Knowledge Warding Against Toxin Levels, Community Engagement Core

PROJECT SUMMARY – COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE The Community Engagement Core is run by the Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA), a 501 c (3) nonprofit corporation and Tribal Organization and supports Center activities via community and tribal participation and assessment, K-12 programming, and workforce development. These education, outreach, and evaluative activities ensure that our Center's work, driven by Alaska Native Tribes, has meaningful and lasting impacts. To achieve our first aim, evaluating impact, we create a Community Voices Panel to assess program effectiveness, integrate local knowledge, and develop useful education materials, fact sheets, infographics, and other culturally appropriate outreach to share data and findings. For our second aim, K-12 programming, we create uniform educational materials to be used in classrooms across the Gulf of Alaska, particularly in smaller and more remote communities, that increase education and understanding of HAB's, PSTs, and toxin risks and promote safe harvesting practices. For our third aim, workforce development, we support interest and career pathways to marine sciences by offering training and experiential learning experiences for college students and developing online schooling modules.