The Main youth center and Cokata Wiconi teen center are looking for sponsors to support art and athletic enrichment activities for our after-school and summer programs.

CRYP works hard to introduce the youth who attend our centers to the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle. As part of these efforts, we will be offering weeklong lacrosse workshops in the upcoming months for both children and teens. In order to hold these classes, we will need to purchase lacrosse balls, sticks, padding, and goal sets.

The art program at CRYP is also looking to expand in the upcoming months. We are looking to introduce kids to many different forms of artistic expression, including graffiti art, pottery, and painting. To allow the kids to experiment with these new art forms, we will have many diverse needs including canvases, paint, paint brushes, clay, glazing supplies, pottery supplies, acrylic paint, spray paint, exterior paint, and sealant.

We are actively looking for people willing to make monetary or in-kind donations to fulfill these needs. You can donate online by clicking the link below or by mailing donations to the Cheyenne River Youth Project, P.O. Box 410, Eagle Butte, SD 57625.

Sponsor a Birthday Cake at The Main!

Few days in a child's life are as precious as his or her birthday. Unfortunately, for far too many underprivileged children, that day passes with little celebration - if any at all. CRYP wants to make sure that the young children who attend The Main youth center have the birthday festivities they deserve.

Each month, The Main hosts a birthday party for the children whose birthdays fall during that month. To offset the cost of each party, CRYP seeks monthly sponsors to contribute $40 for the birthday cake. Please consider sponsoring a birthday cake in 2014-15! Every dollar makes such a difference in the lives of Cheyenne River's children.

Meet Our

Board of Directors

VICE PRESIDENT
Jeremy Patterson

TREASURER
Guthrie Ducheneaux

DIRECTORS
Peggy Gallipo
Jeffrey Meyer
Karla Abbott
Lonnie Heier

For more info and bios, click here!

Support CRYP When You Shop Online!

What if CRYP earned a donation every time you searched the Internet? Or, what if a percentage of every online purchase you made supported our cause?

Amazon, for example, will donate 0.5% of your purchase price to CRYP when you shop at smile.amazon.com. To make shopping even easier, you can add the AmazonSmile 1 Button to your web browser.

Then there are GoodSearch and GoodShop.

GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up.

GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall that donates up to 30% of each purchase to your favorite cause. Hundreds of great stores have teamed up with GoodShop so that every time you place an order, you'll be supporting your favorite cause.

And, if you download the
"GoodSearch - Cheyenne River Youth Project - CRYP toolbar," our cause will earn money every time you shop and search online EVEN if you forget to go to the GoodShop or GoodSearch sites first! Click here to add the toolbar.

While you're online, you even can make a secure donation with your Capital One credit card. Simply click here. You even can add an easy-to-use widget for future contributions.

Needs List

CRYP relies on in-kind donations as well as funding to continue our mission. If you'd like to help, please check out our Needs List. You also may contact us at (605) 964-8200 if you'd like a copy of our most up-to-date list and price quotes for particular needs. Thank you for your support!

Our Mission

The Cheyenne River Youth Project is dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities, ensuring strong, self-sufficient families and communities.

February 2015 News

Support CRYP's Dress Drive &
Our 2015 Passion for Fashion Event

Less than four weeks remain before CRYP's annual Passion for Fashion event, where young women from across South Dakota's 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation come together to celebrate that classic American rite of passage, their high-school prom.

Through Passion for Fashion, not only will Cheyenne River teens be able to access all the prom essentials, they will engage in a life-changing experience that celebrates intergenerational exchange, bonding, self-esteem, and positive body image. This year's Passion

for Fashion event, featuring keynote speaker Kimberly Tilsen-Brave Heart, will take place on Saturday, March 14 at CRYP's Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center.

"We're really looking forward to exploring our new 'Glamour and Graffiti' theme, and unleashing the creativity of our staff members and volunteers," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "It's perfect timing, as we dedicated our Waniyetu Wowapi ("Winter Count") Art Park this past fall, and our youth have been receiving formal art instruction in creative lettering. We feel this theme is going to resonate with our young women, and it's going to be yet another way for CRYP to encourage and celebrate healthy self-expression, which is so critical to young people's self-esteem."

Please consider donating new and gently used dresses, shoes, jewelry, hair accessories, beauty supplies, gift cards, and/or funds by Thursday, March 12.

Each year, CRYP welcomes nearly 100 young women to Cokata Wiconi for Passion for Fashion, and we couldn't have a successful event without your support. Click here for more information about how you can help!

10 Cheyenne River Teens Embark on New Art Internship Program

CRYP has officially launched its inaugural art internship program, which provides 10 Cheyenne River teens with the opportunity to build their skills in a variety of artistic disciplines, including traditional art, graffiti art, and street art. This spring's art interns are John Chavez, 17, Justin Cook-Twite, 17, Jacine Carter, 16, Fentress Cromwell, 16, Tylaina Dupris, 14, Jaymalee Turning Heart, 14, Kellyn Circle Eagle, 14, Sappire Lucero, 13, Miranda Vines, 13, and Xandria Norris, 13.

"This cohort is the first of more to come, which is extremely exciting for us," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "The art internship program is now a permanent part of our offerings here. It joins three other internship programs - wellness, social enterprise, and sustainable agriculture. In many ways, they overlap; our interns all learn about critical life and job skills such as customer service, CPR, financial literacy, marketing, and much more."

Best of all, nationally acclaimed artists will be on hand to provide instruction and valuable guidance every step of the way. One of them is Tyler "Siamese" Read (see above photo), who has been involved in graffiti culture since 1992 and a Rapid City resident since 2004. He's active in the city's Art Alley and works as the arts education engagement coordinator for the Rapid City Arts Council. He develops creative programming for teens, young adults and at-risk youth, connecting them with creative projects that help them realize their talent, make a difference in their community, and become leaders. Read more here!

$15,000 in Scholarship Funds Available for CRYP Building Rentals

In rural north-central South Dakota, groups have few choices when it comes to finding the right venue for meetings, special events, workshops, seminars, and sports camps. That's why CRYP has chosen to make its Eagle Butte campus facilities available for rent.

What's more, scholarships are available to cover the cost of building rentals, which are made possible by Alexandria, Virginia-based Running Strong for American Indian Youth. These scholarships allow the grassroots youth project to accommodate groups that otherwise wouldn't have been able to conduct their classes, camps, and special events.

CRYP currently has $15,000 available to offset rental fees. It has five months to distribute these funds, and only $5,000 has been awarded to date.

"We have plenty of scholarship money available," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "We're encouraging group leaders here on Cheyenne River, and really anywhere in West River, to contact us to find out if their groups are eligible for the scholarships."

Learn more about facilities rentals here, or call the CRYP offices at (605) 964-8200.

February Partner of the Month:
The Larson Family Foundation

The Larson Family Foundation is a longtime CRYP partner. Our relationship dates to the late 1990s; the foundation assisted with the first capital campaign to build The Main youth center (1999) as well as the Cokata Wiconi teen center (2006). For 2015, the foundation has given CRYP a $20,000 grant with specific objectives that include: deliver/expand current youth programming to more than 800 young people at The Main and Cokata Wiconi, and provide ongoing Family Services to more than 400 Cheyenne River families.

On the youth programming side, Larson Family Foundation grant will allow the youth project to provide daily educational programming that includes the Literacy Program, Book Club, Homework Help, and the long-running - and wildly popular - Main University (see photo). It also will ensure daily arts programming, daily health and wellness activities aimed at reducing childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes, and monthly leadership and community service activities for young children and teenagers. Learn more about the foundation and the CRYP programming it supports here.

CRYP Hall of Fame:

Our First Art Internship Program Participants!

This month marks the kickoff of something new for us: the CRYP Hall of Fame. In this special section, we're going to highlight a current CRYP participant or alum; this is exciting, because it gives us an opportunity to introduce our young people to you, our deeply valued friends and supporters.

Rather than choosing just one person this month, however, we'd like to introduce a remarkable group of young people. They are our first-ever art interns: John Chavez, 17, Justin Cook-Twite, 17, Jacine Carter, 16, Fentress Cromwell, 16, Tylaina Dupris, 14, Jaymalee Turning Heart, 14, Kellyn Circle Eagle, 14, Sappire Lucero, 13, Miranda Vines, 13, and Xandria Norris, 13.

"We're looking for passionate young artists, so we were excited to see so many young people speak about how art helps to soothe them, gives them an outlet, helps them make better choices, and clears their minds," said Tammy Eagle Hunter, CRYP's youth programs director. "We were inspired by these young people and where they believed art could take them."

Congratulations to the teens for their appointment to this special cohort. Click here to learn more about them, and in the months to come, we will look forward to sharing their accomplishments with you.

Image courtesy of Tyler "Siamese" Read of Rapid City, one of our guest instructors in this spring's art internship program.

Thank you so much for your interest in our youth project, and for your ongoing support as we pursue our mission in the community.

To learn more about the Cheyenne River Youth Project and its programs, and for information about making donations and volunteering, call (605) 964-8200 or visit
www.lakotayouth.org. And, to stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, follow the youth project on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sincerely,

All of us at the
Cheyenne River Youth Project