Proud to Be Engaged

The pride of TRLC is our community engagement of supporting and advocating for various  language communities. We have worked with the Indiana Department of Education, East Allen Community Schools, and Fort Wayne Community Schools, providing training to area teachers that work with multilingual learners. We have assisted Catholic Charities with refugee settlement, among other activities involving the support of refugee and immigrant communities and their languages here in northeast Indiana. We have also hosted language camps for the Myaamia community, conducted language and well-being studies with refugee youth from Myanmar/Burma, organized UNESCO conferences involving the local community, brought film festivals in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute to Fort Wayne, advised governments regarding their national education policies, as well as numerous other community engagement projects.

We are especially proud of our recognition by UNESCO for our UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages conference in the Evaluation of UNESCO’s action to revitalize and promote indigenous languages: within the framework of the International Year of Indigenous Language.

The recognition reads:

Good Practice: Perspectives Conference at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA 

Based on a wide consensus, the most important event held in the USA was the Perspectives conference hosted by Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, directly inspired by the year and attended by over 400 varied stakeholders from over 17 countries [. . . ] several members of the [UNESCO IYIL] Steering Committee attended (which was much appreciated). The conference was praised for facilitating a rather atypical dialogue between academics and community based indigenous language activists in an inclusive and open atmosphere. 

Without the support of our local community and the Purdue Fort Wayne community, we would not have been able to host this event. We are continuing to partner with UNESCO on the Decade of Indigenous Languages. Visit https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/sp27/ to see our 2023 University of Hawaiʻi  Press and Language Documentation and Conservation publication related to the conference.

To learn more about our current projects and programs, visit the Partners and Outreach Programs page.