Native American After-School Program

Even though the school year got underway in August, there is exciting news coming out of NAAF’s After School Program. Towards the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, NAAF began having meetings with San Simon School in San Simon, AZ to discuss the feasibility of a collaboration between NAAF and San Simon to create dedicated After School Program classroom space at the school.

Over the summer, NAAF began the process of crafting an agreement with San Simon School, which is about 30 miles east of GuVo, to create dedicated program space at the school. The formal Memorandum of Agreement that NAAF and its partners have been working on has at long last received final approval, which kicks off an exciting new chapter in the program’s history.

When NAAF was originally founded in 2011, the After School Program was its first program. It was conceived in response to increasing dropout rates of high school students on the TON reservation. For the first time, this new partnership expands NAAF’s ability to effectively engage with students using the ASP curriculum by expanding the After School Program outside of the GuVo District to include those students who reside in the bordering Districts of Hikiwan (north of GuVo) and Pisinemo (east of GuVo).

It also provides all participants with expanded resources such as access to a kitchen, restroom facilities, air conditioning, cold storage, transportation, and snacks that can be accessed immediately at the conclusion of the regular school day. It also helps eliminate the time lost transporting the students. We will be sure to keep the readers updated as this space comes online in early 2024.

Of course, this was not the only exciting “first” to happen in the District as the year drew to a close. The Free as a Bird skatepark, which opened in March of 2023, held its first Skate Competition on 12/3. This was not just an event for skaters in GuVo but was open to competitors from across the Tohono O’odham Nation. As such, a big thank you to everyone who assisted in bringing the very first skate competition to the Tohono O’odham Nation, especially all the supporters, such as Tucson Skatepark Alliance, Mortal Skate Shop and their affiliates, Seven Layer Army Skateboards and Give State, as well as all the volunteers who have become just like family. We can’t wait until next year to do it again!