The NYCE program, centers on a summertime, thirty-day intensive leadership Exchange Journey, where a group of nine youth from Hopi (Arizona) Pitt River/ Wintu (California) and Hawaiʻi (Hawai’i) travel together to each of the three communities to work with, and learn skills and strategies from, community elders, leaders and educators working in place based cultural revitalization efforts, which include traditional farming, Native language revitalization and sacred site protection. The Journey inspires youth action, builds their enthusiasm and prompts them to be more involved in projects in their community once they complete the Journey.

 

NYCE partners with local organizations and community members in each area to facilitate selection and preparation of the youth Representatives. Youth representatives are selected in the spring and begin preparing for the summer Journey by participating in community service projects and events and learning cultural protocols for sharing songs, stories and cultural knowledge. By summer, the youth are ready to be ambassadors and help host the other youth while traveling in their home communities, as well as being prepared to be proper guests while traveling within the other sites.

 

The 2014 Exchange Journey will begin in mid-July and will continue through mid- August. The youth representatives will travel together as one group during the Exchange to each of the three sites, first to Hawai’i, then to Hopi and finally in Pitt River.