Youth Cultural Heritage Grant Program
Overview
The Youth Cultural Heritage (YCH) Grant Program, a pilot program that has existed since 2013, is managed by the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and is funded through support from the Rasmuson Foundation. The grant supports youth-based projects that embed the arts in youth programming as a mechanism to approach and understand cultural heritage. The cultural heritage focus of the program is inclusive of all ethnic cultures in Alaska and all Alaska residents, and funding preferences are specific to cultural heritage groups and organizations that face challenges and/or barriers for receiving grants.
Scroll down to see documentation of Youth Cultural Heritage Project Grantees, and hear about their work.
Program Goals
- Strengthen Alaska youth’s cultural knowledge and self-awareness;
- Support direct, creative development opportunities for Alaska youth to engage with artists and culture bearers;
- Engage citizens around cultural heritage;
- Bridge culture and communities; and
- Create greater cross-cultural understanding and empathy.
Cohorts
Cohort 1
The 2018 cohort (Cohort 1) created the following definition of youth cultural heritage as the dynamic, ongoing, inter-generational understanding and ownership of our past and culture to ground/anchor ourselves in the present and use as a compass to create and inform the future.
Cohort 2
The 2019 cohort (Cohort 2) created the following definition of youth cultural heritage as the dynamic, ongoing, inter-generational understanding and ownership of our past and culture to ground/anchor ourselves in the present and use as a compass to create and inform the future.
Cohort 3
YCH is creating supportive spaces for youth to connect to the past and present and create an understanding of themselves through the intergenerational passing down of cultural knowledge, skills, values, and respect as a means to live and stay grounded while contributing to the multicultural society we live in.
Cohort 4
It’s a whole vibe: A youth-led process to connect youth to our ancestors, beliefs, customs, traditions, language and ways of understanding to empower youth to be strong and resilient in their identity and roots to build an interwoven community where youth can find connection and true meaning in the world.