Advancing Native American Workforce Development

Red Cloud Renewables is working to provide Native communities with skills development, while supporting sustainability for tribal nations. The purpose of their current project is to provide free instruction and training for tribal members on solar energy, weatherization, and building dome homes. With Red Cloud Renewables, workforce development training not only develops skills, but also focuses on self-empowerment and community support. Red Cloud Renewable includes programming to empower both women and men with individualized trainings, through the BRIDGE Program and the Pre-ARP Program, respectively. These programs are designed specifically for Native women and men to get hands–on training for building dome homes, gain experience on solar energy installations, and obtain skills in building weatherization. 

Blackfeet Community College is working to become a net zero campus, and currently focusing on transitioning to solar energy and developing a Meat Processing Plant on campus to distribute food to elders and food banks in the community. Stages of this project include developing a one-year certificate program in the Renewable Energy program, providing skills development with the installation of a solar microgrid system; and purchasing a mobile meat processing unit, which will provide students the opportunity for hands-on skills development in the field of meat processing and cultural ecological knowledge as students learn of land and animal health. This workforce development focus area also includes mentorship facilitation, job shadowing/internship programming, and credentials in meat processing. 

The Northern California Indian Development Council Incorporated (NCIDC), was developed in 1976 to research, develop, and administer social and economic development programs to meet the needs of Native communities. During this project, NCIDC will serve as a resource to share their experience and knowledge of working with Native communities for the ongoing research in workforce development and economic justice. NCIDC’s approach to supporting tribes in achieving self-determination in economics, employment, and education is rooted in culture, wellness, and community involvement. The long establishment of the Council provides a clearing house of knowledge on workforce development for Native communities. 

Change Labs focuses on growing the next generation of Native entrepreneurs on the Navajo and Hopi Nations. Change Labs empowers Native-owned small businesses operating in Native communities to work toward economic self-sustainability. Empowerment of Native entrepreneurs is supported through a business incubator program, by providing co-working spaces, and through financial training and resources. The current project informs a narrative of workforce development needs for Navajo non-profits and communities, and contributes to the larger understanding of workforce development and economic justice issues and solutions within Native communities. 

The goal of Hōlani Hāna is to create community-led workforce development opportunities to reclaim Native Hawaiian economies and cultural practices, and safeguard knowledge and resources for future generations. Workforce development for Hōlani Hāna centers on Hawaiian architecture and masonry, land stewardship, and community climate resilience. This project demonstrates that Native Hawaiians cannot separate workforce development from land stewardship, community empowerment, and the perpetuation of cultural knowledge. In this work, economic justice is environmental, and social justice and the empowerment of the economies and development of skills within the community, center on cultural tenets of land and community stewardship.

Makoce Agricultural Development’s current project focuses on mobilizing a Native workforce centered around supporting the local food system by developing skills, knowledge, and infrastructure. This will be accomplished by education, resource sharing, cultural connections, and the development of economic opportunities rooted in Native ecology and community sustained cycles of economic empowerment.  

This work focuses on long-term system changes in connecting the community to health, food, and economic opportunity. By achieving a successful regional food system, this work restores self-determination and community vitality.  

The Laguna Community Foundation generates resources and support to initiatives that strengthen the Pueblo of Laguna. The Education to Employment (E2E) Project highlights and addresses many of the barriers for achieving workforce development for the Pueblo of Laguna, and provides recommendations to overcome those barriers to develop an equitable, responsive, and resilient workforce. The purpose of the E2E project is to define a set of practical workforce development recommendations that reflect the community’s needs, values, and tribal priorities as well as strengthen families, workers, employers, and economic infrastructure. These goals are grounded in the Pueblo of Laguna’s values of generosity, giving, respect, reverence, discipline, obedience, and love. 

Plenty Doors Community Development Corporations’ work centers on expressing their culture while developing a sustainable economy for the Apsáalooke people. Plenty Doors has identified four primary areas of strategic development: workforce development, tourism, sustainable energy, and agriculture. This work is carried out through economic development initiatives, individual and community capacity building, business development, promotion and preservation of culture, and in obtaining environmental and food sovereignty. Currently, Plenty Doors is working to increase the understanding of workforce and economic development on the Crow Reservation.  

The Colombia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) coordinates management policy and provides fisheries technical services for the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes. CRITFC provides a unified voice in the management of fisheries and in the protection of treaty rights. CRITFIC’s project, Pathways to Prosperity: Strengthening Tribal Workforce Futures, leverages existing workforce development projects to attract funding and establish partnerships that increase education and employment opportunities. These efforts include those for tribal workforce assessment and training needs, mentorship and internship programming, workforce readiness workshops, community outreach and engagement, partnership development, and resource hub creation.

Since 1993, the Oneida Nation has implemented the Oneida Community Education Center (CEC) to provide tribal members with support in education and career placement. This project will support the CEC in offering progressive educational and vocational programming, including job counseling, employment readiness, and soft skills training using a strength–based successive method of skill development. This project also supports monthly Job Fairs with up to 8 to 10 employers every month, in effect as of January 2025. This project additionally supports the creation and establishment of more diverse programming for community classes, events, and other public services for workforce development.