished work is shared at community gatherings, so families and neighbors can see young people's histories as a source of power and possibility.
Who it servesYoung people K–12, teaching artists, classroom teachers, and families
What it looks likeOral-history and family-memory projects, media workshops, exhibitions and screenings
How partners joinAn educator, school, or arts organization partners with us on a project or a series of workshops
Program area 03
Education & technology
Learning that opens doors.
Our founders have spent years designing curricula, learning platforms, and educational games at the intersection of culture and technology. We bring that experience to the schools and programs where young people build real skills while staying rooted in who they are.
For schools and youth organizations, we offer culturally grounded curriculum and program design: lessons and units in which young people see their own communities, histories, and futures reflected. Our technology work includes coding, game design, and digital creativity, where young people learn to build things rather than only use them.
Professional learning is central. We work with teachers and youth workers on culturally responsive teaching, on integrating technology and game-based learning, and on designing learning experiences that start from young people's strengths. Our goal is for every educator we work with to leave able to design this kind of learning on their own.
Who it servesTeachers, youth workers, and program leaders, and the K–12 students they teach
What it looks likeCurriculum and program design, educator workshops, coding and game-design activities
How partners joinA school, district, or youth organization engages us for design support or professional learning
Program area 04
Land & community
Rooted in one another.
Caring for land and caring for each other are connected. Our land and community work is building toward self-sustaining communities that grow food, share knowledge across generations, and connect city life with rural land.
This includes urban growing and land-based learning, where young people learn alongside gardeners, farmers, and elders about soil, food, and the knowledge their ancestors carried. It also includes bridges between city youth and rural land, so young people who grow up surrounded by concrete can experience open land as a place they belong.
Over the long term, we are interested in community-owned models: shared gardens, cooperative projects, and gathering spaces that a community runs and sustains for itself. This is the area of our work that is earliest in development, and we are seeking partners who share the vision.
Who it servesYoung people and families, community gardeners, and land stewards
What it looks likeGarden-based learning, intergenerational workdays, visits to rural land
How partners joinA garden, farm, school, or land steward invites us to plan learning on their land
