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  • Facebook
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  • Programs
    • MN Native News
    • Native Lights
      • Biidaapi
    • Community Health Conversations
      • COVID-19
      • Helpful Links about COVID19 in Minnesota
    • DeCoded: Native Veterans Who Helped Win World War II
    • A Mile in My Moccasins
  • About Us
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    • MN Native News
    • Native Lights
      • Biidaapi
    • Community Health Conversations
      • COVID-19
      • Helpful Links about COVID19 in Minnesota
    • DeCoded: Native Veterans Who Helped Win World War II
    • A Mile in My Moccasins
  • About Us

How Visionaries Deb Foster and Mike Laverdure Create Healing Spaces

Native Lights August 5, 2021

We meet Deb Foster (Ojibwe), the Executive Director of Ain Dah Yung, and Mike Laverdure (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota), a partner with DSGW Architects.  Deb Foster and Mike Laverdure both played leading roles in the creation of Mino Oski Ain Dah Yung, a beautiful new apartment building in St. Paul, where formerly homeless Native young adults can live, reconnect to culture, and get job skills. Mino Oski Ain Dah Yung opened in November of 2019.

Reporter/Producer Laurie Stern joins Leah and Cole in-studio for this program, which originally aired in Season Two Episode Four of Native Lights podcast. https://minnesotanativenews.org/two-visionaries-one-project/

Meaning “Our Home” in Ojibwe, Ain Dah Yung Center provides a healing place within the community for American Indian youth and families to thrive in safety and wholeness. http://adycenter.org/

Check out the American Indian Science and Engineering Society here: https://www.aises.org/about/board/michael-laverdure

Mike Laverdure is Principal, Director of First American Design at DSGW: https://dsgw.com/category/projects/native-american/

This episode originally comes from Season 2 of Native Lights

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. Online at https://minnesotanativenews.org/

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More from Native Lights

  • Dr. Antony Stately: Building Health Equity in Indigenous Communities
    Today, we’re excited to welcome Dr. Antony Stately to Native Lights. Antony Stately is a transformative leader dedicated to health equity in Indigenous communities. He’s enrolled with the Oneida Nation, and he’s a descendant of both the Red Lake and White Earth nations here in Minnesota, and he has two sons. He’s currently the Executive Officer and President for the Native American Community Clinic in South Minneapolis, providing primary care, dental care and behavioral health services to the Native American community in the Twin Cities.
  • Gary Farmer: Living Life on Screen for 50 Years
    Today, we’re excited to be joined by one of the most recognizable faces in Indigenous film. Gary Farmer is from the Cayuga Nation and has a long career in movies and TV, and he’s a musician, performing with his group Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers.
  • David Amitrano: Witnessing
    Today, Leah speaks with David Amitrano, the owner of Midwest All-Star Wrestling, a Minnesota-based, Native-owned independent wrestling organization in Woodbury.
Previous Post: « Up to Bench and Back to the Land
Next Post: Masking Requirements Returning to Indian County »

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