Recognition – Respect – Resurgence
The Resurgence Gap is the chasm between the life potential of American Indian youth and the reality of their conditions caused by the systemic barriers and historic failures of government schooling.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
TZICATL CDC, an Indigenous Community Development Corporation (501c(3)) is excited to launch the American Indian Resurgence Initiative. Funded by a US Department of Education ACE Grant, the AIR Initiative is designed to disrupt the historic failures of government schooling and empower American Indian students to succeed in school, college and community.
“In order to overcome this gap, not only is systemic change imperative at the institutional level but more importantly, Indigenous youth, families and communities need to be able to re-establish an entire ecosystem rich in community, culture and creativity in education where they can flourish.”
Marcos Aguilar, Chair, Tzicatl CDC Board of Directors
American Indian Resurgence (AIR) Initiative: Native Youth to College through Community Pathways.
In partnership with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrielino-Shoshone Tribal Council of Southern California, community-based organizations such as Semillas, and other local service providers, our project will leverage our twenty years of experience with providing Indigenous education in Los Angeles to impact 1000 students across tribal identities, districts, and schools. Tzicatl will serve as a backbone organization, administrating, convening, and resourcing sustained outreach and educational service coordination to the region’s extraordinarily diverse Native communities. Our goal is to empower the self-determination of Los Angeles area Native American middle and high school students and their families with access to high-quality and culturally relevant educational choices and services that will cultivate a living Indigenous education ecosystem; support their
Native identities within our unique geographical, historical, and cultural context; and create pathways to high school achievement and college enrollment.
Our approach embraces a collaborative and flexible project design that allows us to provide access to high quality and culturally relevant education choices to an urban Native student population that is extremely diverse in terms of tribal affiliations, racial identities, economic status, and heritage language and widely dispersed throughout Los Angeles County schools where they are frequently unrecognized, undercounted, and underserved.
HOW TO APPLY
Eligible Indian Student or Student means an individual who meets the definition of “Indian” in section 6151 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended. (20 U.S.C. § 7491).
Students and parents interested in applying should complete an interest form to begin the process of signing up.
Tzicatl – Uplifting the work of the ants
Tzicatl Community Development Corporation (Tzicatl CDC) was founded in Los Angeles in 2002. Our mission is to advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the reparation of community and advocacy for healthy ecosystems to cultivate Indigenous education and culture in relation with ancestral lands.
Tzicatl cultivates and supports Indigenous education as a key partner and sister organization to Semillas Sociedad Civil (Semillas), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Indigenous educational organization, which operates the Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America charter school. Also founded in 2002, Anahuacalmecac is a community-based K-12 charter school serving 300 students and their families and is the only public school in Los Angeles that is dedicated to the academic and cultural needs of Indigenous children. Anahuacalmecac uses an International Baccalaureate model and is dedicated to student-centered schooling that includes a language-rich, culturally meaningful, and academically-rigorous environment rooted in principles of sovereign knowledge particular to Indigenous Peoples.