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Wind River windfall: Coalition awarded $36 M fed. grant
Out of 565 initial applications, only 22 made it to the final stage of consideration. On August 5, the Department of Commerce announced just six organizations nationwide that were awarded funding; the second-largest grant awarded, at approximately $36 million, is coming right here to the Wind River Reservation.
“It’s definitely a very humbling and exciting thing,” remarked WRDF Director of Business Development Erika Warren-Yarber. “This is for the whole reservation, and we got community input from the very beginning – and just wanted to help with the sustainability of our culture, our food, our land, our water.”
“For decades, too many communities all over America have been overlooked or left behind without the resources and investments needed to compete,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo commented in a press release. “This investment in the tribal communities of Wyoming will help catalyze Indigenous-led eco-tourism, agriculture, and health care efforts, creating jobs and developing long-term economic growth.”
Although the WRDF was the lead applicant, Warren-Yarber explained, the projects the grant funding will go toward are ones laid out by its partner organizations, including Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game, Wind River Job Corps, Wind River Food Sovereignty Project, Central Wyoming College, the Tribal Buffalo Initiative, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe. It will also be working with the health care services of both tribes.
“WRDF, we’re just the vehicle for the funding,” Warren-Yarber said. “We just kind of identified other fantastic leaders and organizations … [and asked] ‘How do we launch them to the next level?’”
“It’s definitely something the reservation needs for economic development,” said Tribal Fish and Game Director Art Lawson. “It’s huge – especially for our youth.” Lawson was one the key players in helping craft some of the eco-tourism aspects of the application; with its share of the grant funds, Tribal Fish and Game hopes to move into its own facility – “for the first time in 40 years,” Lawson pointed out – with room to sell fishing licenses and store search and rescue equipment, remodel a cabin at Mosquito Park, identify trailheads and areas that are good locations for other cabins, and continue growing its youth programs.
“We want to get them in the outdoors, get them addicted to the outdoors instead of substance abuse,” Lawson said of the importance of youth programs. “If we want to make that big change for our youth, we need something big.”
Tribal Fish and Game will also be collaborating with CWC on a trail-building effort; CWC will use some of its share of the grant funds to purchase additional trail-building equipment and provide financial assistance to students in order to expand its existing trail-building program. “Our trail-building students will be working with Tribal Fish and Game to build those trails that they have identified as having significant potential for economic impact,” explained CWC Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Kathy Wells.
The college will also be putting its share of the funds toward growing its programs and trainings as well as student services. Some of that funding will go toward five years’ worth of salaries for six new positions at the school: A new nursing instructor, a new culinary arts instructor, another workforce trainer, an emergency medical technician (EMT) instructor, a high school equivalency trainer, and a student success coach.
“CWC’s part of this [grant] provides significant financial assistance for need in the form of scholarships,” Wells added. Often, she pointed out, finances can be a major barrier for students; even for students who can afford CWC right now, additional financial assistance can help make it possible for them to find child care, transportation, and other factors that Wells said the college has found to be key determinants of student success.
“Even if this grant wasn’t awarded, those partnerships and the relationships that came out of these conversations … was really just amazing,” Wells commented. “The partnerships that were created and the planning were invaluable.”
One of the goals of the grant application projects is to eventually move toward the reservation having its own ambulance and ambulance barn, Wells explained – and EMTs to staff it. In order to accomplish that goal, multiple organizations need to be involved; health care organizations, of course, but also an entity like CWC to train the EMTs.
“With the reservation being part of CWC’s service area, when they have workforce needs that are unmet, that’s a concern for the college, too,” Wells explained.
The Recompete grant isn’t up-front funding, but a reimbursement grant. That’s why it was important to the application that every partner organization have a detailed plan with funding lined out for all of its projects, Warren-Yarber noted; the grant doesn’t pay for things directly. Rather, each organization pays for the project itself, documents its expenses and progress carefully, and submits its receipts and records for reimbursement.
With the WRDF as one of the partner organizations, there certainly was financial expertise to bring to bear on the application. Other partners brought other skill sets, goals, and plans to the table, to create a long-reaching, reservation-wide plan that hopes to develop multiple areas of the local economy.
“The Recompete program isn’t just an investment in American jobs or American workers, it’s an investment in communities that will allow local economies to grow and Americans to pursue quality careers in the places they call home,” Raimondo said.
“Through partnership with local communities, the Recompete program will make targeted, community-led investments to reduce unemployment,” U.S. Assistant Secretary for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo commented in a press release. “The Recompete awardees are bringing together a wide range of partners to develop integrated approaches to support Americans in accessing good jobs.”
“When you work together and meet the needs of everyone involved, that is a successful partnership … We both need to be successful to really boost that community environment,” Wells remarked. “Learning how to navigate these partnerships and sustain them is important work that I hope will continue beyond this grant.”
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