Urban Native Education Alliance (UNEA)

The Urban Native Education Alliance (UNEA) and Native Action Network (NAN) hosted a Seattle Public School Board Candidate forum. The goal of the forum was to connect Native communities with candidates to discuss Indian Education and how these next board members will best serve local Indigenous students. UNEA and NAN wanted to create a space where the Native community could have close discussions and address their concerns as parents, relatives and students impacted themselves.

NAN worked with their youth internship program to generate questions and concerns as Native students in the district. Both organizations met with current school board members in different districts to generate ideas on how/what school board representatives have control and power over issues impacting their students. In total, they brought together 54 individuals, including 15 youth.

The impact this project had was very powerful. High school and middle school interns were very involved the day-of and were able to help generate questions, share a meal with board candidates and share songs. The youth groups spoke highly of the opportunity to be allowed to address their needs in the school system and how they can become more involved with civic engagement. They also partnered with Washington Indian Civil Rights Commission to host a voter registration table where Native youth and families were able to learn more.