Alliance for a Viable Future Supports Indigenous Leadership Across the Northeast
Earth Rising is proud to have supported Alliance for a Viable Future (AVF) over the past two years. AVF works to bring together place-based leaders, changemakers, and visionaries working toward a viable future in the Berkshires and throughout the Northeast.
Since 2024, AVF has been advancing an initiative focused on Indigenous leadership, intercultural healing, and bioregional climate justice throughout the Northeast. Over the past two years, this work has evolved into a set of ongoing, Indigenous-led, community-rooted initiatives.
As part of this work, AVF expanded its Indigenous-led youth programming through a partnership with Mariandale Center, with additional support from the New York Community Trust. They facilitated three immersive retreats, two retreats for Mohican youth and one intertribal retreat connecting Mohican and Lenape youth. Two more retreats are planned for this summer. These week-long, land-based retreats were facilitated by Mohican leaders Shawn and Winona Stevens and focused on cultural reconnection and healing, youth leadership development, and strengthening intertribal relationships.
Another important aspect of this work is the creation of Red Road Reclamation, an organization founded by Shawn and Winona Stevens. This new organization represents a major success of the project, demonstrating the strengthening of Indigenous leadership capacity, the development of new programs and initiatives, and the long-term sustainability of community-based efforts.
AVF also helped launch the Mohican Homelands Powwow. This event centers Indigenous culture, ceremony, and presence in Mohican ancestral homelands, builds on years of relationship-building through AVF’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming, and creates a regional gathering space. As a result, AVF is now intentionally shifting into a supporting role, ensuring that this Indigenous-led initiative continues to grow under full community leadership.
Since 2020, AVF has organized Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming in the Berkshires. During this grant cycle, an important and promising transition occurred. AVF is stepping back from being the primary organizer to becoming an ally and supporter of these efforts. This reflects a core principle of AVF’s work: building long-term capacity for Indigenous leadership rather than creating dependency on external organizations.
In this vein, AVF also launched the Regional Allyship Circle. This initiative supports non-Indigenous allies engaged in long-term partnership with Indigenous communities and provides space for accountability, learning, and relationship-building.
These accomplishments demonstrate the impact a small grant can have when placed in the hands of organizations rooted in community. We are excited to see what AVF achieves next.
Looking ahead, AVF is focusing on three areas of long-term movement-building:
• Continuing to deepen and expand the Deep Roots Fellowship, its flagship cohort-based leadership and partnership program for changemakers across the Northeast who are committed to regenerative culture, climate resilience, and community transformation.
• Developing the Regional Allyship Circle as an ongoing space for learning, intercultural healing, and long-term partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous community leaders.
• Creating a more accessible AVF membership model designed to support changemakers with meaningful community, educational resources, emotional resilience practices, and relationship-centered infrastructure.
To stay up to date on AVF’s work, visit their website here.