Citizen Engagement: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Graduates (those holding certificates) of the "Workin' with Tradition" soft skills training, which improves self-awareness and interpersonal skills needed to successfully enter into and advance in the workforce. (Photo: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Ventures)
CRST struggles with severe unemployment and poverty, in part due to scarce job opportunities and barriers faced by CRST members seeking work. To tackle this dynamic, CRST launched a community inclusive planning process that gave rise to Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Ventures (TV), a long-term poverty reduction plan and organization. Based on a vision of prosperity, TV operates on the premise that you can’t help the people achieve it unless you truly understand them. To that end, TV has made structured, ongoing citizen engagement (learning from the people and then sharing what it learns with them) standard practice. Central to its effort “to create the story of our own community” is its “Voices” research project, which used surveys to generate unprecedented baseline data about CRST’s members, families, and economy. TV also partnered with the CDFI Four Bands Community Fund to conduct a reservation-wide workforce development survey. Its findings are being used to “develop a Reservation-wide strategy to increase the skills of individuals seeking permanent employment, while ensuring employers build their capacity to...hire and retain qualified employees”; so far, it has led to a partnership to provide targeted GED tutoring to CRST members and the creation of a day labor program for members who prefer short-term employment.
CONNECT: Karen Ducheneaux, Executive Director, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Ventures, karenducheneaux@gmail.com
Workforce Development: CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE
To learn more about CRST’s workforce development story, click on the resources below.