Tag Archives: Montoya Whiteman

Advancing Native Hawaiian Home Ownership With Aloha

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First Nations is proud to partner with – and highlight – the work of Hawaiian Community Assets (HCA) through our Strengthening Tribal and Community Institutions focus area. HCA provides housing counseling and is a community lending institution that serves Native Hawaiian communities across the State of Hawaii.

As a 2015-2016 Urban Native Project grantee, the goals of the HCA’s “Building Sustainability in Housing Project” is to establish an integrated asset-building system within five Native Hawaiian-controlled nonprofit organizations and Community Development Financial Institutions that will increase affordable housing for Native Hawaiians residing in urban trust lands.

The HCA has started working with organizations to create an integrated asset-building system which are at different stages, and HCA foresees partnerships with other organizations in the project period. Current partner organizations are the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement, the Hawaiian Community Development Board, INPEACE, and Queen Liliuoakalani Children’s Center.

The HCA’s work is encouraging, relevant, effective and ambitious. The origins of HCA are simple: to increase the success rate of its clients in achieving and sustaining home ownership. HCA’s housing and financial services include financial counseling, rental counseling, pre- and post-purchase counseling, and foreclosure-prevention counseling. The HCA also provides microloans to assist low-income families and individuals in reducing debt, building credit, and securing or sustaining affordable housing. Other activities include financial literacy workshops, tax preparation, matched savings accounts, training and technical assistance, and community-based curriculum. In 2014, HCA served more than 1,022 families, successfully assisting 257 children and adults in securing permanent housing.

Having a program like the HCA is valuable, and vital, because their education and housing services can help give families and individuals the tools and skills they need to work toward safe and permanent housing solutions. It supports Native Hawaiians in moving toward self-sufficiency, which strengthens their capacity to weather life’s financial storms with a stable economic footing.

Economic security and prosperity is a dream that the HCA is making a reality by closing the economic gap for Native Hawaiians in the #1 state in the nation where you’re most likely to live paycheck to paycheck, according to Huffington Post Business (1/18/16).

HCA is creating opportunities for advancement and is making a big difference for Native Hawaiians in achieving housing stability. For more information about the HCA, visit their website at www.hawaiiancommunity.net.

By Montoya Whiteman, First Nations Senior Program Officer

Updates on the Joint “Urban Native Project”

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Representatives from the Native American Youth and Family Center (Portland, Oregon), Native American Community Services of Erie and Niagara Counties (Buffalo, New York), Little Earth of United Tribes (Minneapolis, Minnesota), the Chief Seattle Club and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC) (both in Seattle, Washington) met in Denver, Colorado, Oct. 20-21, 2015, to tap into the experience of nonprofit leaders, as part of First Nations Development Institute’s “Strengthening Tribal & Community Institutions” focus area and, specifically, the Urban Native Project.

Through a series of cohort meetings, participants utilize diverse areas of learning, build their professional networks, and gain valuable insights by talking with peers about the ways they have tackled particular challenges at their organizations. These meetings are sponsored by the Comcast Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. The meetings enable leaders to step back from the pressures of their jobs and to look at the big picture, learn new skills, strategize policy or action, leverage opportunities, and reflect on the unique perspectives of their organizations and their programs.

First Nations Senior Program Officer Montoya Whiteman and NUIFC Executive Director Janeen Comenote head up the Urban Native Project, which is a joint effort between First Nations and NUIFC.

Separately, on Nov. 9, 2015, the two organizations announced the newly-selected grantees for the 2015-2016 cycle, which is the third year of the Urban Native Project. Under the effort, First Nations and NUIFC, as partners, are working to build the capacity and effectiveness of American Indian and/or Alaska Native nonprofit organizations by providing project funding, training and technical assistance.

The project is made possible through a grant made to First Nations by The Kresge Foundation. It aims to help organizations that work with some of the estimated 78 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives who live off reservations or away from tribal villages, and who reflect some of the most disproportionately low social and economic standards in the urban areas in which they reside. Urban Indian organizations are an important support to Native families and individuals, providing cultural linkages as well as a hub for accessing essential human services.

The four projects selected for the 2015-2016 period are:

  • American Indian Child Resource Center, Oakland, California, $40,000, for the “Positive American Indian Directions” (PAID) program, which is an asset-building and self-sufficiency effort for urban Native youth. The target population is “disconnected” (out-of-school, out-of-work, and not served by any other agency) Native youth living in Oakland and surrounding areas, ages 14-21.
  • American Indian OIC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $40,000, for the “Integrated Community Placement Project” that seeks to reduce unemployment for the Native community living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area by training students for specific occupations such as web designer/developer, computer support specialist, and administrative professional, and providing related apprenticeships in the agency’s own social enterprises.
  • Hawaiian Community Assets, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii, $40,000, for the “Building Stability in Housing” project. The goal of the Building Stability in Housing project is to establish an integrated asset-building system within five Native Hawaiian-controlled nonprofit organizations and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that will increase access to affordable housing for Native Hawaiians residing in urban trust lands.
  • Little Earth of United Tribes, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $20,000, for a project to reform its corporate and governance structure in order to better support its mission through asset-based community development. By developing board and governance policies and improving its organizational structure, Little Earth intends to encourage the growth and expansion of the organization in a coordinated and integrated manner.

First Nations Hosts Training for Maine’s Wabanaki Women’s Coalition

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Left to right are Montoya Whiteman, Julia Walton (WWC board member), Susie Fink (WWC board member), Nancy Soctomah (WWC board member), Tonia Dana (WWC board member), Jane Root (WWC executive director), Whitney Kizer (First Nations consultant) and Lisa Yellow Eagle of First Nations

First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) is a technical assistance provider for tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions nationwide. First Nations provides nonprofit capacity-building support for the tribal coalitions by strengthening the organizational capacity and program-management capabilities of the coalitions. We are proud to have hosted a recent financial management training for the Wabanaki Women’s Coalition at our office in Longmont, Colorado.

The Wabanaki Women’s Coalition, a Maine tribal coalition, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in October 2013, and they were notified they were a grantee of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) in October 2014. Their mission is to increase the capacity of tribal communities to respond to domestic and sexual violence and influence tribal, national and regional systems to increase awareness, safety, justice and healing for all our relations.

Four board members and the executive director traveled to Colorado for a Financial Management Training to assist them in learning the basics of QuickBooks financial management software. They also received training on the roles of a nonprofit board of directors regarding fiscal operations; budgeting; and they reviewed their draft policies and procedures with First Nations Senior Program Officer Montoya Whiteman and First Nations consultant Whitney Kizer to gain insight and advice on those draft policies.

First Nations enjoyed hosting the Wabanaki Women’s Coalition to illuminate the nonprofit’s current success while looking ahead to their budding future.

By Lisa Yellow Eagle, First Nations Program Officer

First Nations Helps Two Nonprofits Form and Gain Tax-Exempt Status

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Utah organizers with First Nations' Montoya Whiteman (far left) and Lisa Yellow Eagle (second from right in back row)

First Nations Development Institute received funding from the Office on Violence Against Women, which is part of the U.S. Justice Department, to help two new tribal coalitions form in states that previously did not have tribal coalitions to build education and awareness about violence against American Indian women.

The project was a big success! First Nations assisted two fledgling nonprofit organizations – Restoring Ancestral Winds (RAW) and the Wabanaki Women’s Coalition (WWC) – with the formation process.  This included assistance with drafting their articles of incorporation, mission and vision statements, and bylaws.  First Nations also helped them establish their boards of directors, and provided training on the roles and responsibilities of nonprofit board members. We also helped them finalize and submit their IRS applications for tax-exempt status.

Each organization has now received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS!

Restoring Ancestral Winds is located in Utah.  Its mission is to support healing in Indigenous communities as a tribal coalition that will advocate for healthy relationships and educate Utah communities on issues surrounding stalking and domestic, sexual, dating and family violence.  RAW also will provide training to service providers engaged in similar work and collaborate with Great Basin community members and stakeholders on these issues.  RAW will provide a much-needed service for the Indigenous populations in Utah.  If you support RAW’s mission, you can contact or donate to it at this address: Restoring Ancestral Winds, P.O. Box 104, Tremonton, UT, 84337.

Organizers of the new Maine coalition

Wabanaki Women’s Coalition (WWC) is located in Maine.  Its mission is to increase the capacity of tribal communities to respond to domestic and sexual violence and influence tribal, national and regional systems to increase awareness, safety, justice and healing.  WWC has already provided an “advocacy training” for tribal advocates and Indian child welfare staff in Maine’s tribal communities.  WWC has been actively meeting with various state officials and attending meetings to inform them of the new tribal coalition’s presence and to represent the Maine tribal communities.  If you support WWC’s Mission, you can contact or donate to it at this address: Wabanaki Women’s Coalition, P.O. Box 365, Lincolnville, ME 04849-0365.  You can learn more about WWC at www.WabanakiWomenscoalition.org.

Also, if you want to learn more about incorporating a nonprofit organization, please visit the First Nations Knowledge Center to download a free copy of our new “How-To Guide for Incorporating a Nonprofit Organization” at this link: http://firstnations.org/knowledge-center.

By Lisa Yellow Eagle, First Nations Program Officer

Collaboration & Partnerships Expand in Urban Indian Program

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Jay Grimm, executive director of the Denver Indian Center, talks about the project

The Denver Indian Center, Inc. and the Denver Indian Family Resource Center are partners in the “Building Strong American Indian/Alaska Native Communities” effort, which is a three-year project that is funded by The Kresge Foundation.

As grant recipients in First Nations’ 2013-2014 Urban Indian Organization program, their project strategy is to improve and expand collaborative opportunities for the two organizations, as well as other partner organizations in metropolitan Denver.  They plan to increase participation in new and existing programs, build resources, explore new ways of working together, and enrich communication that creates the most impact.  Proposed activities involve resource development, case management, outreach, marketing, information exchange, database management, and developing best practices.

The National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC) and First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) are also strategic partners in this project.  The main objective of their partnership is the amplification of services to the grantees to aid in sustainability and growth.  It is the right business match.  We are committed to the design and co-management of the program with open access to information, networks, resources and skills.  Our tasks are to deliver technical assistance and training along with assessments, site visits, media development, and information-sharing forums.

Partnerships and collaboration are motivating philosophies at First Nations.  Collaboration builds the Native American nonprofit sector.  It is a process that prompts individuals with diverse interests to share their knowledge and resources to improve outcomes, innovate and enhance decisions.  When we share our expertise we become deeply involved in the design and delivery of outreach, programs, and services.  As partners we solve problems, meet objectives, build support, and utilize our strengths more effectively for greater success.

Under the Kresge project, First Nations and NUIFC also selected two other organizations to receive grants. They are the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland, Oregon, and the Little Earth of United Tribes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each of the three projects is receiving a $40,000 grant.

First Nations’ and NUIFC’s overall effort aims to help organizations that work with some of the estimated 78 percent ofAmerican Indians and Alaska Natives who live off reservations or away from tribal villages, and who reflect some of the most disproportionately low social and economic standards in the urban areas in which they reside. Urban Indian organizations are an important support to Native families and individuals, providing cultural linkages as well as a hub for accessing essential services.

To learn more about these organizations and the project, please see the First Nations/NUIFC press release at this link: http://www.firstnations.org/node/645.

By Montoya A. Whiteman, First Nations Senior Program Officer

Open House Celebrates Permanent Home of First Nations

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Some of First Nations' staff members at the Open House. L to R are Montoya Whiteman, Marsha Whiting and Lisa Yellow Eagle

On Sept. 6, nearly 100 people came together to celebrate First Nations Development Institute’s new permanent home and office building in Longmont, Colorado.  The occasion was an open house featuring good food, friends, supporters and, of course, lots of fun.

First Nations actually moved into the existing building in the north part of Longmont back on April 26, but it wasn’t until early September that we were ready and able to pause and celebrate.  We had to get everything situated and make a few updates and repairs (and we’ll continue to make improvements in the future), plus we had to do our regular work in the meantime.

John Emhoolah Jr. (Kiowa and Arapaho) offers his song

Some of the attendees included Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs and other local elected officials, state officials, representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, area business people, the professional and business tenants in our building, some of the funders, foundations and individual donors who help sustain us, and numerous representatives from other American Indian organizations in Colorado and New Mexico such as the Native American Rights Fund, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the Notah Begay III Foundation, the American Indian College Fund, the Denver Indian Center, and Native American Bank.  We even had a few of our Facebook friends and Twitter followers drop by for the event.

Besides ample and delicious food and the chance to reconnect with many friends and professional Native connections, the highlights of the observance were remarks and a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by First Nations President Michael Roberts (Tlingit), and a Kiowa song and blessing by noted Colorado Indian leader John Emhoolah Jr. (Kiowa and Arapaho).  Then we celebrated with cake!

John EchoHawk, left, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, chats with First Nations President Mike Roberts

We’re planning to call our building the “First Nations Professional Building.” It’s located at 2432 Main Street in Longmont, Colorado.

As the chairman of our board of directors, B. Thomas Vigil (Jicarilla Apache/Jemez Pueblo), noted in our recent annual report, “First Nations purchased its own headquarters building after years of leasing space and dealing with seemingly endless rent increases. It became obvious that First Nations needed to seize control of its own physical space. The building is now a key asset of the organization, providing operational space as well as rental income from other tenants. I believe it’s a sign of the continuing growth and maturity of the organization, and is testament to its growing presence, impact and credibility in Native communities.”

First Nations Partners with NUIFC to Add Urban Indian Focus

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In May 2013, First Nations announced it received a substantial grant from The Kresge Foundation that we’ll use to help improve numerous American Indian nonprofit organizations in urban or metropolitan locations. The project will accomplish this by helping build the capacity of those organizations, which means we’ll provide tailored training and technical assistance that will help them better organize, strategize, manage and grow their organizations. In turn, they will become stronger, more efficient and more effective in achieving their missions.

This is a bit of a departure for First Nations. Throughout its more than three decades of existence, First Nations has primarily focused on rural and reservation-based Native communities. We are now expanding into a new focus area that helps address the well-being of Native Americans who happen to live and work in bigger cities.

And in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration that we use in everything we do with Native communities, we have partnered with a great organization that provides us with enhanced “street smarts” in those urban communities – the National Urban Indian Family Coalition, or NUIFC, which is a network of urban Indian organizations that strengthen urban Native families. It is led by Executive Director Janeen Comenote, who founded the organization.

Janeen is passionate about her work. “We know that American Indian families and children are among the most vulnerable of America’s urban populations,” she notes.  “Today, more than 4 million, or 78% of American Indians, live off the reservation and lack a collective national voice.  In culturally and geographically diverse Indian Country, the populations of American Indians residing off reservation often remain the ‘silent majority.’  American Indians and Alaska Natives populate some of the most disproportionately low social and economic standards in every large city in which they reside, with a child poverty rate at  25%, which is nearly triple the national average and unemployment at double the national average.”
Janeen Comenote

Janeen knows first-hand the situation of urban Indians. She was born and raised in Seattle, Washington – she is Hesquiaht and Kwakiutl First Nation from her mother’s side, and Oglala Lakota and enrolled Quinault from her father’s side – and she has worked in this area, in one form or another, for nearly 20 years.  “I am driven to do this. I have worked with Native street youth, Indian child welfare, as well as poverty research and program development,” she says. “This breadth and depth of experience has given me a unique view into the day-to-day realities of Native people living in urban areas as well as provided the impetus to do what I can do to help address some of those disparities.”

The partnership will draw upon First Nations’ extensive capacity-building expertise and NUIFC’s networks, evaluation and data-collection experience, and insider knowledge of urban Indian organizations and their needs. Over the life of the Kresge Foundation grant, which runs to the end of 2016, First Nations and NUIFC with work directly with as many as nine urban Native American nonprofits to help them improve their management and leadership skills and boost their organizational effectiveness, provide customized assistance and training, host an annual capacity building conference for participants, and document the project’s best practices and potential for replication in other Native American urban communities. First Nations Senior Program Officer Montoya Whiteman (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes) is managing the grant and the partnership.

“For 32 years, First Nations has worked primarily in rural and reservation-based Native American communities, helping them develop much-needed stronger economies by doing our work on several fronts,” noted Michael E. Roberts (Tlingit), First Nations president.  “We’re now excited to take our successful track record and apply it to urban communities of American Indians.  Native nonprofits that are more effective at what they do and how they are managed are a key resource to the health, prosperity and growth of Indian communities, whether rural or urban.”

Urban Indian organizations, some of which were launched in the 1940s and 50s, are an important support to Native families and individuals, providing cultural linkages as well as being a hub for accessing essential services. There are nearly 250 local or state-focused urban Indian organizations in NUIFC’s network representing over 600,000 Indians nationwide.

According to Janeen, one of the primary intentions of creating the NUIFC is to ensure access to traditionally excluded organizations and families, and to focus attention on the needs of urban Indians. “Our primary goal is to contribute to better living standards and develop a resource pool through which we can reach this goal,” Janeen said.  “I cannot overemphasize the importance and impact this innovative work will have in strengthening the urban Indian nonprofit sector and thereby improving the outcomes for our communities. Projects and partnerships like this provide important acknowledgment that the needs of our urban populations are important and being addressed.”

By Randy Blauvelt, First Nations Senior Communications Officer

First Nations Keynotes at Seminole Conference

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The Native Learning Center affiliated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida invited First Nations Development Institute to present at its Fifth Annual Summer Conference – Strengthening Tribal Communities Into the Future – in Hollywood, Florida, on June 5, 2013.

First Nations Senior Program Officer Montoya Whiteman (Cheyenne-Arapaho) spoke during a general session to approximately 150 conference attendees. She discussed First Nations’ history and purpose, the organization’s current My Green financial education campaign, and the Building Native Communities Financial Series, specifically A Journey to Financial Empowerment.

Montoya Whiteman

Montoya noted that the opportunity to share First Nation’s work in this type of environment reinforces the importance of collaboration, and provides insight into demonstrated strategies, tools and research activities.  “It also highlights the valuable resources that are free to Native communities and the public, and which are available through our First Nations website,” she added.

To learn more about research models and publications, visit http://www.firstnations.org and click on the “Knowledge Center” tab, or simply click here.

At First Nations, Montoya currently supports the organization’s Strengthening Native American Nonprofits Program through technical assistance, training, site visits, institutes, and webinars for improving nonprofit capacity and organizational effectiveness. She implements several U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women grants, as well the Housing and Urban Development One CPD Technical Assistance grant. Most recently, she has taken on responsibility for overseeing a new project that will expand First Nations’ work to urban Indians and organizations, beyond its normal focus on rural and reservation-based Native communities.

Nooksack Youth Carry On Traditions

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“We hope to see our youth become engaged in cultural activities that will become a life-long pursuit for them. We want to offer them traditions that will help them reconnect to their Nooksack heritage. Our youth, in particular, need another avenue to step away from unhealthy behaviors and addictions. We need to mentor tomorrow’s leaders and we need to equip them in our ways so that they can lead future generations.” ~ George Swanaset, Jr. — Director/Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Nooksack Indian Tribe

During 2012, the Nooksack Indian Tribe based in Deming, Washington, was awarded a $20,000 grant under First Nations’ Native Youth and Culture Fund, which is part of our effort to strengthen Native American nonprofit organizations. In particular, the fund looks for projects that focus on youth and incorporate culture and tradition. They can include efforts to preserve, strengthen or renew cultural and spiritual practices, beliefs, values and languages, or which engage both youth and elders in activities designed to share or document traditional knowledge, or increasing the leadership capacity of tribal youth.

The funds support the renewal of Nooksack traditions through intergenerational activities with youth. Through the grant, numerous tribal youth ages 14 to 19 are engaging in three workshops that are intended to fuse Native traditions with the community. The workshops are canoe building, net making, and cultural awareness. The cultural awareness workshop also involves intergenerational Nooksack members, and includes activities such as traditional games, drumming, singing, talking circles and healing events.

“The canoe-building and net-making workshops are specific to our youth, as these skills need to be passed down to this generation in order for them to be sustained for future Nooksacks.” George noted. “Traditional Native war canoes and salmon-netting are a part of our cultural identity and build leadership. Today, many tribes in the Pacific Northwest race against each other in these canoes in annual races, and we join them for this important reconnection to the past. We see much value in performing this series of workshops for the extension of cultural preservation and awareness within the Nooksack tribal community.”

And while the youngsters learned – and are learning – much from the workshops and from construction of two canoes, there was a lot more going on in the background. The effort bolstered the future success and well-being of the Nooksack people and their community by preserving traditions and providing mentoring and leadership skills to the youth group.

The Nooksack Indian Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of 2,000.  Its culture is preserved through multiple disciplines including language instruction, canoe journeys, elder programs and a variety of cultural events.

By Montoya Whiteman, Senior Program Officer