Keynotes: Stories of Collective Impact Marques Chavez

The creation of the Kwiyagat Community Academy is the cornerstone of Growing Ute Futures, but it is not the only impact of the endeavor. Growing Ute Futures is an education masterplan for the entire community as there are so many more families with students –from Kindergarten all through high school—who don’t attend KCA than do. Growing Ute Futures serves students and families of the entire community to provide more opportunities for all students of Towaoc and strengthen the futur...

Kwiyagat Community Academy officially opened in 2021 and was finally able to put into practice what had previously just been an abstract plan – a culture-based curriculum grounded in Ute traditions that also delivers a modern academic education to prepare young students for the world. When you hear the world trailblazing—that’s exactly what this approach is. But the school would only get one shot to implement this approach and prove that it would work. In part three of our four-part ser...

In the second part of our four-part series on the Growing Ute Futures initiative, we highlight the bold steps taken by Tribal leaders and their partners to upend generations of educational missed opportunities: the creation of the state’s first-ever tribal-run charter school operation on an Indian Reservation. This is the story of the creation of the Kwiyagat Community Academy.Listen: Culture and Curriculum: The Story of Growing Ute Futures Part 1Please help us continue this podcast by making...

In 2020, at the direction of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council, educators, and families, Keystone Policy Center began facilitating strategic planning to develop an innovative, culturally-based education system for students and their families on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. A central pillar of this plan was integrating Ute arts, language, and culture into all levels of education, embedded within a curriculum that focused on science, technology, engineering, (Native) arts, and math. The ...

We're thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2023 Keystone Leadership Award. Keystone Policy Center established the Keystone Leadership Awards in 1994 to recognize extraordinary leadership by individuals and organizations whose work embraces our model, spirit, and mission of creating lasting solutions through strategic collaboration. Keystone honors individuals and organizations within its areas of work as well as recognizes leaders in government and the media who create impact in the pub...

Agricultural soils are a large land-based sink for atmospheric carbon with additional potential to contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon, though questions still remain as to the magnitude and rate of this mitigation opportunity. This potential has spurred a desire to connect growers with carbon markets to realize the environmental and economic value of agricultural practices. Concurrently, the markets are facing increasing scrutiny as well, given the evolving science, the nece...