On location at the Institute of American Indian Arts, IAIA’s Luke Reed is taped in the campus garden.

Through a generous grant from Comcast and the Comcast Foundation, First Nations will be launching two PSAs (public service announcements) later this year.  The television “commercials” will run on Comcast cable TV systems in several markets around the U.S.

In early May 2013, folks from First Nations and its production company, Red 76 Creative in Denver, Colorado, traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to do the on-location videotaping for the PSAs.  We are especially grateful to Santo Domingo Pueblo and the Institute of American Indian Arts for helping us secure various locations, along with numerous volunteer tribe members, students, staffers and officials to be our “actors.”

Some of the video footage will be used for two 30-second PSAs, and other footage will be

A scene from one of the Comcast PSAs: Shana Coriz holds seeds at Santo Domingo Pueblo.

used for a short video that First Nations will use on its website, on its social media pages, and on its YouTube channel. We don’t want to give away the “plots” of the PSAs quite yet, but one is tentatively titled “Seed” and one is called “Dream.”

We first announced the grant back in January 2013.  The Comcast Foundation provided $20,000 to fund production of the PSAs, plus $1 million worth of airtime from Comcast to broadcast them. The grant was in recognition of Comcast’s commitment to the communities where its customers and employees live and work.

Michael Roberts, president First Nations Development Institute.

At the time, Michael E. Roberts, president of First Nations, said:  “There is such an urgent need in American Indian communities for the economic development work that we do, but we can only grow our reach, capacity and successes by building more public awareness and understanding of the issues involved with Native American communities.  This grant will be a huge step toward creating that heightened awareness and understanding, plus hopefully attracting more charitable dollars for our efforts.”

Bill Black, vice president and executive director of the Comcast Foundation, said, “First Nations is universally recognized as the longtime leader in economic development in Indian Country, and Comcast is proud to be their partner in this important initiative. Comcast and the Comcast Foundation are committed to helping improve communities nationwide so that everyone, regardless of economic circumstances, has an opportunity to pursue a better life.”

By Randy Blauvelt, First Nations Senior Communications Officer