The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Economic Development Office has completed the five-year Sustainable Workforce Enhancement and Entrepreneurship Initiative funded by the Administration for Native Americans. 

“While we have come to the end of this initiative,” said Janet Camel, Project Director, “we will continue to partner with entities involved in workforce and entrepreneur development to provide free training and other resources. Our Coalition will meet every other month, and the community is welcome to attend these meetings. Meeting dates/times are listed under "Events" on the Home Page of this website."

The Initiative was built upon data gathered in 2014 about the local economy, and Tribal members’ career goals and job and training needs. A team of partners worked to address barriers to employment and entrepreneurship, to help people find employment and the training needed to reach career goals. 

Over the past five years, Selena Kenmille and Jennifer Finley, as the Initiative's Workforce Enhancement Coordinators, assisted 334 tribal members with career planning, job applications, resumes or other employment needs such as job uniforms, bus passes and more.

“Partnerships with Salish Kootenai College (SKC), the Department of Human Resource Development, Mission West Community Development Partners, Job Service Polson, the Montana Department of Commerce and other entities helped us provide free workforce or entrepreneur training to 397 individuals over the past 5 years," added Camel.

As a result, several Tribal members have started new businesses, a part-time summer intern is now working full-time at Eagle Bank, others are finishing school, and others are newly trained supervisors in two Tribal departments. In addition, after completing coursework at SKC developed through this initiative, at least 12 tribal members are employed as health care workers, and others are employed in hospitality or construction-related jobs, or as sports referees.  

For links to workforce and business development resources, please see the Recommended Links in the upper right corner of this website page.