A Native strategy. An aspirational training plan. Listening to the network and finding the programs that will help the most. With the start of a new year, NeighborWorks leaders look at some of the plans and goals in store. 

NeighborWorks' commitment to Native communities 

Mel Willie, NeighborWorks America's director of Native American Partnerships & Strategy, says that in 2023, the national nonprofit focused on developing a five-year Native strategy. "Now we're focused on launching it."  

It's been 30 years since the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority (ESHA) built brand new homes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, the seventh largest Indian reservation in the country. 

 A partnership between GROW South Dakota (GROW SD), a NeighborWorks network organization, and  the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe, is helping grow businesses in South Dakota. For the past few years, GROW SD has assisted the tribe's economic development arm in helping set up business plans for tribal members.

On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation in South Dakota, the schools were aging. The only building that didn't need a rehab was the Oglala Lakota County School District Virtual High School — and that's because it only existed in cyberspace.

This year, leaders from Native-led organizations and those advancing Native community development programs are working to expand their community impact through the NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence Program.

At Military Warriors Support Foundation, the mission is to provide support services to gold star families and military veterans who were wounded in combat. A big part of that support is homeownership, and the organization has awarded more than 900 mortgage-free homes to veterans across the country, many of which were donated out of foreclosure.

Our Native Partnership Gathering, held during the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Chicago, was a chance for network leaders working with Native communities to learn from each other, to build relationships, to share strategies and – perhaps most of all – to talk story. One of my goals in the 15 months I've been director of Native American Partnerships and Strategy (NAPS) has been to help expand our investment and deepen our impact in Native communities.

During a Native-focused event at the recent NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI), participants were quick to point out that if you’ve seen one tribe, you’ve seen exactly that: one tribe out of the diverse, 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. Their communities are diverse, too.

Building on successes from the past year means that NeighborWorks America is not starting the new year saying, "out with the old." But NeighborWorks'  senior leaders also have lots of new goals and ideas for the year ahead. 

Katie Watts, senior vice president of Field Operations

Mel Willie is NeighborWorks America's new director of Native Partnerships and Strategy. He began this position in May 2022 to help expand NeighborWorks' investment in Tribal communities, and has spent his first six months speaking, listening and problem-solving as he's talked with representatives around the network. Willie comes to NeighborWorks with more than 23 years of experience in nonprofit management, government, political, public and intergovernmental affairs.