Jane's Story
October 28, 2014
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma will help tribal landowners establish 52 acres of vineyards that the Tribe plans to use in the Seminole Nation Vineyard and Winery.By Carmelia Strickland, Director of Program Operations, Administration for Native Americans
The Administration for Native Americans recently awarded 15 new grants to American Indian, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander communities to spur economic development and provide training and employment opportunities.
The awards were made under the funding opportunity announcement that is known as Sustainable Employment and Economic Development Strategies. We launched this initiative two years ago because early statistics indicated that the recession was disproportionately effecting Native American employment. We believed that a targeted investment was necessary to help Tribes and Native populations recover more quickly.
To this end, we extended the project period length to a maximum of five years and increased the award ceiling to $500,000 per year. Tribes and Native communities have responded with a variety of projects that will target economic development through business development, increased employment, and increased revenues that are retained in the communities.
For example, the Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska will provide training and employment experience to Alaska Native men that are seeking to adapt from a subsistence-based lifestyle to one that is cash-based. Participants will be assessed and an individualized development plan will be established that will include social, educational, professional, and spiritual development goals and employment targets.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona received a five-year grant to expand the San Carlos Training Institute by developing Apache College, a soon-to-be tribally controlled higher education institution, which will offer education, career development and small business development training to increase the professional workforce capacity and employability of tribal members. This institutional capacity building grant will pay dividends for years to come as more and more jobs require degrees and more extensive training.
Fostering entrepreneurs was a popular project theme in this year’s applications. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma will help tribal landowners establish 52 acres of vineyards that the Tribe plans to use in the Seminole Nation Vineyard and Winery.
In Guam, the Guam Unique Merchandise & Art (GUMA) project will provide business training, mentoring and development support to indigenous cultural artisans so they can operate self-sustaining small businesses.
In American Samoa, the emphasis is on a major industry of the island, tourism. The Native American Samoan Advisory Council will assist in the establishment and expansion of native-owned ecotourism businesses that will assist in the preservation of Samoan culture and the environment.
These are just five examples of the 15 projects that were recently funded. Sixty-seven applications were received for the FY14 competition. We are very excited about the diversity of projects and the opportunities they will bring to their local communities. You can find out more about our specials initiatives by visiting the ANA website.
For those who are interested in applying for future SEEDS funding we expect to publish the announcement in December and we will host a webinar with in-depth information about this initiative on Thursday, Nov. 20, so sign up here .
