View the full project profile

Project Description

The Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants program supplements other program resources that American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages can draw on to address the employment needs of their members. The program targets the most disadvantaged welfare recipients and helps those with significant barriers to employment make the transition from welfare to work.

Project duration: Oct 1997 - Aug 2004

Sites studied include 10 U.S. Indian reservations and Alaska Native villages (California Indian Manpower Consortium, Inc.,
Eastern Band of Cherokee,
Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas,
The Klamath Tribes,
Navajo Nation,
Nez Perce Tribe,
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians,
Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc.,
Three Affiliated Tribes,
White Earth Reservation Tribal Council).

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

Purposive sample of 10 tribal programs

Recent Findings in Brief

08/01/04: Evaluation of the Tribal Welfare-to-Work Grants Program: Overcoming Challenges to Business and Economic Development in Indian Country

Final Implementation Findings:

• The federal government's ongoing commitment to Indian self-determination, tribal self-governance, and tribal sovereignty has had a positive impact on BD/ED in Indian country. This support has enabled tribes to take over operation of many federally funded programs, increased employment opportunities for tribal members, and enabled many tribal members to obtain experience needed to promote BD/ED.
• There is no single federally sponsored program that works best for all tribes/Native corporations. This is not surprising, given the diversity in the needs and circumstances of the tribes/Native corporations. Among the most valuable programs or initiatives to the tribes/Native corporations in the study were gaming, USDA rural development and EZ/EC programs, and the SBA 8(a) and HUBZone programs.
• While federal programs and initiatives have been key factors in some significant successes and have made valuable contributions to BD/ED throughout Indian country, many Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages continue to experience levels of unemployment that exceed 45 percent and levels of poverty that exceed 36 percent (NCAI 2003). Of the eight tribes and the areas served by the two Alaska Native corporations in the sample, seven reported unemployment rates exceeding 45 percent, the highest being 80 percent (Doyon and Cheyenne River Sioux).
• While it is too early to determine their effects, several federal initiatives that aim to attract investment capital to Indian country have been implemented. These promising initiatives create:
  1. the New Markets tax credit and the Indian reservation investment tax credit;
  2. tax credits for investors in CDFIs;
     and
     
  3. the authority for tribes to issue tax-exempt bonds.

Contact