AVI's mission, “to provide education, collaboration, and outreach to tribal communities in Alaska to preserve and enhance the natural resources and traditional subsistence way of life.” has benefited and advanced significantly. Since 1968 Alaska Village Initiatives (AVI) has helped create new economic activities and opportunities in socially disadvantaged communities starting with our first project to finance a small co-op store housed in a log cabin in Manokotak, a small Yup'ik Eskimo village. Today, AVI serves the 240 remote villages of Alaska, including 45 Economic Opportunity Zones, 229 Federally Recognized Tribes, 1 Federal Indian Reserve, 34,000 K-12 socially disadvantaged students, 111,371 American Indian and Alaska Native population, and 19 USDA Tribal Conservation Districts.