CRCD awarded USDA grant for sustainable stewardship

September 4, 2020

Chukchi Campus staff in Kotzebue introduced the importance of thinning your plants to free up root space. The CC gardens promote food security and sovereignty in the Northwest Arctic Borough through partnership with the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium. Photo by Annabelle Alvite.

The UAF College of Rural and Community Development was awarded $1.5 million from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program to continue the work of the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium, and the implementation of Investing in Sustainable Stewardship, or ISS.

ISS enhances educational equity by bringing higher education and experiential learning in environmental studies, sustainable energy, ethnobotany, high latitude range management, tribal stewardship, and food security and sovereignty to underserved Alaska Native communities. 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, natural resources and human sciences.

The combined efforts provide knowledge and skills that lead to improvements in the areas of food security; natural resource management; energy sustainability; and workforce development. ISS enhances student decision-making and communication skills, strengthening leadership roles in their communities to enhance quality of life. Together, CRCD’s five federally recognized Alaska 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 Drumbeats Alaska Consortium for more information, or contact Carrie Stevens at cmstevens@alaska.edu.