Concordia Language Villages
Plan and implement a five-day immersion methodology training session for 20 Dakota participants, with a follow up weekend workshop. Create a thematic based immersion curriculum, along with assessment tools, for Dakota learners that will be available in print and via an interactive web page. Implement two successful intergenerational immersion sessions for a total of 80 participants, by hiring/training leaders and staff.
Since 1961, Concordia Language Villages has been the premier language and cultural immersion program in the US, with a mission to "prepare young people for responsible citizenship in our global community." Language offerings include: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
$550,000 in 2010 and $700,000 in 2011 are appropriated to the Indian Affairs Council to issue grants for programs to preserve Dakota and Ojibwe Indian languages and to foster educational programs in Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
Adapted the Village Weekend model of CLV for the Dakota intergenerational immersion sessions by the CLV and AIS project oordinatiors in the fall of 2010.