Mission
Highland Support Project (HSP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting transformational development to meet the material, spiritual, and psychological needs of communities that have experienced high levels of historical trauma. Our approach is rooted in empowerment programming that focuses on fostering individual and community agency to create real and lasting change. We believe in the empowerment of individuals through education, community organization, and social entrepreneurship. Through our dedication and long-term accompaniment with Indigenous communities, we strive to create job opportunities and access to resources for current and future generations. Join us in our endeavor to bring about positive growth and sustainable solutions for all.
Vision
HSP’s vision is that “outsiders” will be educated and inspired to act in solidarity with first nations communities facing challenges.
Our History
The word "Highlands" is more than a topographical description. In the Americas, it has great cultural significance as the location for both ongoing Indigenous resistance; and it also signifies the largest concentrations of First Nations Peoples in the western hemisphere. Socio-economically, Highland communities generally rank lowest in quality of life indexes, life expectancy and access to basic services. They also tend to have the highest rates of political violence.
Colonial histories have led to entrenched patterns of poverty and dependency in Highland communities of the Americas. We support communities to break these vicious cycles, to achieve agency, independence and prosperity – however this may be defined by these communities. Highland Support Project was created in 1993 as a response to political violence that was creating an indigenous leadership vacuum in the Highlands of Guatemala. The subsequent dramatic loss of leaders and organizational experience was perpetuating a dependent status for Maya communities. This weakening of individual and community agency was compounded by cultural stresses as great as any since conquest.
Lasting Relationships
Since 1993, our mission and vision have evolved through a growing understanding of the interconnectedness of people, problems and solutions. Listening to our indigenous partners we have come to understand the wisdom that life is sustained through relationships, human and natural. Grassroots experience pushed us from defining the problem as a resource shortage issue to one of local inertia caused by historical, institutional and policy constraints. Therefore, to achieve our stated goal of transforming the world from a place of ill-being to one of well-being we work to create socially just and sustainable economies with accountable and inclusive systems of governance.