MNN Extended Interview: Ashley Cornforth

Transcript

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Marie Rock: You're listening to Minnesota Native News, I'm Marie Rock. This week, we look back at Producer Dan Ninham's conversation with Ashley Cornforth, about the Coaching Academy that was held in partnership with the Notah Begay Foundation or NB3, goals of IndigeFit Kids and what are some other programs and events the campaign is focusing on this year.

Ashley Cornforth: I'm Ashley Cornforth, Secretary Treasurer for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, here to talk about IndigeFit Kids, SMSC three year, $6 million dollar philanthropic campaign to improve the physical fitness and mental wellness of Native youth in Minnesota. Which is growing the next generation of indigenous leaders, growing the next generation of healthy, fit Native youth and creating healthy Natives in general, creating healthy Native population. Our Native youth face so many health disparities right now, and so we're trying to give them more access and more resources, just with the goals of like, living healthy lives.

So working with NB3 Coaching Academy, Notah Begay III Foundation, we really created this academy to do a program in which we could empower the adults who work with our youth, and empower the adults who are who are interacting one on one, so that they can help understand some of the disparities that are existing within our Native youth and help bridge the gap between that physical fitness element and the world in which the youth kind of live in right now.

Dan Ninham: We'd like you to touch on what's happening currently, and also, what are you looking for for the future.

Ashley Cornforth: Yeah, we have a lot of different partnerships happening. We partner with kaboom, who creates play spaces throughout the United States. So we're hopeful to get started a new play space out in 2026 either in an urban Native population or within – on a tribal reservation.

Going forward, we're obviously excited to have a lot of IndigeFit Kids projects in the works. We're working with a lot of great partners. Live More Screen Less, we're trying to do a digital wellness survey and understanding to see what the impacts of screens are on our Native youth, because we think that's an area that isn't really being researched and understood right now. So we're hopeful to kind of spend some attention and light on on expanding that research, so look for more to come on that. We're hopeful to start some running clubs for native girls through our partnership with Girls on the Run Minnesota. They do a great program with youth right now, and we're hoping that we can really highlight and focus our Native youth through running. We obviously have other great partnerships. We work with the Minnesota Vikings, they're hosting the Native American all native all American football game, we're going to be a big part of that, and so we're hopeful to just keep, keep going with our partnerships, and keep going with the research work that's being done alongside of it.

Dan Ninham: Are you reaching all the reservation communities as well as the urban other than just the Twin Cities, I mean, Duluth and other areas as well? How far are you expanding your programming?

Ashley Cornforth: Yeah, definitely, we're working with all eleven tribes in Minnesota. We have great relationships with all eleven tribes in Minnesota already, just as the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and so we're always engaged and always talking with them. Specifically, we are doing a place-based research study with Kaboom. They went out to all tribal or throughout most of Minnesota to try and understand what needs are out there. And then, within the urban areas, we are working, with the population within Minneapolis, a lot of the organizations down here, and we just talked about a proposal that would hopefully be reaching Duluth. We're trying to expand our outreach, get through the entire state of Minnesota, make sure that we're touching all Native youth in Minnesota, so that there's no stone left unturned. And we're highlighting as many Native youth as possible.

If you'd like to get updates or stay up to date on all of our things that exciting things that we have happening in 2026 please go to indigefitkids.org or check us out on Instagram, IndigeFit Kids.

Marie Rock: That's all for this week's episode. Join us next time for more voices and stories that inform, uplift and shape our communities right here on Minnesota Native News.

Listen to Minnesota Native News online anytime at Minnesota-native-news-dot-org. You can also listen to us on demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PRX, and Podchaser.

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Marie Rock: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.