AIT-SCM develops and sponsors programs and activities that are aligned with our mission. This page describes an ever-growing list of programs, activities, events, and services that we provide to our community.

Education & Research | Community Outreach | Preservation & Environmental
Legislation | AIT-SCM Institute

Educational Presentations and Cultural Workshops
AIT- SCM has conducted several cultural awareness presentations at local schools as well as colleges and universities. Trainings are conducted for local and regional school districts on culturally specific curriculum based on indigenous teachings of ancient people.

Coahuiltecan Language Program
AIT-SCM is helping the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation to revitalize their ancestral language, Coahuilteco, and are on the threshold of bringing it back from extinction.

In 1999, the Tap Pilam began to research and develop the tools to implement a formal language program. AIT-SCM is applying to various foundations to fund a five-year plan to implement this program. The program will establish periodic and eventually year-round workshops and classes on the Coahuiltecan language and eventually house all language activities in an AIT-SCM owned facility.

Matachin Encuentro
AIT-SCM, in cooperation with the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, JOVEN, Old Spanish Missions and the City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, hosts an annual Matachin Encuentro - "Tupakaltza". This is a celebration of "La Danza Matachin" which was performed at the missions by the Tap Pilam's ancestors. Such cultural workshops are an ever-growing part of AIT-SCM activities.

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Cara Y Corazon
Padres Con Cara Y Corazon is a fatherhood, family strengthening and parent education program. The program assists fathers and adult men of all ages to develop positive relationship skills with their children and their family while strengthening their ability to be an active, responsible participant in their lives. The project is a culturally rooted interactive program that attempts to build on the positive strengths of the traditional Latino family structure. It reinforces the male role as a caring, responsible, respectful partner in the healthy development of the children, family and community.

Raising Children with Pride
Raising Children with Pride is an activity based curriculum designed to provide experiential learning for fathers. This is accomplished through a series of 10 sessions that include life skills activities that focus on family strengthening and male role involvement. These activities are supported through interactive support groups that encourage one another throughout the sessions.

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Land Heritage Institute Foundation
AIT-SCM has worked since 2002, with fourteen community groups who are part of the Land Heritage Institute Foundation. The mission of the Land Heritage Institute Foundation is to acquire, maintain, preserve and develop the Medina River Property as a public open space, consistent with the Land Heritage Institute of the Americas Plan prepared by Texas A & M University, for the following charitable purposes: Archaeological, Cultural, Educational, Environmental, Historical, Recreational. AIT-SCM and Tap Pilam currently hold ceremonies and events at Applewhite, land that was donated to the Land Heritage Institute Foundation.

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Repatriation
AIT-SCM is currently working with several American Indian tribes and organizations to educate people on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a Federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony - to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Repatriation activities have included an historic repatriation in November 1999.

The remains of 200 Coahuiltecan men, women and children were returned to and secured by AIT-SCM and repatriated by the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, at Mission San Juan Capistrano Cemetery. These remains had been stolen from their graves in a 1967 excavation by the University of Texas, with permission from the Catholic Church.

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Jerry Tello, National Consultative Advisor - Chief Editor - Author
Isaac Alvarez Cardenas, M.S., Texas Regional Representative

The AIT-SCM Institute is developing an array of training and technical services that include:
-- National consultative advisors and experts in the area of Native American Indian and Latino healthy family development. This team of experts will serve as trainers and advisors in strategic planning, program development, research and evaluation.

-- A clearing-house of bilingual/bicultural appropriate materials and resources that can be made available to programs and organizations locally, statewide and nationally.
-- A comprehensive Communication Center that will develop media campaigns that promote positive male/fatherhood involvement and reduce the incidence of family violence, school failure, poor health outcomes for Native American Indian, Chicano, and Latino children and families.
-- A local San Antonio, Texas chapter of the National Compadres Network, that serves as a model to develop other "Compadres Network" chapters locally, statewide, and throughout the nation.

The AIT-SCM Institute is also available to provide strategic planning, program development and implementation, and technical assistance in a variety of areas. Training is also available on the following curriculums:

Cara Y Corazon
(Face and Heart) A bilingual, bicultural family strengthening program.

Joven Noble
(The Noble Youth) A Chicano/ Latino, character and responsibility program. The curriculum is an interactive rites of passage, mentoring program that guides youth through their preparations into the adult world.

Hombres Jovenes Con Palabra
A male responsibility pregnancy prevention program. The curriculum is an interactive educational program addressing issues of teen pregnancy, relationship violence, community violence and positive identity development based on maintaining one's PALABRA or credible word.

Raising Children With Pride
A multi-cultural curriculum for young fatherhood development.

Healing Family Violence
El Hombre Noble Buscando Balance - The Noble Man Searching for Balance
This is a Chicano/Latino intervention process based on the indigenous, culturally rooted concepts of El Hombre Noble (The Noble Man). It offers guidance and healing for men in developing and maintaining a "sacred relation" with all their relatives.

Respetar Y Leer
A program that challenges men to stand up against domestic violence and sit down to read, play and get involved in their children's education.

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Click HERE if you would like to volunteer for an AIT-SCM program or event.

Click HERE to contact us or to register for workshops, seminars, classes & other activities.