Spokane Schools Native Education

This week we held a graduation on WSU's campus for our elementary club students who participated in at least one of the Little Birds groups we did in Collaboration with WSU Native American Health Sciences Department.

The Little Birds pathway program provided both western medicine and traditional knowledge teachings for early learning youth and elementary students. The approach helps build self-confidence and self-esteem around the health sciences and cultural identity, inspire youth to discover possible careers in the healthcare field, and begin to create trust and safety in healthcare. It provides an opportunity to build genuine safety, trust and confidence for youth through engaging in playful activities in various areas of health sciences including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, nutrition and exercise, mental health, and traditional oral knowledge.

We had over 150 people out to Celebrate these youth. It was so amazing to see the joy and excitement on these kids face, and to watch their community come around and celebrate and support them. I (Kendra) was so in the moment I didn't get any pictures but took some from what people sent me. We did have a photographer from WSU who got to take each kids photo as they graduated.

If you were there and have photos you want to share drop them in the comments.

If you are 18 years or older, please take a few minutes to complete our community survey. This is a survey required by the HCA for our CPWI grant funding. With our CPWI grant funds, we provide evidence-based and innovative substance prevention programming in West Central Spokane with youth, families, and communities! Your participation helps ensure we can continue supporting important programs in our community.

⏱ The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

📝 Take the survey here: https://hca.servicenowservices.com/assessment_take2.do?sysparm_assessable_type=04a5d9a78719b210ea8cba28cebb35d0

🎁 Bonus! After completing the survey, email [email protected] to be entered into a $50.00 gift card drawing.

📅 Gift Card Drawing Date: August 15, 2026

Thank you for helping us continue this important work and strengthen our community!

Congratulations to NC Senior Daisy Tuter for getting accepted to Carroll College and committing to their Cheer Team!

Last week we also finished off our Elementary field trips to the MAC. Representation matters and I was so happy our students got to go and learn about some Columbia Plateau Tribal Culture from an amazing tribal member working at the Museum. Shawn was truly amazing and meet all 5 of my groups where they were at. Each of the 5 field trips were slightly different. We all did, go explore the Lego exhibit after. Our kids had so much fun throughout the morning of their trips learning, sharing their own experiences and finally playing with the Legos.

Last week the Elementary Schools finished off their last field trip to Spokane Tribal Network Food Sovereignty Site. Our kids had so much fun giving back to the community after learning so much throughout the day about plants and how we can use them to help ourselves. We even went down to the river and did a therapeutic release ceremony, where we let go of something holding us back in life. Students learned a lot and had so much fun while doing it. The second trip we even took a few middle schoolers with us! A huge thank you to our amazing parent chaperones as well as Spokane Tribal Network for sharing so much knowledge and wisdom with us.

Don't forget this Saturday at Reese Court Pavillion in Cheney!

Don't forget to finish this school year's projects before we break for the summer! We've got some Medicine bags at NC and beaded keychain projects at Rogers that Students Specialist Tara can help you "wrap up" before it is full steam ahead with studying for finals.

🌱 SUMMER INTERNSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN 🌱

River City Youth’s 2026 Summer Agriculture Internship starts in July and we are officially looking for our next group of youth interns and returning Youth Intern Leads ☀️

This is more than a summer program. Youth gain hands-on experience growing food, cooking, working as a team, building leadership skills, and making a real impact in the community. Plus, interns are PAID 💚

Whether you’re joining us for the first time or returning as a Youth Lead, we’d love to have you apply!

Applications close June 7 at midnight ⏰

Come spend your summer in the garden, building community, learning new skills, and making memories with us 🌻