Feel Good Friday - Partnership with Native Americans

Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day, honoring the nearly 400 Navajo Marines whose unbreakable WWII code helped win the war in the Pacific, making this a great day to spotlight Partnership With Native Americans, an organization that serves Navajo Nation communities year-round.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Addison, Texas, the mission of Partnership With Native Americans (PWNA) is "serving immediate needs and supporting long-term solutions” so they can achieve their vision of “strong, self-sufficient Native American communities." PWNA is Native-led and Native-serving, with a Native-majority board and Native CEO, and it works with hundreds of reservation-based Program Partners across nine priority states in the Southwest and Northern Plains.

One of PWNA's most active efforts is the Navajo Relief Fund (NRF), which addresses food insecurity across the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the country at 27,000 square miles but served by only 13 grocery stores. Through NRF's Food Pantry Service, PWNA supplies staple foods to dozens of food bank partners, while Elder Nutrition Centers receive emergency food boxes that help Elders get through winter months when travel becomes difficult and heating costs climb. Recently, 60 Elders in the Navajo Mountain Chapter received emergency boxes filled with shelf-stable food, water, and cleaning supplies. "It's good that you are helping us," one Elder shared, noting how much the support eases the cost of groceries that require a 30- to 90-mile drive to reach.

Beyond the Navajo Relief Fund, PWNA runs the American Indian Education Fund, providing school supplies, scholarships, and literacy support to Native students, along with emergency services like home weatherization and wheelchair ramps for Elders, and disaster relief when Tribal communities are displaced. Since they began, PWNA has helped provide consistent aid to as many as 200,000 Native Americans every year.

If you'd like to support PWNA, there are many ways to do so. You can make a monetary donation, sign up to volunteer, shop for merch, and amplify their message on social media. Follow PWNA on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and help your network become NativeAware.

Happy National Navajo Code Talkers Day!

Feel Good Friday - Assistance Dogs International

We’re coming to the end of International Assistance Dog Week, which honors the dogs, trainers and puppy raisers who make daily independence possible for people with disabilities. What a perfect day to highlight an organization that’s worked in this space for 40 years, Assistance Dogs International.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Maumee, Ohio, Assistance Dogs International (ADI) started as a coalition of just seven small programs working toward a vision of “creating a world without barriers through exceptional human-dog partnerships and a supporting global network.”

ADI doesn't train or place dogs itself. Instead, it accredits more than 160 member organizations across five continents, all training guide dogs, hearing dogs and service dogs for people with a wide range of disabilities.

Members must be reassessed every five years to prove their training, breeding and placement practices stay ethical and consistent from start to finish. That rigor is what lets an ADI-accredited dog fly internationally with the right documentation, or lets a U.S. veteran's assistance dog qualify for VA benefits. ADI also publishes the Paws for Access report, which surveyed more than 1,200 handlers across 24 countries and documented ongoing access discrimination in transit, restaurants and medical settings. This year's #BetterTogether campaign has already secured commitments from major travel brands, including Qantas, easyJet and Eurostar, to welcome ADI-accredited teams on board free of charge.

ADI has had a big impact worldwide. In 2024 alone, its accredited programs placed 4,498 new assistance dogs and now support more than 28,000 active assistance dog teams, backed by over 54,000 volunteers! Demand still outpaces supply, though, with nearly 11,000 puppies and dogs currently in training and a waitlist of almost 9,000 people hoping to be matched with one.

Backing ADI's global network is easy, even if you don't have room in your home for a dog in training. You can make a donation, search for an accredited program near you if puppy raising or volunteering interests you, and amplify their message on social media. Follow ADI on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and share the stories of the assistance dog teams changing lives every day.

Happy International Assistance Dog Week!

Feel Good Friday - Game Rangers International

Today is World Ranger Day, a global tribute to the men and women who risk their lives every day protecting wildlife and wild places, which makes this the perfect moment to spotlight Game Rangers International.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, the mission of Game Rangers International (GRI) is "empowering Rangers and local communities to conserve nature." What began as a small effort to support rangers in Kafue National Park has grown into a holistic conservation model spanning three landscapes across the country.

Zambia's wildlife faces relentless pressure from poaching and human-wildlife conflict, and rangers stand on the front line to protect it, despite being chronically underfunded and under-resourced. Rangers are often asked to work long, dangerous hours with limited pay, equipment, and support, which are exactly the conditions World Ranger Day was created to spotlight. GRI starts by providing rangers with welfare, training, and operational support so that they are empowered to safeguard our natural heritage.

GRI's Elephant Orphanage Project rescues calves orphaned by poaching and conflict, then guides them through a rehabilitation journey that can take more than a decade before they're ready to rejoin a wild herd. Other programs include the Zambia Primate Project, rescuing and releasing monkeys and baboons victimized by the illegal wildlife trade, a Resource Protection Programme that trains and equips anti-poaching rangers with rapid response capabilities, and a Community Outreach Programme that has engaged more than 25,000 children in conservation education.

Since they began, GRI has helped apprehend more than 1,850 poachers and traffickers, released 19 orphaned elephants back into the wild, and released over 800 rescued primates with an exceptional 85 to 100 percent survival rate! Their goal is to empower 500 Rangers by 2030 and safeguard 5 million hectares of wild space.

GRI is also taking part in this year's Wildlife Ranger Challenge, an annual event uniting ranger teams across Africa to raise funds and recognition for their work, with donations matched dollar for dollar.

If you’re inspired to support GRI, you have many options. Adopt an orphaned elephant or primate, volunteer with their conservation programs, shop for merch, make a donation, or amplify their message on social media. Follow GRI on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Happy World Ranger Day!