Ded Unskanpi Adult Basic Education Program
2023-2025
About The Program
The Ded Unskanpi Adult Basic Education Program seeks to address a critical gap in the education pathway for Native students. Adult Basic Education (ABE) is a foundational pathway, often bridging the gap between a student dropping out of high school and pursuing high school equivalency (HSE) certification. ABE supports students in developing the literacy and problem-solving skills necessary to succeed in an HSE program and continue on the pathway to college, meaningful employment, and healthy lives.
The American Indian College Fund’s Ded Unskanpi Adult Basic Education Program provides ABE support to existing College Fund HSE TCU partners. This support is tailored to each TCU, but may include ABE class and course development, professional development or training for staff, materials and resources for students, support in hosting ABE events, staff salary support, programming support, and basic student needs support such as transportation, childcare, food access, and internet access. Ded Unskanpi can be translated from Dakota to “we start here”. Its meaning highlights all pre-college pathways, particularly Adult Basic Education and literacy programming as essential first steps to students’ success in an HSE program, college, career, and life.
Program Gallery
Grantees
Oglala Lakota College
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
Salish Kootenai College
Sinte Gleska University
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Related Blogs
SIPI’s Native Harvest Feast Creates Sharing, Community Bonds
Thanksgiving is a time of sharing and community bonding. The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) Youth Development Incorporated (YDI) families engaged with one another during our Native Harvest Feast on November 24, 2014. SIPI YDI families and Wakanyeja “Sacred Little Ones”/Ke’ staff worked together to provide a Native inspired meal to share in honor of the “giving thanks” season.
Tribal Colleges Strengthen Family Engagement Through Early Childhood Education
In July 2014, The American Indian College Fund launched expanded efforts to support tribal colleges and universities in strengthening early childhood education through family engagement. The early childhood initiative, the Ké’ Family Engagement Early Childhood Initiative: Strengthening systems of shared responsibility among Native families, schools and communities seeks to deepen engagement with Native families across four tribal college communities
SIPI’s Ke’ Family Engagement Initiative Pumpkin Patch
Every year for Halloween, families and communities come together to give children an experience of laughter, festivities, and pumpkin carving! Halloween is an opportunity for our children to have fun dressing up in costumes, but more importantly celebrate the fall season!
