Native American Community Academy (NACA) has been awarded $20,000 by the N.M. Outdoor Recreation Division. This summer, students participated in growing crops on the Trosello farm at the north end of Corrales. The non-profit incorporates “land-based learning as part of a holistic learning approach. Many of the school’s students have experienced historical separation from their ancestral lands due to forced relocation and assimilation practices. Healing those relationships with the land is an essential part of enabling students to heal from the generational trauma of colonization and grow into holistically healthy adults.â€
The program aims to help students better understand the holistic connection between land leadership, community, health, and their own native identity.
The division’s Outdoor Equity Fund also awarded $20,000 for a Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program, supporting monthly, in-depth outdoor education for students and their teachers from low-income schools by collaborating to collect field data to track long-term change in the Middle Rio Grande bosque.
The first-of-its-kind Outdoor Equity Fund was created to increase equitable access to the outdoors for all youth.Â
“Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has recognized that New Mexico’s outdoor recreation areas are an important asset for creating jobs and boosting public health,†Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said. “The second round of grants from the innovative Outdoor Equity Fund will help organizations throughout the state with outdoor programming and education.â€
More than 80 proposals were submitted for the grants