About Us
About Us
Eagles’ Wings was born out of more than 20 years of short-term outreach trips from Minnesota and Chicagoland to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Over those years, we came to recognize a difficult reality: more trips do not necessarily create lasting change.
Pine Ridge receives significant attention from short-term outreach and humanitarian teams each year, yet many of the challenges facing Lakota youth have persisted for decades. Meanwhile, local ministries can experience the unintended effects of this constant cycle of outside involvement—from volunteer fatigue and competing efforts to dependence on the financial support that visiting teams provide.
We believe there is a better way.
Rather than arriving with our own vision for Pine Ridge, Eagles’ Wings builds long-term, locally-led partnerships with people who have spent decades serving their own community. We listen first, build relationships over time, and come alongside local leaders as they pursue their vision for Lakota youth.
And in the process, we invite young people from Chicago into these relationships - not simply to come and serve for a week, but to learn what it means to listen, serve humbly, build lasting relationships, and live missionally for the long haul.
Our mission is to form missional young leaders in Chicago and mobilize them to strengthen long-term partners on Pine Ridge.
We partner with trusted faith-based schools and community churches that have spent decades serving Lakota youth and families. Rather than creating new programs of our own, we listen to these local leaders and help mobilize people and resources around the work they are already doing.
Young people are at the heart of this model. Through relationships with Pine Ridge, we challenge Chicago students to move beyond a one-week service experience and discover what long-term, humble partnership can look like.
As they grow, we equip them to become catalysts for deeper support through:
Fundraising and advocacy for locally identified needs and projects
Service and aid trips shaped by the priorities of our partners
Longer-term opportunities for students ready to invest more deeply
Ongoing relationships that keep students connected and engaged beyond a single trip
Our partners provide education, discipleship, practical care, and community to Lakota youth. Our role is not to replace that work, but to strengthen the people who have committed their lives to it—and form a generation of young leaders who will learn to do the same.
Our Model
Our Core Values:
Locally-led.
Long-lasting change in Pine Ridge will only come with passionate locals leading the way.
Partnership-oriented.
This is not just our mission - there are many we will need to partner with along the way. We are committed to a spirit of partnership to all of our current and future partners.
Gospel-centered.
All of our programs and activities are motivated by and platforms for the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.