Project Venture: Empowering Indigenous Youth through Strength-Based Experiential Education

Alfred D. Kahn (Osage, Diné) will share his experience growing from a middle-school-aged participant in Project Venture programs to the nonprofit organization's CEO. 

Project Venture’s mission is to support Native and Indigenous youth to develop healthy lifestyles and positive relationships with the natural world, to achieve their full potential, and to become leaders in their communities. The organization envisions a generation of healthy, capable, caring, and resilient young people who, by reclaiming their history, culture, and traditions, are making positive contributions to their peers, communities, and nations.   

Alfred is Osage, People of the Middle Water, on his mother’s side and born for Navajo Bit’ahnii clan on his father’s side. In 1997, he delivered a speech at the White House in Navajo traditional regalia as a “Coming Up Taller” award recipient. In 2000, he ran for race unity in the Spirit Run from Seattle to New York. In 2016, he published an article entitled “Encouragement, Challenges, Healing, and Progress: The Bahá’í Faith in Indigenous Communities" in the Association for Bahá’í Studies’ Journal of Bahá’í Studies.

An accomplished architect known throughout the Southwest, Alfred currently serves as CEO of Project Venture, an international Indigenous nonprofit that energizes youth to become leaders in their communities.