Savoonga’s Project Hope looks to the future
When Savoonga’s new school was completed just over ten years ago, a large building from the old facility remained standing. That was the former gym. In the building are also a shop, a snack bar and other facilities. For over ten years the building has stood empty and unused. Now an upstart group of young people want to create a new community space and center of economic activity in the building.
Project Hope For the Future was organized by Savoonga teacher David Allen Mitchell and a group of high school students along with slightly older community members. Their plan is to secure the building from owner Kukulget, Inc., the local Native corporation which bought the building from the school district for one dollar. Once Project Hope is the owners of the building they will set about renovating it and creating what they hope will be a center for young people to grow and prosper.
It was the suicide of a young student that motivated teacher David Allen Mitchell to start looking for ways to create some positive change. “We have this building over here that’s not getting any use,” he said to himself. The wheels began to turn. When one of his former students returned from a year away at college, Mitchell asked him why he wasn’t going back. “I love it here,” was the answer. So he approached some students with the question “Can’t we do something here to make this better?” The kids were adamant. “We can do something!” they replied.
“The place is run down, there’s no doubt about that,” said Mitchell, speaking over the iffy phone connection from Savoonga. “But my idea was to clean it up with the help of the community and get it up and running.” By up and running he’s thinking of a gym as well as a shop, and a snack bar. “Inside the building we can set up a beautiful carving shop. These people are some of the best carvers in the world. At least we’d have a carving shop so these guys can get their artwork done without sitting out in the freezing cold.” A sewing room would also be an asset. “There’s no reason we can’t set up a full-fledged coffee shop,” he said. He also would like to have showers, as many people in Savoonga do not have running water, and a laundry.
Project Hope incorporated and Mitchell wrote a comprehensive business plan. The board of directors is composed entirely of local people, most of them in their twenties. The movement began with a petition by Savoonga students which hundreds of them signed. President of the corporation’s board of directors is Jacob Iya.
The population of Savoonga is over 900, with 60 percent under the age of 25. Their connection to the modern, outside world is television or social media. In this past year three young people died by their own hand. This school year another took his life. “Like many villages and small towns in Alaska, our village desperately needs help with our suicidal rates among the youth,” wrote Jacob Iya. “During the summer, our youth have nothing to do before the school year starts in August. This inactivity leads to substance abuse, depression and a sense of hopelessness within the minds of our youth.”
It is hoped that with the renovated building acting as a center of activity the veil of depression will be somewhat lifted.
“It is going to take some work but it’s elbow grease,” said Mitchell. There’s no mold in the building. It will take funding. The source of that funding is yet unknown. Letters have gone out to local organizations which might be able to help, such as NSEDC. The board also sent letters to Elon Musk, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Robert Newmark, and many others.
“Repairing and renovating the old school gym could help so many here in Savoonga,” wrote the board in a letter to the Savoonga IRA. “It would give people something to be proud of while also providing much-needed services for our community. These types of projects help to give something positive and encouraging for everyone.”