Grants for teachers are helping students to achieve their best!

Running Strong Dreamstarter Grants for Teachers: Supporting the Educational Needs of  Native Students and Educators

Maya Angelou was quoted as saying “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” This sums up, in part, the combined mission of Running Strong and Dreamstarter teachers. We launched our Dreamstarter Teacher grant program in 2017 as a means…
Working together to correct environmental justice issues.

2023 DreamStarters Are Taking On Native American Environmental Justice Issues

The DreamStarter® Academy Grant Program is Running Strong’s initiative to cultivate and support the next generation of Native American leaders. Every year 10 American Indian youth are awarded a combination of financial support, hands-on mentorship, networking, and communications training. Since…

2023 Dreamstarter Cruz Collin – Sustainability, Solar Technology, and Traditional Knowledge

2023 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Cruz Collin, 19, (Oglala Sioux) of Florence, Alabama, has a dream “to help Indigenous Peoples lead the world toward a sustainable future through the implementation of our sciences and traditional knowledge.” It’s…

2023 Dreamstarter Noah Proctor – Food Sovereignty One community at a time

Running Strong for American Indian Youth® 2023 Dreamstarter Noah Proctor, 22, (Piscataway Conoy), of Clinton, Maryland, has a dream to establish a community garden to address “hunger in the tribal community while educating youth about agriculture, ecology, and nutrition, with…

2023 Dreamstarter Loren Waters – Raising Awareness of the Tar Creek Superfund Site cleanup

Running Strong for American Indian Youth® 2023 Dreamstarter Loren Waters, 27, (Cherokee Nation/Kiowa Tribe) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, dream is ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ Project (Meet Me At The Creek Project) which aims to bring awareness to the Tar Creek Superfund Site cleanup.…

Billy Mills Implores the 2023 Dreamstarters to “Follow their Dreams” at Dreamstarter Academy

Billy Mills implored them to “follow their dreams”, and by the end of the 2023 Dreamstarter Academy, they are better able to! The cohort of 2023 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarters and their mentors converged in Alexandria, Virginia…

Billy Mills Named a 2022 Team USA Community Champion in partnership with Comcast

On April 10, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) announced four athletes as the 2022 award recipients for Team USA Community Champions – which includes Running Strong for American Indian Youth® co-founder and Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills.…

For the First Time in 400 Years, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe Owns Land in Maryland

All of us at Running Strong for American Indian Youth® offer our sincere congratulations to our 2022 Dreamstarter Kyle Swann, his father and Dreamstarter mentor Piscataway Conoy Chief Jesse J. Swann, Jr., founder of Kyle’s mentor organization, Through Piscataway Eyes…
Kyle Swann,

Because of Kyle’s Dream, data will connect his tribe to the resources they need.

2022 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Kyle Swann, 23, (Piscataway Conoy), of White Plains, Maryland had a unique dream.   His Dreamstarter idea was to create a detailed survey of the 3,500 enrolled Piscataway Conoy tribal members, exploring not…

WičhičhaǧAStrong – “they all grow, they thrive, they prosper, they are the generation”

Today, we are announcing our new program, WičhičhaǧAStrong (meaning “they all grow, they thrive, they prosper, they are the generation” in Lakota), to focus on issues of women’s health on native reservations. The first step? To help overcome “Period poverty.” …

50 First Time Families and Organizations started Gardens in 2022. More to come this spring!

The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development (SBAG) program had a successful, but challenging, 2022 working to enable dozens of Oglala Lakota families on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to establish gardens as it has been doing since 1985 with support from…

6000 Smile Strong Dental Kits for Native Children

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month sponsored by the American Dental Association. The month-long national health observance brings together thousands of dedicated professionals, healthcare provides and educators to promote the benefits of good oral health to children and many…

Smart Sacks full of Food feed hundreds of children each weekend

This school year Running Strong for American Indian Youth® is working to ensure that hundreds of students at the Keshena Primary School on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, and at the Wakpala School on the Standing Rock Sioux…

Dreamstarter Incubator Microenterprise Development Program – Native Unlimited

The 𐒻𐓥𐓣𐓥𐓘𐓷𐓣͘ (Ihkihkawi) Microenterprise Development program, a Dreamstarter Incubator project, has provided micro-loans to four Native American business-owners and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma.   One was recently awarded to Jordan Garza, of Native Unlimited in Tulsa Oklahoma. Native Unlimited in Tulsa, Oklahoma was founded…

Dreamstarter Incubator Microenterprise Development Program — Dirty Laundry Saloon

The 𐒻𐓥𐓣𐓥𐓘𐓷𐓣͘ (Ihkihkawi) Microenterprise Development program, a Dreamstarter Incubator project, has provided micro-loans to four Native American business-owners and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma.   One was recently awarded to Eric Wick, of The Dirty Laundry Saloon in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The Dirty Laundry Saloon in…

Dreamstarter Incubator Microenterprise Development Program – Roots + Blooms

The 𐒻𐓥𐓣𐓥𐓘𐓷𐓣͘ (Ihkihkawi) Microenterprise Development program, a Dreamstarter Incubator project, has provided micro-loans to four Native American business-owners and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma.   One was recently awarded to Whitney Virden, of Roots + Blooms in Bartletsville, Oklahoma. Roots + Blooms in Bartletsville, Oklahoma…

Dreamstarter Incubator Microenterprise Development Program – The Summer House

The 𐒻𐓥𐓣𐓥𐓘𐓷𐓣͘ (Ihkihkawi) Microenterprise Development program, a Dreamstarter Incubator project, has provided micro-loans to four Native American business-owners and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma.   One was recently awarded to Shannon Duty, of The Summer House in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The Summer House in Pawhuska, Oklahoma…