Social and Economic Development Strategies Grantees

Current as of: November 13, 2023

The Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program provides grant funding that promotes social and economic independence for Native communities. SEDS projects are community-driven and grow local economies; strengthen Native American families, including the preservation of Native American cultures; and decrease the high rate of challenges caused by the lack of local businesses and social and economic infrastructure in Native American communities.

Below are SEDS grant recipients by ANA region.

Alaska Region

Alaska

Recipient: Alaska Native Heritage Center

Project Title: Tin Hoozoonh Project

Project Description: The Alaska Native Heritage Center will help Alaska Native community members increase their ability to secure stable employment by providing them a strong foundation of identity and work-ready skills that will help them successfully navigate the economic landscape more effectively. Currently there are over 5,000 Alaska Native community members ages 16-25, living in Anchorage who are competing for 467 internship/apprenticeship positions. Alaska Native community members have a less than 1% chance to secure one of these opportunities. The project will address this challenge by increasing educational work opportunities by creating twenty-one new apprenticeship positions over three years; and instilling a strong sense of cultural and professional strength for the participants through 30 workshops over the three years. The project will create three cohorts of apprentices; specifically, using their ties with the Anchorage School District, along with organizational partners around the Alaska Native Non-Profit community, to recruit for the cohorts. Ultimately, the goal of the Tin Hoozoonh project is to increase opportunities in the Alaska Native community that lead to personal and professional success by fostering skill building, cultural engagement, and mentorships.

Location: Anchorage, AK
ANA T/TA Region: Alaska
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 09/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $399,914

Recipient: Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc.

Project Title: Empowering Unangax̂ Communities Through Workforce Development

Project Description: The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) will hire, train, and administer four Cultural Preservation Specialists, who will help to preserve, conserve, and protect the Unangax̂ Cultural Heritage for present and future generations. Currently, of the 13 tribal communities in the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Region, only two tribes have full-time, permanent cultural positions and only 15% of those tribes have the capacity to implement and manage essential cultural positions in their communities. These Cultural Preservation Specialists will work with Tribal communities supported by APIA, integrating practices, values, and customs of the Unangax̂ culture into everyday life of community members to create a sense of well-being and build a sense of identity. Eventually, the project will increase the APIA’s capacity to support Cultural Preservation Specialists, filled by tribal members, in their respective tribal communities thus increasing the cultural knowledge and teaching capacity in APIA tribal communities.

Location: Anchorage, AK
ANA T/TA Region: Alaska
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $346,283

Recipient: Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc.

Project Title: Alaska's People Duch'deldih

Project Description: Cook Inlet Tribal Council Inc, seeks to increase their capacity to support the success of Alaska Native/American Indian (AI/AN) jobseekers in Anchorage. The unemployment rate for the Alaska Native/American Indian population is 13.2% even though there are thousands more job openings than there are people to fill them: about two or three positions for every available worker. By creating two culturally informed Registered Apprenticeship Programs, the completion of Career Development Plans, and the Indigenous Jobseeker Toolkit, CITC will be able to increase the number of jobseekers in the area. This project will specifically target AI/AN residents of Anchorage, Alaska. Ultimately, this project aims to strengthen links between training opportunities and industry needs by designing clearly defined career pathways and facilitate access to job placement resources.

Location: Anchorage, AK
ANA T/TA Region: Alaska
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Fairbanks Native Association

Project Title: Project Forward

Project Description: Fairbanks Native Association seeks to reduce incidences of suicide and suicidal ideation among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) veterans in the Fairbanks, North Star Borough (FNSB) area of Alaska. Currently, there are approximately 11,188 veterans in the FNSB area and AI/AN veterans have disproportionately high rates of suicide. By providing treatment and supportive services to AI/AN veterans, service providers, and community members and training to staff and community members, they will gain the necessary knowledge and skills for the suicide prevention awareness program. Ultimately, this project will demonstrate improvements in behavioral health and wellness for participating AI/AN veterans, service providers, and community members.

Location: Fairbanks, AK
ANA T/TA Region: Alaska
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $352,817

Recipient: Southcentral Foundation

Project Title: Ch'aqiniya Network

Project Description: The Southcentral Foundation will develop and implement a new intensive training and statewide network with an Alaska Native cultural approach for Native Veterans in Alaska by promoting safety, resilience, and protective factors necessary to foster mental health, reduce suicide, and address trauma. Native Veterans in Alaska do not have appropriate holistic support and services to address mental health issues, complex trauma, and historical trauma that is leading to increased suicide, incarceration rates, reentry issues, homelessness, and addiction. The project will gather 10 tribal and Veteran service partners to form the Native Veteran Advisory Workgroup and Community Service Coalition to guide the development of the Ch’aqiniya training curriculum, a new culturally-based training intensive designed to increase protective factors and train peer mentors. By developing the Ch’aqiniya training curriculum, the project will have 12 Native Veterans peer-mentors by 2024 and 24 peer mentors and 8 peer leaders by 2025. The project will specifically target Native Alaska Veterans. Ultimately, the project aims for Native Veterans in Alaska to be connected to their families, communities, and culture and experience physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness with increased resiliency and protective factors.

Location: Anchorage, AK
ANA T/TA Region: Alaska
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 09/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Eastern Region

Illinois

Recipient: American Indian Center, Inc.

Project Title: Food is Medicine: Urban Native Food Sovereignty Project

Project Description: The American Indian Center (AIC) will increase access to fresh, healthy traditional Native foods and practices that honor Indigenous relationships to food. Currently, 88% of AIC community members have little to no access to fresh, healthy, traditional Indigenous foods. By creating cooking workshops and gardening workshops, as well as creating two physical gardens, they will aim to increase access to fresh, healthy Indigenous foods by 18,000 pounds and increase knowledge of Indigenous food-related practices by 30%. This project will target member in the AIC community, as well as specifically targeting youth in an after-school/summer program and elders in senior luncheons. Ultimately, the project goal is to achieve Indigenous food sovereignty in an urban setting.

Location: Chicago, IL
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $325,131

Recipient: Trickster Art Gallery, NFP

Project Title: Healing for One, Healing for All

Project Description: Trickster Art Gallery seeks to increase Native Veterans’ access and knowledge of traditional plant healing. Currently, seventy percent of Native Veterans lack the knowledge, tools, and resources to apply traditional plant healing practices in their lives and those of their families. The Healing for One, Healing for All Project will increase veterans’ access to traditional healing through experiential, intergenerational programming that fosters engagement, traditional role empowerment, knowledge sharing, and preservation for future generations. By the end of the project, Trickster will have filmed four films documenting veteran knowledge-keepers of plant medicine to be shared with the public. Through this project, Native Veterans will be able to use traditional knowledge to address trauma.

Location: Schaumburg, IL
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $355,542.00

Michigan

Recipient: Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

Project Title: Ezhi-moozhaginamawangwaa Aanikoobijijganag (The Way We Harvest for Those We are Connected To): Tradition Foods Project

Project Description: The Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will preserve their cultural knowledge by collecting information on traditional foods, traditional food recipes, and family stories around those foods to be printed into a book for its citizens. Currently, cultural knowledge is sharply declining as only 5-10% of the community can identify and harvest traditional foods. By implementing traditional food workshops that will identify and demonstrate how to prepare traditional food and collect and test recipes, the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will be able to publish a traditional foods cookbook for all of their citizens. This project aims to preserve the Tribe's traditional and cultural identity, enhance their spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical quality of life, and foster social and economic well-being while encouraging harmony among their people for present and future generations.

Location: Brutus, MI
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $105,223

Recipient: Michigan Indian Legal Services, Inc.

Project Title: Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Legal Services Project

Project Description: Michigan Indian Legal Services, Inc. (MILS) seeks to increase access to free legal services to help decrease the number of Native Americans vulnerable to becoming Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) and to support their families. Native Americans in Michigan cannot effectively navigate or resolve legal issues related to MMIP because they do not have access to free legal services that adequately meet their unique needs. Often people are forced to navigate the justice system without a lawyer, and, without a lawyer, justice is out of reach for many low-income people. MILS will provide direct legal services, create self-help and educational materials, and provide on-site community legal education events (rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords) at 20 tribal facilities and urban center locations through the state. The project will provide opportunities for Native Americans to achieve their economic and social goals by helping families left behind to navigate the legal process and assert their rights. Ultimately, the project will decrease the number of Native Americans vulnerable to becoming missing or murdered and to support family members of those missing or murdered.

Location: Traverse City, MI
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $156,127

Recipient: Wyandot of Anderdon Nation

Project Title: The Seven Generations: Wyandot of Anderdon Nation Cultural Awareness, Revitalization, and Preservation Project

Project Description: The Wyandot of Anderdon Nation will document tribal history as well as provide cultural classes to tribal citizens. Currently, the tribe can only reach 17% of their citizens to effectively educate, represent, and advocate for tribal history. At the end of the project period, the tribe will have established a sustainable Tribal Archive consisting of a minimum of 1,000 historical and genealogical records, as well as have implemented 11 educational programs which will include language, traditional crafts, tribal history, and native medicines. The goal is for all Wyandot of Anderdon Nation Tribal Citizens to embrace their history, culture, and language, and represent the Tribe and its historical interests to outside organizations.

Location: Rockwood, MI
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $330,197

Minnesota

Recipient: Indigenous Peoples Task Force

Project Title: Indigi-Baby Food Sovereignty Initiative- Building Back Better Health, Food Systems, and Economic Opportunities in Indigenous Communities

Project Description: The Indigenous Peoples Task Force will expand access to health-targeted Indigi-Baby products and other Indigenous foods while improving food security emergency preparedness and response among Native American Families. Currently, there are high diabetes, obesity, poverty, and unemployment rates, which are compounded by the impacts of crises among Native Americans living in the Twin Cities. By partnering with a food manufacturing company, manufacturing capacity will increase to a level necessary to get products into stores in the Twin Cities and Native American Reservations. The project also entails the development of a product marketing and distribution plan that will require recruitment and training of Native American young adults to fulfill the plan and advance sustainable and climate-resilient Indigenous-based agroecology food production systems. Overall, this project aims to reduce the high rates of obesity-linked diseases that disproportionately affect Native Americans living in the Twin Cities while also improving economic opportunities and reducing vulnerability to health, social, climate, and other crises.

Location: Minneapolis, MN
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Leech Lake Financial Services, Inc.

Project Title: Homeownership Choice: Wealth Creation via Homeownership

Project Description: Leech Lake Financial Services seeks to help families on the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota become homeowners. Currently, 51% of families are living in substandard conditions, and they are also missing out on the number one opportunity for wealth creation in the United States — home equity. After surveying Native American stakeholders, it was found that 68% reported not being able to participate as an owner in the housing market due to lack of knowledge and homeownership experience as a multi-generational family norm, credit/financial status, experience navigating the mortgage market, and savings for down payments. Many families and individuals on the reservation want to own their own homes but lack the financial education and resources. With their whole family approach to this project, Leech Lake Financial Services will help close the wealth gap and help families build equity through homeownership, housing development, and financial education.

Location: Cass Lake, MN
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: 386,769

Nebraska

Recipient: Omaha Tribe of Nebraska

Project Title: Omaha Nation Community Development and Investment Project

Project Description: The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska (OTON) seeks to implement a Community Development Corporation. Currently, more than 65% of OTON tribal members are unable to access tribal community services. By seeking to understand the needs and services of the tribal community and the creation of Omaha Nation Community Development and Investment, the tribe will increase access to housing programs, veterans’ services, and economic development. By the end of the project, there will be a 50% increase in access to services. The Omaha Nation Community Development and Investment Project will increase quality of life for tribal members.

Location: Macy, NE
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $258,567

New York

Recipient: Native American Community Services of Erie & Niagara Counties Inc

Project Title: Rediscovering Our Onkwehón:we Traditions (ROOTS)

Project Description: Native American Community Services of Erie & Niagara Counties (NACS) seeks to increase availability of cultural education programs and resources for the urban Haudenosaunee people. Many community members have minimal understanding of Haudenosaunee teachings and practices and the resolution to this problem is the creation of a cultural program. The project will focus on urban Native American communities within Western and Central New York. ROOTs will conduct a needs survey in the Rochester and Syracuse service areas and create a cultural resource guide that will be available for use to the community and stored digitally and in NACS' cultural library. Through this project, urban Haudenosaunee people will have access, opportunity, knowledge, and the ability to incorporate traditional concepts and teachings within their families and communities.

Location: Buffalo, NY
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $224,113

Recipient: Oneida Indian Nation

Project Title: Oneida Indian Nation Maple Syrup Production Project

Project Description: The Oneida Indian Nation will launch the development, ownership, and operation of a maple syrup production enterprise, which will provide economic and social benefit and improve revenue available to support Nation member programs and services. Currently, Oneida Indian Nation revenue streams are heavily reliant on a small number of operations such as gaming. By developing the infrastructure and operations of the maple syrup enterprise, the project will foster the development of a stable, diversified tribal economy, encouraging community partnerships, and reducing dependency on public funds and social services. This project aims to acquire, develop, and secure resources to achieve economic and social empowerment and self-sufficiency for Nation members.

Location: Oneida, NY
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $335,072

Oklahoma

Recipient: Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma

Project Title: Kay-Wah-Thin-Ne Food Sovereignty Project

Project Description: The Absentee Shawnee Tribe’s Agriculture Department is seeking to increase agricultural subsistence within their tribal community through the Kay-Wah-Thin-Ne Food Sovereignty Project. Currently, the knowledge and practice of subsistence lifeways within the tribe has declined to approximately twenty families or households practicing agricultural subsistence. By providing outreach services to tribal community members and hosting community outreach events the project will be able to educate and share tribal knowledge and practices pertaining to subsistence and agriculture to revitalize and retain those traditional practices, targeting one hundred farmers. The Absentee Shawnee Tribe (AST) will also develop a Resource Management Plan to serve as a guide for all agricultural practices and land management in compliance with Federal laws to ensure sustainability. Further, this project will supplement the tribal Food Bank as surplus becomes available from the crops that this project may yield. With the Kay-Wah-Thin-Ne Food Sovereignty Project the AST will mitigate food supply chain shortages and take a proactive approach to emergency preparedness and response to ensure food security for the tribal community.

Location: Shawnee, OK
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 -9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $103,322

South Dakota

Recipient: Native CDFI Network, Inc.

Project Title: Restoring Native Economies through Native CDFI's

Project Description: Native CDFI Network, Inc. will increase its capacity to serve as a national Native-run CDFI Intermediary that will increase access to low-cost capital and executive-level training for Native CDFIs. Currently, lending capital available to Native CDFIs comes with high-interest rates of over 3.5% and does not typically include working capital. As a CDFI Intermediary, Native CDFI Network will provide long-term patient capital to Native CDFIs in the form of working capital, project and program development, and participation loans, increasing access to low-cost capital. Native CDFI Network will also provide capacity-building supports for Native CDFIs in the form of executive-level training, increasing Native CDFI leaders' management knowledge. They will also develop a Native CDFI Handbook as part of the project. Ultimately, this project aims to ensure all Indian Country has access to financial literacy and capital through Native CDFIs.

Location: Hermosa, SD
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $248,500

Recipient: Oceti Wakan (Sacred Fireplace)

Project Title: Wolakota — Life Skills for Teens

Project Description: Oceti Wakan (Sacred Fireplace) will increase the number of high school students graduating on the Pine Ridge Reservation by three percent each year, totaling 10% by the end of the grant period. Currently, only 14% of Pine Ridge Reservation’s students graduate from high school. The project will increase the high school graduation rate to 24% by developing and implementing a new high school wellness curriculum called the Wolakota — Life Skills for Teens program that will provide health and wellness tools/skills grounded in Lakota culture. This project will create curriculum specifically for 10^th grade, 11^th grade, and 12^th grade, and will have 9^th grade curriculum ready for the 2022/2023 school year. Ultimately, the project goal is that young Lakota tribal members will successfully graduate from high school and become healthy, vibrant, and capable young adults with the life skills necessary to create a strong lifelong foundation and a healthy future.

Location: Pine Ridge, SD
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $394,854

Recipient: The Lakota Fund, Inc.

Project Title: Creating a Clear Path to Native Homeownership in South Dakota

Project Description: The Lakota Fund, Inc. will expand its capacity as a Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to transform the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition from a program of Lakota Funds to an independent, Native-Led sustainable 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides Native homeownership capacity building services to community stakeholders. The South Dakota Homeownership Coalition is the only statewide entity in South Dakota dedicated to promoting Native homeownership and, as a program of Lakota Funds, has outgrown its current structure and exceeded its ability to meet the growing capacity building needs of member organizations and other community stakeholders. By increasing the self-sufficiency ratio of the Coalition, The Lakota Fund will improve their sustainability through the ability to generate revenue by offering fee-for-service options, which will enhance its capacity to support the Native community stakeholders they seek to serve. Ultimately, the project aims to create stable and sustainable communities in South Dakota where Native people can achieve their dream of homeownership.

Location: Kyle, SD
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Texas

Recipient: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, The

Project Title: Development of Native CDFI for Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas (ACCT)

Project Description: The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas will establish a Native-owned Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) for their tribe. In the past 6 months, none of the 22 Alabama-Coushatta households that wanted secure home leasehold mortgages were assisted by the two non-Native lending institutions in the area and none of the 6 Tribal members who wanted to secure a business loan received assistance from those lenders. By meeting the 7 CDFI Certification requirements, the ACCT will work towards improving the current condition of Tribal members being turned away by traditional commercial lenders. There are no Native Tribal CDFI’s in east Texas. The project will work to serve specifically Tribal members of the ACCT who are seeking financial assistance to purchase homes and start businesses. Ultimately, the project goal is to have a thriving Tribal community and economy that improves the quality of life and financial stability for ACCT members.

Location: Livingston, TX
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $273,688

Virginia

Recipient: High Plains Indians, Inc.

Project Title: Sappony Sovereign Continuity Project

Project Description: High Plains Indians, Inc. will compile extensive documentation from historical documents and Elder knowledge that represents the full historical continuum of the Sappony's sovereign existence. Currently, the Sappony lacks federal acknowledgment and the right of the Tribe to exist as a sovereign entity in a government-to-government relationship. The Sappony are an Indian Tribe of approximately 1200 members. Most of them still reside in or around the Indian community known as High Plains, located along the North Carolina-Virginia boundary lines. By increasing opportunities for Elders and Youth to share cultural and community history and increasing research in genealogy, document preservation, and archival practices, the Sappony Tribe will ensure the restoration of ancestral ways of intergenerational knowledge and culture transfer. This increase in opportunities between Elders and Youth and the compilation of historical documents will allow the Tribe to write a proposed draft of the Documented Petition Description and Concise Written Narrative to petition the federal government for federal acknowledgment as an Indian Tribe. At length, the project aims to offer and promote educational, economic, and social opportunities for their members while maintaining and preserving their culture and history as Indian people.

Location: Virgilina, VA
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $308,138

Recipient: Mattaponi Indian Reservation

Project Title: Securing Sovereignty: The Mattaponi Federal Acknowledgment Project

Project Description: The Mattaponi Indian Reservation will enhance the Mattaponi Indian Tribe's sovereignty and self-determination by establishing a government-to-government relationship with the United States through Federal Acknowledgment. Currently, the Tribe is located on a small state reservation bordering rural King William County, Virginia, and has access only to the limited services available to state-recognized tribes, leaving the Tribe's needs largely unmet. This project pursues the completion of a draft petition that fulfills the seven mandatory criteria for Federal Acknowledgement. Ultimately, the Securing Sovereignty Project will ensure the Mattaponi Indian Tribe will be able to access and administer services and programs that enable the Tribe to ensure community well-being through public health support, housing assistance, educational opportunities, protection of natural resources, cultural preservation, and economic development.

Location: West Point, VA
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $388,752

Recipient: Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe

Project Title: Sovereign Promise: Realizing the Upper Mattaponi Future

Project Description: The Upper Mattaponi, which received federal recognition in 2018, seeks to increase capacity to pursue sustainable community and economic development be establishing a Tribal Master Plan. Currently, the level of administrative capability and program planning required to navigate the opportunities associated with federal acknowledgment is significant and exceeds the tribe’s current capacity to pursue sustainable and effective community and economic development. The Sovereign Promise project will lead to the implementation of tribal programs that ensure the tribal community’s sustainable progress in the areas of governance and administration, community health and development, environmental and cultural restoration, and economic development. Ultimately, by the end of the project, the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe will better be able to serve its citizens and exercise their rights as a sovereign nation.

Location: King William, VA
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $360,531

Wisconsin

Recipient: Forest County Potawatomi Community

Project Title: Moving Towards Health

Project Description: Through the Moving Towards Health project, the Forest County Potawatomi Community (FCPC) seeks to increase community access to programming that promotes healthy lifestyles, which will increase Tribal membership participation in health and fitness activities, and ultimately reduce health disparities in their community. Tribal members currently exhibit health indicators significantly below state and national averages, and these disparities are compounded by limited availability of programming that promotes healthy lifestyles. By the end the project, new Community Center programming will increase the number of tribal members who actively participate in health and fitness activities from 62 to 248. By developing 60 new programs and hiring and training at least six new staff, FCPC seeks to positively impact the health and well-being of their community.

Location: Crandon, WI
ANA T/TA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $396,926

Recipient: Oneida Nation

Project Title: Strengthening Oneida Families Using Traditional Oneida Knowledge Systems

Project Description: Oneida Nation will increase the overall wellness of the Oneida community through cultural advocacy, increased access to cultural materials and resources, and increased opportunities for engagement in cultural learning activities. According to the Oneida Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), Oneida people face critical struggles with substance abuse, suicide, and other social issues at higher rates than national and statewide statistics, which brings about a gamut of emotional and spiritual trauma. Many Oneida people lack a strong foundation in their identity due to the loss of their culture, which contributes to their weakened abilities to address the social issues that affect their lives. This project will increase access to cultural resources and materials by providing Tribal-wide lunchtime culture classes, monthly ceremonial-based cultural activities, summer programming, and workshops in addition to semi-annual and annual gatherings. By increasing opportunities for engaging in Oneida cultural activities, this project aims to increase overall wellness and reduce the occurrence of substance abuse, suicide, and the social issues affecting their community.

Location: Green Bay, WI
ANA Region: Eastern
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $355,072

Pacific Region

American Samoa

Recipient: American Samoa Community College

Project Title: Emergency Management Program and Leadership Opportunities for Youth (EMPLOY)

Project Description: The University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) under the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) proposes to increase the number of trained emergency managers to respond to disasters in American Samoa. Currently, 5% of emergency managers and coordinating officers are skilled in appropriately planning and responding to the needs of the aging and disability community in American Samoa. Project E.M.P.L.O.Y. (Emergency Management Program & Leadership Opportunities for Youth) will develop and offer a career pathway multi-sector and interdisciplinary program at the local college and 15 trainees will increase their capacity to respond as an Emergency Manager and Disability Integration Advisor (DIA) by 80%. The cadre of Disability Integration within Emergency Management would fill the void of the American Samoa government in the Emergency Operation Center across all emergency and recovery support functions. In doing so, this will create a resilient community with increased support for people with disabilities before, during, and after a disaster.

Location: Pago Pago, AS
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: The Christopher James Foeoletini Ledoux Foundation

Project Title: The Pacific Innovation and Tech Academy (PITA) Project

Project Description: The Christopher James Foeoletini Ledoux Foundation’s (The Foeoletini Foundation) Pacific Innovation and Tech Academy (PITA) seeks to enable individuals to receive adequate training and resources to help family members and victims of Substance Use Disorder (SUD). American Samoa is experiencing a methamphetamine epidemic that has taken over the community and youth, causing a decline in work ethic, users conducting criminal behaviors in the workplace, and absenteeism due to addiction and arrest. Through group service projects, individual tech projects, annual youth tech forums, focus groups, and the development of the PITA, low-income underserved communities in American Samoa will develop the essential skills and resources in innovation and technology to combat the trickling effects of illegal methamphetamine use and assist families of drug and alcohol abuse victims. Ultimately, the project will make American Samoa a drug free, resilient territory against substance abuse.

Location: Pago Pago, AS
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $223,365

Guam

Recipient: University of Guam

Project Title: CHamoru Language and Culture Researcher Training Program

Project Description: The University of Guam seeks to create a workforce of trained culture and language researchers proficient in collecting, analyzing, and piecing together the scattered pieces of CHamoru knowledge. The CHamoru culture, language and knowledge-based systems have been documented piecemeal for over six generations, resulting in scattered information related to the cultural meaning and practices that are quickly running the risk of being lost. This project addresses economic development through workforce development; the project objective and activities contribute to job creation by training people in community-identified needed skills, thus filling in gaps in the labor force related to CHamoru culture learning resource development. The project also addresses social development through activities that enhance the participants’ personal knowledge about CHamoru culture, language, and traditional knowledge. By the end of the project, 7 participants will be trained to collect, analyze, and document CHamoru cultural knowledge in a training program at the University of Guam. This project combines both workforce training and cultural knowledge development to help preserve CHamoru cultural heritage.

Location: Mangilao, Guam
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $303,458

Hawaii

Recipient: Aha Kane- Foundation for the Advancement of Native Hawaiian Males

Project Title: Project Iwi Kuamoo: Capacity Building for the Lahui (Hawaiian Nation, People) in the Fundamental Responsibility to Care for the Bones of the Ancestors

Project Description: Aha Kane will improve the care and protection of ancestral Hawaiian bones and burial sites through training in traditional and contemporary repatriation and reburial practices. Native Hawaiian Ancestral bones languish in museums and are being desecrated to make way for development. By providing training to three hundred Native Hawaiians from six islands in the ceremonial protocol, reburial materials, reburial platforms, repatriation advocacy, and burial sites management, Native Hawaiians will improve their ability to responsibly care for and protect ancestral Hawaiian bones. Ultimately, the project aims to create an enlightened Lahui Hawai'i (Hawaiian Nation, People) immersed and engaged in its cultural values, beliefs, practices, and responsibilities.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $394,815

Recipient: Awaiaulu, Inc.

Project Title: Na Hunahuna ’Ike Project (Fragments of Knowledge): Addressing Knowledge Gaps in 'ike mo'olelo (Hawaiian historical knowledge) to Unlock Identity Gaps in Native Hawaiians of Today

Project Description: Awaiaulu, Inc. will increase the number of qualified Hawaiian Knowledge Keepers/Historians capable of unlocking significant knowledge in Hawaiian language repositories. Cultural indoctrination and assimilation have effectively erased significant aspects of Native Hawaiian self-identity. One and a half centuries of valuable historical information, cultural knowledge, reflections on societal change, and human perspective are contained in the Hawaiian language repository but have been largely inaccessible for well over a century and still is beyond the reach of most people today. To implement this project, two out of the five available expert Hawaiian historical scholars will train 12 hand-selected Historian Trainees from different professional sectors. These 12 Trainees will directly apply their skills gained in this training to their professions, practices, and communities. In addition, over 150 community educators from 68 community groups and educational institutions on 6 Hawaiian Islands will participate in a Professional Development workshop. This project aims to achieve an enlightened Lahui Hawai'i (Hawaiian nation, race, people) immersed in the knowledge of cultural values, beliefs, practices, and responsibilities and well-versed in their traditions and history.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $372,347

Recipient: BeHawaii.org

Project Title: Na Lei Poinaole Coalition Project (Na Lei Poinaole means the Lei never be forgotten)

Project Description: BeHawaii Organization will create the Na Lei Poinaole Coalition Project to revitalize and support the Hawaii Lei Industry. Currently, the Hawaii Lei Industry is in a period of rapid decline due to a scarcity of many prized, endangered, and revered flowers resulting in an unprecedented reduction of flowers and related revenue. By 1) providing resource materials and instruction with enhanced guides on starting and financing Lei flower growing operations and 2) providing information on how to share resources and market products collectively, the Na Lei Poinaole Coalition Project will help 8 existing and 16 prospective Hawaiian cultural Lei flower growers build their businesses during a 36-month period. Through this coalition, Lei flower growers, distributors, and stand owners will benefit and ultimately, help revive and sustain the Hawaii Lei Industry and help thousands of Hawaii residents that have emotional, historical, ceremonial, and/or ancestral connections to Lei flowers.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Changemakers Community Economic Development Corporation

Project Title: Raising Change Project

Project Description: The Changemakers Community Economic Development Corporation will foster the development of stable, diversified local economies by establishing a Native Community Development Financial Institution (Native CDFFI) focused on developing a Community Facility Fund and Development Assistance as well as increasing the capacity of Native Hawaiians to become fund development professionals. With the onslaught of COVID-19 and the cultural and political protests over the natural environment in Hawaii, the local Hawaiian economy has suffered. By creating a Native CDFI and enabling at least 15 Native Hawaiians to receive a certificate in professional fundraising, there will be an increase in capital available to Native Hawaiian CDFI and nonprofits. It will also serve to increase access to financial tools for Native Hawaiian individuals, families, and communities to utilize in their financial health, business development, and growth and community facilities. This project will specifically target 15 Native Hawaiian individuals to gain certification in professional fundraising, as well as increasing funding diversity by 50% of at least two other Native Hawaiian CDFIs and/or nonprofit organizations. Ultimately, the project goal is to shift mindsets and forward plans for a stronger and more sustainable Hawaiʻi founded on ʻāina aloha—a deep and abiding love for Hawaiʻian communities and natural environments.

Location: Hilo, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $286,046

Recipient: Consortium for Hawai'i Ecological Engineering Education

Project Title: Mahope — Ku ’A’ali’i

Project Description: The Consortium for Hawai'i Ecological Engineering Education will inspire students from Native Hawaiian communities to achieve socio-economic success by building resilience through culture-based, trauma-informed education and the experience of Hawaiian cultural values and practices with hands-on learning. The communities on the Leeward Coast of O'ahu and Ka'u on the Island of Hawai'i are the most remote and under-resourced populations of Native Hawaiians, lacking access to high-quality, after-school programming and STEM educational opportunities due to legacies of generational poverty and socio-economic inequities. This project will create and deliver an integrated Native Hawaiian trauma-informed care training program to Native Hawaiian-serving faculty and peer mentors and provide in-school resource support for science and math teachers mentoring at-risk youth. Ultimately, this project aims to close the significant math and science achievement gap that impedes Native Hawaiian youth from success in school and life.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $368,948

Recipient: Five Mountains Hawai'i, Inc.

Project Title: Ulu Laukahi Project (ULP): Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Addressing Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes, Anxiety, and Depression in Native Hawaiians on the Island of Hawai'i

Project Description: Five Mountains Hawai'i, Inc. will increase access to holistic, managed care and support to improve Native Hawaiian physical and mental health, including the chronic disease conditions of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, and depression. Currently, the Western silo approach to medical treatment separates the various chronic conditions of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and mental health, treating them in isolation rather than holistically, which ignores the interconnection between these chronic disease conditions and the need to treat these conditions comprehensively. By implementing a culturally informed prevention and intervention program that provides comprehensive support, each patient's medical and behavioral health needs will be addressed. This project aims to ensure Native Hawaiians live long, healthy lives and have a strong sense of well-being.

Location: Kamuela, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $399,696

Recipient: Hawaii Community Lending

Project Title: Native Hawaiian Owner-Builder Program

Project Description: Hawaii Community Lending will establish and maintain a comprehensive program, the Native Hawaiian Owner-Builder Program, to assist the 58 Naiwa lessees to build and own homes on Hawaiian Homelands. The current lessees have not been able to build or own their homes due to a lack of infrastructure, financing, and technical support. Establishing the program to consist of affordable homeownership trainings and workshops will allow them to become better prepared for building and owning their own homes. The project will specifically target 58 Naiwa lessees, increase in economic self-sufficiency of Native Hawaiians, and establish a Community Development Financial Institution. Ultimately, Hawaii Community Lending envisions that Native Hawaiians will own homes to reconnect to aina (land) for spirituality, food security, economic self-sufficiency, and the healing of generational trauma from the systematic separation of their people from their ancestral lands.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $382,421

Recipient: Hi’ipaka, LLC

Project Title: Kukulu I Ka Waiwai (Building Businesses)

Project Description: Hiipaka LLC seeks to establish a business incubator to increase the number of successful Hawaiian-owned businesses to combat the current community condition of being at the bottom of the economic ladder. Only 58% of Native Hawaiian families with children earn a livable wage. The project will serve 15 participants each year and offer 10 workshops on various business topics and three 1-to-1 technical assistance sessions with each participant. They will provide networking event each quarter and invite highly successful Native Hawaiian business owner to share their strategies and suggestions. Successful business practices will be correlated with Hawaiian cultural values, an essential component in making Native Hawaiians feel that earning money is compatible with their culture. In total, 45 Native Hawaiian veterans, artisans, small business owners, and microbusiness owners will have opportunities to increase their cultural knowledge and business revenue. Ultimately, Hiipaka LLC strives to cultivate economic development for the Native Hawaiian community by (1) increasing the number of successful Native Hawaiian-owned businesses; (2) establishing new markets for Native Hawaiian products; and (3) establishing an indigenous economic system consistent with Native Hawaiian knowledge, culture, values, and practices.

Location: Haleiwa, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $241,338

Recipient: Hi'ohia

Project Title: Kūkū Kapa Ē: Building Traditional Hawaiian Kapa Makers

Project Description: Hiʻohia will increase the number of Hawaiian Kapa Makers, culture bearers who specialize in the art of creating fabric out of Wauke (Paper Mulberry) bark, who participate in the arenas of design, education, and agriculture to both perpetuate culture as well as to support their financial well-being. Currently, because of the high cost of living in Hawaiʻi, only three kapa makers in the state can generate 100% their income from their kapa practice. By the end of the 36th month, 75 businesses of Native Hawaiian Kapa makers will substantially increase sales. Ultimately, the project aims to ensure that all Hawaiian cultural practitioners can live their practice and pass on knowledge to the next generation because they are financially sustained through their practice.

Location: Waianae, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $399,914

Recipient: Hui Mauli Ola

Project Title: Na Laau o Kukuihaa

Project Description: In partnership with Na Laau o Kukuihaa, Hui Mauli Ola will establish a Hawaiian Healing Academy to increase the number of practitioners and instructors prepared to serve their community so that Native Hawaiians have access to traditional Hawaiian healing practices. Western culture still dominates the lives their Hawaiian community today, resulting in the slow but sure extinction of the Hawaiian culture and its practitioners. The impacts of COVID19 created a significant rise in interest among our Native Hawaiian community to return traditional Hawaiian healing back to our own homes. By providing extensive training sessions in Traditional Hawaiian Healing, 50 Native Hawaiian beginners and 12 Apprentices will have increased their proficiency in foundational and advanced training in Traditional Hawaiian Healing, respectively. The project will target populations on the islands of Kaua’I, O’ahu, Hawai’I, Maui, Mokola’i, and Lana’i. Ultimately, Hui Mauli Ola strives to establish a healer in every home.

Location: Waipahu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $393,871

Recipient: Kaala Farm, Inc.

Project Title: Pua Kaiaulu

Project Description: Kaala Farm will increase the voice of the youth in policy and community decisions that impact the Waianae Coast through place-based learning internships through Pua Kaiaulu. Youth were involved in the development of the project. The youth on the Waianae Coast want to have a voice on what happens in their communities but are unsure of how to get their voices heard. Providing youth with summer internships, mentorship in the application of ancestral wisdom to contemporary community challenges, advocacy, community engagement, and service will allow them to develop skills in understanding policy and the decision-making processes. Though the project will specifically target 105 youth ages 15 - 21, it will lead towards an increase in community sovereignty that older community members have been working towards. Ultimately, Kaala Farm envisions the Waianae Coast as a 1) kipuka where their ancestral knowledge can live through youth, 2) place where their ahupuaa and watersheds are healthy, thriving, and maintained, and 3) place where their Hawaiian traditions can perpetuate and uplift their people and communities upon the completion of the project.

Location: Waianae, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $386,158

Recipient: Kahuli Leo Le’a

Project Title: Kani Kuaola: Amplifying Livelihoods in Mele

Project Description: Kahuli Leo Le’a will implement an innovative training and music production program that improves marketing and earnings among Mele Practitioners. Mele is song and poetry, woven through the ancient epistemology of Native Hawaiians and with the contemporary material of lived experiences. Currently, Mele practitioners are not realizing their fullest earning potential in the music industry and are not earning enough to sustain themselves financially. This project will focus on training the Mele practitioners to access and manage royalty revenue streams and take ownership of their music on digital platforms while providing opportunities for Mele practitioners to record new Mele in genres beyond traditional Hawaiian music. These Mele practitioners are critical to the survival of the Hawaiian culture and maintaining Mele as one of the preeminent art forms and knowledge practices of the Hawaiian people. Ultimately this project aims to ensure Mele practitioners earn living wages through their art.

Location: Kaneohe, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy

Project Title: Hoa Mau: A Community Leadership Project

Project Description: Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy (KVA) will increase community engagement and volunteerism in the Ko’olau regions through Hoa Mau: A Community Leadership Project. Society has transitioned from being community-focused to being individual-focused resulting in the loss of community leaders and volunteers who are essential to address broader community issues and needs. A survey found a decline in volunteerism because of the pandemic. KVA can offer a culturally founded leadership program to community members that will increase participants’ engagement in their communities. By successfully completing the Hoa Mau community leadership training, 12 mākua (adult/ ages 18 and older) community members will increase their ability to participate and engage as community leaders and volunteers during this 36-month project. Hoa Mau project staff and partners will work together to provide authentic leadership experiences through voyage training and through community volunteering. Voyaging naturally engenders individuals to operate as part of a crew, a community, on the canoe. The project will be one step towards the long-term community goal to create a Ko’olau community sustained through balanced practices of economic prosperity, social and community well-being, and environmental stewardship.

Location: Kaneohe, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $375,049

Recipient: Kanu o Ka Aina Learning Ohana

Project Title: Hehina i ka Alahula o N Kupuna--Treading the Frequented Path of Kupuna

Project Description: Kanu o ka 'Aina Learning 'Ohana (KALO) will reduce escalation of social-emotional issues within our (Hawaiian charter) school communities. Currently, Native Hawaiian Charter Schools are seeing an ongoing social-emotional crisis among teachers and students due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other world-wide uncertainties. The 2020 Panorama Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Survey revealed that while 30% of districts have taken this survey as a means of addressing SEL gaps, 70% remain disengaged. The project will train school administrators, teachers, and staff to implement processes and procedures to effectively mitigate social-emotional events. It will also help schools update emergency preparedness plans to include suicide identification and prevention. The project serves the Hawaiian-Focused Charter School Community including 17 communities on four islands, their teachers, and their families to have thriving, emotionally supported teachers and students seamlessly adapting to changes in their world, strengthened by Native Hawaiian value systems.

Location: Kamuela, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $337,442

Recipient: Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike Building Program

Project Title: Project I Kū Nā Loea, or Readying the Masters

Project Description: Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike Building Program will increase the employability among Native Hawaiian youth through vocational career pathways, such as carpentry, construction, and culinary food services, to increase household income. Currently, the Native Hawaiian youth living in Hana are faced with low median household incomes that prevent them from achieving economic well-being. Providing training opportunities to Hana youth will permit them to increase their job readiness in their chosen vocational pathway. Though the project will specifically target high school students and vocational educators of Hana High and Elementary School, the entire Hana community will benefit. Ultimately, the project aims to achieve economic well-being among Native Hawaiians in Hana.

Location: Hana, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $399,919

Recipient: Mana Maoli

Project Title: Mana Kanipila

Project Description: Mana Maoli will increase the learning and perpetuation of Native Hawaiian music, knowledge, and culture available to all Native Hawaiians in the places where they reside. Currently, Native Hawaiians are underrepresented in the creative industries, such as Hawaiian dance and music performers, a missed opportunity for socioeconomic advancement. By establishing an innovative culturally grounded Kanipila (“to play instruments”) approach to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian music, knowledge, and culture connecting Native Hawaiian muʻo (youth and alumni/young adults, ages 5-25) with Native Hawaiian creative industry professionals in kanipila mentorship learning experiences. Ultimately, the project will increase the learning and perpetuation of Native Hawaiian music, knowledge, and culture available to all Native Hawaiians in the places where they reside.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $399,419

Recipient: Native Nations Education Foundation

Project Title: Panee Mua — Meheu Akaka Project (PM-MAP): Education and Career Readiness Success For Native Hawaiian Adults of East Hawaii Island

Project Description: The Native Nations Education Foundation will improve education and career readiness success rates among at-risk Hawaiian adults in their East Hawai'i Island community. Native Hawaiians of East Hawai'i Island currently experience significantly less success in college and career than the general state population and less than Native Hawaiians overall statewide. By developing, testing, and delivering a culture-based High School equivalency course, culture-based soft skills and career readiness training curriculum, and a post-high school education/training transition and support system, East Hawai'i Natives will improve their education and career readiness. Ultimately, this project aims to ensure Native Hawaiians are successful in college, career, and leadership pursuits.

Location: Hilo, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $396,091

Recipient: Pai Foundation

Project Title: Project Hana Noeau

Project Description: The Pai Foundation seeks to increase the capacity of Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners to be successful in business through Project Hana Noeau. Professional Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners are currently successful in perpetuating their respective arts and cultural practices. However, they are not as successful in business which has resulted in them living paycheck to paycheck or not being able to sustain themselves and their families. By implementing the Native Artists Professional Development Training and providing instruction in best business practices, 24 Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners will increase their capacity to understand and implement best business practices that support their art or practice. Pai Foundation envisions an enlightened Hawaiian Community immersed and engaged in its cultural values, beliefs, practices, and responsibilities because of the implementation of this project.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $335,841

Recipient: Papahana Kuaola

Project Title: Pili Ka Moo

Project Description: Through Pili Ka Moo, Papahana Kuaola will support Hawaiian knowledge and learning opportunities for the practice of a healthy Hawaiian lifestyle. Currently, the community is challenged by limited traditional knowledge and opportunities, time, economic hardship, and social expectations. By developing and implementing 1) four learning modules that strengthen the knowledge and skills in a healthy Hawaiian lifestyle and 2) learning tools and mechanisms to support these lifestyle practices, Hawaiian families will have opportunities to engage in traditional healing arts and practices, strengthen familial connections, and participate in malama aina (care for natural resources). Thirty Hawaiian families will increase their capacity to sustain a healthy Hawaiian lifestyle. The project ultimately aims to embrace Hawaiian knowledge and cultural practices through the actualization and perpetuation of a lifestyle that is respectful of akua (spiritual connection), aina (land), and kanaka (mankind).

Location: Kaneohe, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $319,209

Recipient: Partners in Development Foundation

Project Title: Mākaukau Ka Paʻalana

Project Description: The Partners in Development Foundation will respond to the challenges of severe weather, food insecurity, and poor school readiness by implementing a new Emergency Preparedness component and a new Natural Farming component into their Family Education program which prepares children for academic success and caregivers to be nurturing leaders of their families. Currently, Pu’uhonua O Wai’anae and Kealahou West O’ahu, key stakeholders for the homeless community in Hawai’i have seen first-hand the devastating impacts of severe weather caused by global warming, food insecurity, and poor school readiness upon the homeless families they represent and serve. During the three-year project, 180 Native Hawaiian caregivers will complete an Emergency Preparedness course to increase their knowledge of how to prepare their family for an emergency, and possess a family emergency preparedness kit. A Natural Farming project will increase their knowledge of how to grow their own fresh local produce and participants will possess a Natural Farming starter kit. 180 Native Hawaiian children birth to five that participate in the program will increase their development from baseline to post-test for school readiness. Project participants are homeless and at-risk families with children from the East Hawaiʻi Island community of Keaukaha, and from Mālama Mobile Outreach sites on the Leeward Coast of O’ahu. The Mākaukau Ka Paʻalana project seeks to build foundations for family thriving by building three essential foundations for family thriving: emergency preparedness, food security, and school readiness.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Hawaii
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 09/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $171,215

Recipient: Pu'a Foundation

Project Title: Training and Employment of Native Hawaiians as Certified Peer Specialists to work with Native Hawaiians in the Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems

Project Description: Pu'a Foundation will improve supports for Native Hawaiians to stay out of the child welfare and criminal justice systems by employing Native Hawaiians with lived experience in the community as Hawai'i Certified Peer Specialists (HCPS). Currently, Native Hawaiians make up 45% of children separate from their parents, 44% of women, and 39% of youth incarcerated, yet Native Hawaiians are only 20% of the state population. To implement this project, Pu'a Foundation will train Native Hawaiian's with lived experience, the Pu'a Foundation's unique Hawaiian culture and values-based curriculum as peer specialists and then place them into internships. Following the internship, candidates will obtain their credentials as a HCPS from the Hawai'i Department of Health and work as Peer Specialists supporting Native Hawaiian individuals and families seeking positive resolution with child reunification and community re-entry. This project aims to break the multi-generational cycle of Native Hawaiian entering the foster care and prison systems.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $133,096

Recipient: Purple Maia Foundation

Project Title: FoundHer

Project Description: Purple Mai’a will help Native Hawaiian women-owned businesses build the capacity required to create new jobs by offering culturally relevant, gender specific business development programming through the FoundHer project. Currently, the tourism sector employs 36.4% of Native Hawaiians in Hawai’i, limiting earning potential and keeping people from working for their own communities. By providing support to women entrepreneurs to scale their early-stage businesses, with a focus on businesses owned by Native Hawaiian women, 49 new jobs will be created and filled. With this increase in women owned businesses, Purple Mai’a seeks to decrease the dependence on the tourism industry and empower Native Hawaiian women. The project will specifically target 28 early-stage businesses across the islands of Hawai’i. Ultimately, Purple Mai’a envisions Hawai’i as a thriving, diversified economy led by culturally grounded, community-serving technology makers and problem solvers upon successful completion of the project.

Location: Honolulu, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $267,737

Recipient: Sust’ainable Molokai

Project Title: Mahiai Moa Project

Project Description: Sustainable Molokai will increase their community’s access to fresh, nutritious food and their resiliency by training their island’s residents to increase food production through the Mahiai Moa Project. This will be achieved through poultry farming trainings, feed workshops, and a local community slaughterhouse establishment. Their approximately 7,500 resident community, of which about 60% are Native Hawaiians, currently and primarily accesses their food through their island’s grocery store where 90% of the food is imported. Training their residents in poultry production and business development will result in their community’s ability to produce their own food, thereby increasing their community’s access to fresh food. At least 33 of the 45 Molokai residents that participate are expected to make significant contributions to increasing their island’s food sovereignty. Ultimately, Sustainable Molokai envisions their island to be food secure.

Location: Kaunakakai, HI
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $389,570

Recipient: Waianae Economic Development Council

Project Title: Ho'omohala- CDFI Support of Native Hawaiian Self-Sufficiency

Project Description: Waianae Economic Development Council will develop their emerging Native CDFI to foster the development of stable, diversified local economies and economic activities that provide jobs and business opportunities to improve the economic wellbeing and self-sufficiency in the Native Hawaiian community of Waianae. Currently, the employment rate for Native Hawaiian adults on the Waianae Coast is the lowest in the state at 84%, relative to Native Hawaiians statewide at 93%. This project will support 150 Native Hawaiian applicants in improving their current credit score and provide culturally relevant small business development training. Upon certification as a CDFI, Waianae Economic Development Council will be able to access more funds to redistribute to qualified participants from the training. Ultimately this project aims to bring the Median Household Income of Native Hawaiians living on the Waianae Coast to a comparable level of the Median Household Income for the entire state of Hawai'i by the year 2050.

Location: Waianae, HI
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $368,350

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Recipient: Friends of the Marianas Trench Monument

Project Title: Solving for X: Reinventing Ocean Stewardship Leadership Pathways

Project Description: Friends of the Mariana Trench Monument (FOMT) will create pathways to increase community interest in natural resource management policy and careers. The community has identified the need for culturally competent natural resource management leadership, yet Indigenous people make up less than 2% the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) natural resource managers. The project seeks to promote positive and permanent changes in the Indigenous community as traditional ocean conservation practices become relevant to concrete career pathways. As Indigenous peoples populate the CNMI’s natural resource management leadership, ocean and marine resource policy will increasingly incorporate traditional knowledge for the betterment of CNMI natural resource and marine management. The FOMT have a vision to see the Chamorro and Carolinan communities thriving with the benefits of a healthy ocean through multi-generation ocean stewardship.

Location: Saipan, MP
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $378,718

Recipient: Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations, Inc.

Project Title: Giving Voice to Our Native Nonprofits

Project Description: The Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations (MANGO) will build the capacity of nonprofit organizations that serve Native communities so that they can effectively participate in long-term public and private evaluation, planning, and development efforts to maximize delivery of crucial and sustainable services to the Native communities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Most CNMI nonprofits lack capacity to participate in or assist high-level community development planning that affects the physical and economic health of the Native community they serve. To that end, MANGO will teach nonprofits how to use the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework as a primary planning tool for providing services to the Native community; help them implement the framework in their organizations; and help them document and share measured results in addressing SDGs with community development planning partners in the nonprofit, private, and public sectors.

Location: Saipan, MP
ANA T/TA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $268,854

Saipan

Recipient: 500 Sails

Project Title: Taotal Tasi (People of the Ocean) Maritime Career Pathways

Project Description: 500 Sails will improve local long-term employment prospects for native young people entering the workforce. Currently, poor local employment prospects are draining the native community of its young adults who are choosing to leave the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in search of better opportunities. 43% of Native youth in the 15 to 19 year age group emigrate out of the CNMI before they enter the workforce. This project will provide the Native community with a new Maritime Training Center that provides training and education, leading to culturally and financially rewarding jobs in the maritime professions. This project aims to ensure that CNMI has a healthy, thriving native community that has successfully integrated traditional cultural values into modern life.

Location: Tanapag, Saipan, MP
ANA Region: Pacific
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $290,170

Western Region

Arizona

Recipient: American Indian Association of Tucson, Inc.

Project Title: Indigenous Visionaries

Project Description: The Tucson Indian Center will increase leadership skills, improve family cohesion, and increase the capacity of urban American Indian/ Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth and adults to gain meaningful education, training, and employment. AI/AN families report a higher unemployment rate, higher levels of poverty, half of children under the age of 17 is living in poverty, and lower levels undergraduate/graduate degrees. To address this concern, the Tucson Indian Center will focus on building stronger leadership within their communities, allow families to strengthen relationships and build cohesion with each other. In addition, Native Youth and adults will engage in information/skills-building opportunities focused on graduation, higher education, vocational trainings, and learning how to find job opportunities in their area. Ultimately, the project will improve the socio-economic status of urban American Indians and Alaska Native individuals in the Tucson area.

Location: Tucson, AZ
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $100,000

Recipient: Pascua Yaqui Tribe

Project Title: Sewa U’usim Mochik Ranch Garden Project

Project Description: Pascua Yaqui Tribe will increase the availability of Yoeme (Yaqui) grown foods and health lifestyle choices, by building agribusiness awareness, knowledge, and skills of youth to grow healthy foods. Currently, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension is rampant among the Pascua Yaqui community. According to the El Rio Clinic, 38 percent of all Pascua Yaqui patients in 2020 met the definition of obese and many times had co-morbidities of diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. The project will establish an Advisory Committee, comprised of partners, community members, elders, and youth, to provide input into the project’s implementation. A partnership with Yoeme Sonoran Traditional Healers will provide lessons to youth on cultural practices and traditional growing methods of traditional plants, herbs, and medicines. The project will also conduct a pilot and cohort 2 of the Arrowhead Business Group (ABG) to support youth in gaining agribusiness awareness, skills, and increased knowledge. The proposed Sewa U’usim Mochik Ranch Garden Project will train and stipend up to 96 Yoeme youth (and Yoeme heritage, ages 12-19) on two curriculum-based models (a total of 40 hours) on agribusiness. The training will enhance the youth’s awareness and knowledge of agriculture, hydroponics, and aquaponics techniques along with ABG to help them envision new healthy career path. Ultimately, the project seeks to increase the knowledge and skills of indigenous youth in growing healthy foods and agribusiness to enhance the availability of Yoeme healthy grown fruits and vegetables that will result in a healthy lifestyle to positively impact of the rates of obesity and diabetes on the New Pascua community now and in the future.

Location: Tucson, AZ
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: San Carlos Apache Tribal Council

Project Title: Building STEM Pathways for the San Carlos Apache Tribe

Project Description: The Building STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Pathways for the San Carlos Apache Tribe project will increase the employability of tribal members, preparing them for sustainable jobs while helping to shape the emerging workforce. The arching project goal is to decrease the high unemployment rate in the community while sustaining economic benefit within the Tribe. The overall unemployment rates are about 42.5% while more local data suggests that nearly 70% of the eligible workforce is unemployed. Extreme poverty creates a sense of hopelessness on the reservation perpetuating social ills. This STEM Pathways project will develop a support structure for San Carlos high school and adult learners while providing a foundation for Information Technology (IT) within the community. By the end of the project, six San Carlos Apache College students will graduate with an associate degree in IT. By increasing access to IT programs in the community, this project will provide support services while offering co-curricular learning opportunities as a pathway into entry level IT positions.

Location: San Carlos, AZ
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

California

Recipient: Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria

Project Title: Tribal Governance Accessibility and Accountability Project

Project Description: The Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria will build ownership and engagement in self-governance by Tribal members through the implementation of a community-driven process that will review, revise and redesign the implementation and management of the Tribe's governing documents to make them more approachable, accountable, and relatable to Tribal members. Currently, a large percentage of Tribal members are disconnected from their Tribal government and therefore are not actively participating in their own self-governance to the fullest of their ability. To implement this project, a minimum of 130 Tribal members will participate in reviewing and revising the Tribal Constitution to make it more efficient and reflective of Tribal values and identity, creating ownership and engagement in self-governance. The Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria will then complete a comprehensive review and revision of at least 8 key governmental documents and integrate them into the Tribe's new document management repository. Finally, this project will implement a community outreach process that engages and empowers Tribal members to build familiarity and understanding of their governing documents and system of government. This project ultimately aims to increase active participation and involvement by tribal members in the governance of the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria by ensuring the policies, priorities, and programs of the Tribal government reflect the vision and values of the Tribal membership.

Location: Loleta, CA
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $144,710

Recipient: California Tribal College

Project Title: Sustaining Tribal Traditions, Culture, and Values through Post-secondary Education

Project Description: California Tribal College will increase post-secondary enrollment and graduation rates of Native Americans through the California Tribal College. Currently, only 41 Native American students are enrolled at the local Woodland Community College. This project with implement a Native American student center which will provide academic advising, financial aid counseling, tutoring, mentorship, and a place for cultural and social gathering for Native American Student. California Tribal College will also develop two new Associate Degree programs, Tribal Government Administration and Tribal Health Administration. These new programs will include a culturally relevant curriculum that will prepare students for a career while at the same time, meet the workforce development demands of Tribes and Tribal organizations. Ultimately this project aims to ensure Native American Youth sustain traditions, culture, and values through post-secondary education, resulting in a healthy, vibrant lifestyle and a successful career.

Location: Woodland, CA
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $369,987

Recipient: Colusa Indian Community Council

Project Title: Colusa Indian Community Council’s Land Surveying Project

Project Description: The Colusa Indian Community Council (CICC) will increase their ability to complete Tribal land survey work within the CICC Tribal Government. Currently, only 20% of infrastructure and agricultural land surveying work done on Tribal lands is completed by the Tribal government. By providing the equipment, training, and licenses necessary to Tribal employees and Tribal Members, the Tribal government will decrease the need for outside land survey work to 0%. Targeting Tribal youth as interns on the project, CICC hopes to expand its own capacity for land surveying while also introducing youth to new fields of work and technological knowledge. Ultimately, the project will increase the ability of CICC to build, grow, and sustain their own land and economic development.

Location: Colusa, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $198,998

Recipient: Cultural Conservancy Sacred Land Foundation

Project Title: Building the Learning Farm at Heron Shadow

Project Description: The Cultural Conservancy Sacred Land Foundation will create a biocultural heritage oasis for communities that restores land, produces food, provides an educational and emergency preparedness space, and revitalizes Indigenous practices. Urban California Native farmers and land stewards do not have the means or the ability to gather in a safe space in which the Native populations can gather, grow, and practice land-based traditions, gain intergenerational ecological knowledge, and ancestral plant/seed knowledge due to federal relocation policies. This program will allow urban Native communities in the San Francisco Bay area to restore, interact, learn from, and provide nutritionally dense organic produce from a communal immersive land-based opportunity for the surrounding indigenous populations. The project seeks to restore Native traditional ecological lands so that they can have a supporting and healthy environment for individuals, families, and communities.

Location: San Francisco, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Ileihno Bopachemihn

Project Title: Developing Native Therapists and Therapeutic Services

Project Description: Ileihno Bopachemihn (IB) will develop mental health services and American Indian/Alaska Native therapists to provide therapeutic services to Native foster youth and their biological family towards reunification. Over 80% of Native foster youth residing in non-Native foster homes are not given the option to receive therapeutic services by Native therapists. Non-Native foster families are not required to ensure the youth’s access to cultural accommodations. The development of Native therapists will be a collaboration between IB and three universities to allow Native graduate students to intern in foster family agencies or practicum students in the mental health programs. These interns/practicums will have first opportunity for job openings post-graduation. Two new types of therapeutic services will be offered each year including, individual, parenting, group, domestic violence and substance abuse, as examples. Focusing on Native foster youth who are placed by the foster family agency and their biological parents, with county approval, the project will address the issues that the counties require the parents to complete for reunification. Ultimately, the project will develop adequate, sustainable social services for Native foster youth and families in turmoil through culturally relevant mental health support services that address their risk factors and improve their long-term outcomes.

Location: Sacramento, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $348,915

Recipient: Karuk Tribe

Project Title: Yav vura kun'araarahiti ("They are all living in a good way") Food Sovereignty Project

Project Description: The Karuk Tribe will enhance their food sovereignty by developing community infrastructure and assets that increase Karuk sovereignty, stewardship, and access to healthy and traditional foods. Approximately 45% of the Karuk community is experiencing very low food security throughout the year, and 89% of the community is experiencing some form of food insecurity throughout the year. By developing community infrastructure, implementing five new food sovereignty-related curriculum lessons for k-12 grade students, and convening a community visioning and master planning meeting, the Karuk Tribe will increase food sovereignty and enhance food access. As students share their knowledge with their community and households, this will support intergenerational learning and leadership. The project will help Karuk members achieve their desire for greater food system self-reliance and food sovereignty through addressing barriers that prevent access to desired healthy and Native foods, including legal restrictions, food availability, interrupted intergenerational knowledge sharing, degraded environment, and climate change.

Location: Happy Camp, CA
ANA region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $399,641

Recipient: Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewart Point Rancheria

Project Title: Kashia Sustainable Community Master Plan

Project Description: The Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewart Point Rancheria will develop and adopt a comprehensive strategic master plan to develop and use its Tribal lands to ensure maximum benefit for the Tribe and all of its members. Their reactive, non-strategic development policies have led to disorganized and inefficient use, development, and value production of its Tribal Lands. By creating and adopting a Sustainable Community Master Plan and associated implementation tools, the Tribe will establish the community's desired characteristics for Kashia Tribal lands and provide the governing rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and tools required to make effective and efficient land use and development decisions. The Sustainable Community Master Plan will comprise six core elements to guide development and land-use decisions across all Kashia Tribal Lands, including land use, circulation and transportation, housing, open space and parks and recreation, safety and capital facilities, and utilities and economic development. This project intends to ensure that land use and development on Kashia Tribal lands is conducted strategically and sustainably to ensure maximum benefit for the Tribe and all of its members.

Location: Santa Rosa, CA
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $300,722

Recipient: Resighini Rancheria

Project Title: Master Site Development and Hazard Mitigation Planning for the Resighini Rancheria

Project Description: Resighini Rancheria will engineer and draft a Master Site Development Plan for options to elevate land for community and economic development infrastructure and develop a Hazard Mitigation Plan to improve emergency preparedness and response. The Tribe does not have any viable economic development opportunities in place to meet the needs of its 148 tribal citizens. On the Rancheria, 100% of residents have low-to-moderate incomes and 60% are below the federal poverty level. The rancheria consists of 455 acres bordering the south bank of the Klamath River within a 100-year floodplain and is at risk for further natural and manmade disasters. Both plans will help the Tribe implement existing funding and procure future funding to move forward in completing its long-term goals for a viable, safe, resilient, and prosperous Tribal community.

Location: Klamath, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $282,965

Recipient: Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc.

Project Title: I Will See You- Murdered and Missing Native Americans Prevention Program

Project Description: Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc. will increase awareness and capacity to prevent and respond to missing and murdered Native American's. Rates of Missing and Murdered Native American's in California are high. In 2017, The Urban Indian Health Institute listed California as having the sixth-highest number of murdered and missing indigenous girls and women cases in the nation. Native youth in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are engaging in high-risk behaviors, specifically involvement in unhealthy relationships, putting them at risk of becoming missing and murdered. By providing a culturally relevant, trauma-informed curriculum to the youth and increasing general awareness of the crisis of Missing and Murdered Native Americans through family cultural nights, the project will increase healthy relationship knowledge and skills for the youth. Ultimately, this project aims to ensure that Native American Youth in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are safe within their homes and communities.

Location: Grand Terrace, CA
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Native Finance Development Corporation

Project Title: Building a Sustainable & Scalable Native CDFI Model for Indian Reservations

Project Description: Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) seeks to hexpand individual financial capabilities and small business development, while supporting cultural values and practices. Currently 16 out of 18 Indian reservations in San Diego County are bank deserts and the Native Finance Development Corporation project specifically addresses the absence of reliable bank and financial services and aims to demonstrate how to aid community members in attaining financial self-sufficiency and inclusion via grassroots, community driven CDFI model. By maintaining tribal neutrality among gaming and non-gaming tribes, build relationships and trust, and increasing awareness for financial services in our community, the CDFI will provide financial services and build financial education for tribal members and their families from San Diego County's Indian reservations. Ultimately, the project will establish a high-standard, Native American community development bank, equipped with financial development services and affordable banking products to build equity and vibrant communities.

Location: Vista, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Southern California Indian Law and Justice Center

Project Title: Intertribal Court of Southern California (ICSC)’s Tribal Governance and Youth Leadership Project.

Project Description: The Southern California Indian Law and Justice Center’s (SCILJC) will assist their tribal partners within the spectrum of Tribal Governance/Juvenile justice by creating a model juvenile code for diversion to address juvenile challenges while promoting wellness within the participating tribes. The communities served by the SCILJC experience higher rates of poverty, which has been shown to influence poor performance at schools, lower standardized testing, higher rates of dropouts, and have higher rates of crime. The project will develop a model youth code that will assist tribes in creating their own Children’s code(s). Forty-eight youth in the 9^{th —}12^th grade will receive Law Related Education (LRE) and Tribal Governance Training. This project promotes and protects the health and well-being of American Indians and families by creating and improving social and economic opportunities for Native Youth and families through targeted legal education and development programs.

Location: Valley Center, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $133,246

Recipient: United American Indian Involvement, Inc.

Project Title: A Community Lead Effort to Address the Social and Economic Needs of American Indians in Southern California

Project Description: The United American Indian Involvement (UAII) will increase the employability of community members in need, improving economic education and mobility, and engaging ownership of workforce challenges as opportunities for generational change, to heal historic trauma. UAII is an Urban Indian Organization with over 3,000 members that represent more than 200 federal-recognized Tribes, and 95% of member live below the federal poverty level. UAII members will be guided in a 6-month pathways program that will include job placement, financial literacy, and educational achievement. UAII will seek to serve employment unstable AI/AN adults, women, and Native American Veterans in the urban core of Los Angeles and Orange counties, empowering them and their families for lifetime personal and professional upward mobility, now and for future generations.

Location: Los Angeles, CA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Montana

Recipient: American Indian Business Leaders

Project Title: To Build Powerful, Highly Engaged Student Mentoring Community That Trains, Equips, and Inspires Indigenous Students to Lead Enterprise Advancement in their Communities

Project Description: American Indian Business Leaders will build a robust, highly engaged, and insightful workforce development project that trains, equips, and inspires students to lead economic development and entrepreneurial activities in their communities. In the U.S., mainstream business leadership support programs are not inclusive of Native American student-specific support needs. As a result, only 23% of Indigenous students complete their post-secondary education degrees. By implementing a workforce development program that focuses on training, mentoring, and networking, 120 students between the ages of 18-24 will increase their business professional leadership skillset to a medium/high level of proficiency and will be more prepared to graduate from college with the necessary experience to lead their communities towards economic independence. Ultimately, this project aims to empower Indigenous business leaders with the experience necessary to lead tribal communities in economic development and entrepreneurship activities.

Location: Missoula, MT
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

Recipient: Little Big Horn Community College

Project Title: To Place Unemployed Adults in Permanent Living Wage Jobs

Project Description: Little Big Horn Community College will establish a hybrid apprenticeship program that will equip participants with in-demand trade skills to earn wages that equal or exceed the living wage rate in Montana. The Crow Community is in urgent need of skilled trade services to address needs for safe and healthy living conditions. Currently, the reservation lacks skills-based, on-the-job training programs, requiring citizens to travel off the reservation. To meet these community needs, the project will partner with Montana State University-Northern and Plenty Doors Community Development Corporation to implement a hybrid apprenticeship program. The program will start trainees on a pathway to several different educational and employment options by granting them a one-year Certificate in Building Maintenance upon completion. Overall, the project aims to create a unique and independent community where its citizens earn wages that equal or exceed the living wage rate in Montana.

Location: Crow Agency, MT
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $400,000

New Mexico

Recipient: Healthy Native Communities Partnership

Project Title: Native Communities in Action

Project Description: Healthy Native Communities Partnership will strengthen community conditions for Navajo children, families, and Native American Veterans in five Navajo Nation Chapter communities. Recent community surveys identified alcohol and drug use as the most significant concerns that impact the well-being of their communities, as well as the lack of community participation in local planning and decision making. This project will bring local community action groups together from the five Navajo Nation Chapter communities to develop and support community-driven social development strategies in order to achieve locally identified goals for wellness. Ultimately, this project aims to establish strong, self-sufficient Navajo Chapter communities that promote well-being where their people can lead healthy, productive lives in harmony with hozho', the Navajo word that embodies the concept of living in harmony, peace, beauty, and balance.

Location: Shiprock, NM
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $359,606

Recipient: The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Project Title: The Zuni Youth Artist Collective: Bridging Youth Apprenticeship Programs and Traditional Zuni Art Together for Upward Economic Mobility and Cultural Resiliency in the Pueblo of Zuni

Project Description: The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project will increase Zuni youth's social and economic opportunities that strengthen their cultural identity, artistic skills, and business acumen. Currently, over 40% of youth living in Zuni Pueblo grow up in poverty without access to adequate educational and career pathways grounded in the strengths of Zuni culture and allow proper upward economic mobility. By implementing a Zuni Youth Artist Collective Art Program that will consist of a Beginning Art Youth Apprenticeship (Ages 12-24 years) and an Emerging Art Youth Apprenticeship (Ages 18-24 years) while also establishing a Zuni Youth Art Gallery, ZYEP will fill a community gap and provide Zuni Youth with access to adequate culture-focused education and career pathways. This project aims to embrace children in their community's strengths and better position their youth to grow up healthy, happy, and successful while carrying forward their unique cultural heritage.

Location: Zuni, NM
ANA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2021 to 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $242,336

Oregon

Recipient: Burns Paiute Tribe

Project Title: Burns Paiute Tribe Sustainable Community Master Plan

Project Description: The Burns Paiute Tribe will develop a comprehensive master land use plan to synchronize and manage planned growth and development on Tribal lands over the coming years. They currently own numerous parcels of land and have recently adopted the 2022-2026 Burns Paiute Tribe Strategic Plan that identifies goals and intentions but does not address implementation pathways or provide necessary tools, policies, and actionable approaches that support community ideas that put them into reality. The sustainable community master plan will help create the best possible development and land use choices across Burns Paiute Tribe territory, that foster the best opportunities for them. This includes but is not limited to infrastructure, housing, utilities, economic development, public safety, environmental resources, and recreation. These opportunities must be balanced with codes and ordinances created and enforced to ensure that projects are carried out in ways that are consistent with the community’s desired character for their lands. They will utilize this grant to effectively manage their Tribal Lands for sustainable benefit to the Burns Paiute Tribal population for decades to come.

Location: Burns, OR
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/26/2026
FY 2023 Award: $356,893

Recipient: Nixyáawii Community Financial Services

Project Title: Umatilla Reservation Private Sector Restoration

Project Description: Nixyáawii Community Financial Services (NCFS) is a certified Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDF) that was created by the Confederate Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. NCFS is leading the work to establish a business-friendly environment with this project to increase the resources, tools, and organization’s capacity to serve the Umatilla Reservation Native American private sector with a full range of business support. Over the years the Business Development Services has created an active database of 32 known and registered Tribal member and Indian-owned small businesses that exist on or near the Umatilla Reservation. The Umatilla Reservation Private Sector Restoration program will analyze tribal codes for small business benefit and at least two codes specific to Indian-owned small businesses. The program will establish a functional loan program with a minimum of 9 loans documented throughout the project. Additionally, NCFS will establish a fully operational retail/incubator space for Indian-owned small businesses. This project targets the Native American populations and Indian-owned small businesses in both Oregon and Washington.

Location: Pendleton, OR
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social and Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2024
FY 2023 Award: $247,817

Washington

Recipient: Snoqualmie Indian Tribe

Project Title: Snoqualmie Tribal Governance Information Technology Advancement

Project Description: The Snoqualmie Tribe will increase the ability of their tribal Information Technology (IT) Department to provide fast, reliable solutions and to integrate technology to support and facilitate efficient services to all Snoqualmie staff and related entities who service the tribal community members. Currently, much of the Tribe’s IT infrastructure is outdated, reaching end-of-life, and non-existent in some respects with the cable broadband connection frequently lagging or dropping altogether, interrupting vital work. The Tribe will promote efficient operations of IT infrastructure to better serve the Snoqualmie tribal community through a three- phase network upgrade, which will be beneficial to the 650 tribal members living on the reservation. Ultimately, the project aims to help the Snoqualmie Tribe remain a sovereign nation that supports and provides for its people through a stable, reliable, and sustainable tribal information technology infrastructure.

Location: Snoqualmie, WA
ANA T/TA Region: Western
Program Area: Social Economic Development Strategies - SEDS
Project Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2026
FY 2023 Award: $377,292