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ECHO Initiative
The Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO) initiative is federal legislation tied to the No Child Left Behind Act. It provides funding from the U.S. Department of Education for innovative, culturally-based educational programs, cultural exchanges and internship/apprentice programs for Native and non-Native communities through cultural institutions in Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Mississippi.
Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO)
Alaska Native Heritage Center • Bishop Museum • New Bedford Whaling Museum & Oceanarium • North Slope Borough • Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians • Peabody Essex Museum
The Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO) initiative is federal legislation tied to the No Child Left Behind Act. It provides funding from the U.S. Department of Education for innovative, culturally-based educational programs, cultural exchanges and internship/apprentice programs for Native and non-Native communities through cultural institutions in Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Mississippi. These four regions are linked by the shared experiences and traditions of Native and non-Native peoples through trade, commerce and cultural interaction.
The ECHO initiative expands partnerships and develops innovative programs between the following institutions: the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska, the North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, New Bedford Oceanarium and New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
These long-distance partnerships are models of national collaboration, linking geographically remote regions from the Pacific to the Atlantic and from the northernmost inhabited village of Barrow to the deep south of Choctaw Mississippi. The delivery of programs shared through these partnerships promote cultural exchange between schools, museums and communities and bring together tradition bearers, Elders and young people in shared learning experiences.
Significant outcomes include educational programs, public performance events, exhibits, staff training and workshops, workforce development, internship and apprentice programs, curriculum development, web-based distance learning opportunities, multimedia documentation and collections access. Program planners have successfully balanced direct human interaction with 21st- century technology.
The Alaska Native Heritage Center participates in the delivery of collaborative programs with the Peabody Essex Museum, the Bishop Museum, the New Bedford Whaling Museum & Oceanarium, the North Slope Borough and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians on the following ECHO initiatives:
1. Educational programs
2. Technology
3. Cultural exchanges
4. Collections sharing
5. Internship and apprentice programs
This is accomplished by the development and delivery of programs that increase the understanding of cultural diversity and multicultural communication, by using technology to develop and implement programs, by cultural exchanges, by developing and implementing internship and apprentice programs to train Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Americans and people in economically depressed areas of Massachusetts and by extending partnerships to other organizations in each partner’s community.
