Fellowship Program
In 2023, we had 6 fellows join our program to create online courses for endangered languages and learn vital skills for language revitalization efforts. Over the course of 9 weeks, the fellows meet regularly with each other and individuals with experience in the field to hone these skills while working on their community language projects. These fellows
represent the over 250 applicants that were considered for these roles. We hope in 2024 to expand the fellowship program in a variety of new ways to support this large interest and growing community. This includes plans to expand the fellowship with up to 8 new fellows in 2024 representing language communities around the world.
In the two years we have held this successful fellowship, we find there is much more that we can offer the fellows than our current program allows. If we are able to meet our funding goals, we are exploring the exciting opportunity of developing our fellowship into a 9 month program to further expand the possibilities of what we can accomplish with our fellows. Over the 9 month program, we aim to dive deeper into the knowledge and expertise of our mentors and staff to share insights and stories from the field that will benefit the fellows in their blossoming careers.
Community Partnerships
7000 Languages has had the honor of partnering with many communities in our 7 years of operation. Over this past year, we were able to visit our partners at Doyon Foundation where we supported their annual language camp activities and led workshops focusing on best practices for recording and language data analysis with teachers working in Indigenous languages of the region. Partner teachers were introduced to language learning methodologies that decenter text and typical classroom practices and incorporated non-typical learning methods in closer alignment with community needs. We are excited to continue this partnership in 2024 where we will directly support the school our partner teachers work within. Further, we are developing a dual enrollment program with Doyon to support Indigenous high school students with college credits for Indigenous language learning.
We are looking forward to continuing outreach to communities in 2024 with new partnerships planned both domestically and internationally. With our rapid growth in partnerships since our inception, we are excited to find new pathways to serve as many languages as possible. Every partnership is different, and based on the needs of every community. We are excited to continue to build these relationships and programs with your support.
Language Root
In 2024, we are excited to launch a new language learning mobile application that we are developing called Language Root. Many Indigenous communities, both in the US and abroad, have limited access to stable internet, minimizing their access to online language learning materials. Language Root will provide our communities with mobile access to language learning opportunities designed by, and for, the communities that maintain these languages available both online and offline. It is our hope to begin partnerships with communities and tribes across the world through this mobile application and expand access to language content.
As technology continues to evolve and expand, it is imperative that endangered community languages are provided the same access and opportunity afforded to larger languages. Language Root will provide that opportunity to any community that needs it. As always with our offerings, this app will be free of charge and the materials created will belong to the community members and communities that create them in respect for language as an aspect of data sovereignty for Indigenous peoples globally. For more details on how 7000 Languages supports data sovereignty, please visit our website for details on our mission and values.
None of this great work can be done in a vacuum. As we look ahead to accomplish these goals in 2024, we hope you will partner with us in this work by supporting us with your donation, continued engagement, and other opportunities.
