Center Pole

Food Sovereignty/Healthy Food SystemsSustainabilityEstablishment of a healthy foods hub allowing greater food access in the ruralreservation "food desert." The hub includes a food bank, a healthy foods cafe, and a food distribution project delivering about 400,000 pounds of food a year to two impoverished reservations and surrounding isolated communities as well as making deliveries to those without transportation; a program that serves the specialized needs of elders while involving them in the process through sharing their wisdom and their knowledge of traditional foods and lifeways, and an educational program that promotes healthy lifestyles and teaches nutrition, natural farming, hunting, gathering wild plants and medicines and the preparation of traditional foods. A land-based Indigenous Learning Center is in the process of development to be a learning and training center for food sovereignty, traditional land recovery and restoration and the preservation of the biodiversity of Mother Earth.

Youth Development and Leadership:Youth participate in enrichment activities that include Crow language, history andheritage; wilderness skills; Native skills; Native games; literacy and academicenrichment; community radio; life skills, sustainable living and other leadershipactivities. Successful youth participate in educational programs beyond thereservation and are assisted with college and career opportunities. Youth arementored in the Crow cultural way, taught skills to cope with historical trauma, areprovided tools to make change in the communities and learn to be successful in theglobal environment. 3600 reservation youth participated in Center Pole activities.

Social Enterprise/Workforce Training:Reservation youth, young adults and families are trained in workforce, businessskills and life skills at our social enterprises that include a coffee roastingbusiness, a community radio station, a resale shop, a cafe and gift shop andcultural tourism projects. Interns learn about creating non-profit organizations andbusinesses, money management skills and setting personal, educational and careergoals.