This webinar for funders and field partners will provide two examples from Indian Country of implementing a collective vision and governance model to strengthen workforce programs in Tribal communities.Our speakers will share how a workforce vision for Tribal communities has been organized to both center Tribal community priorities and challenge policies and systems that continue to undermine Tribal sovereignty. We will hear from Native Workforce Partners, an organization of workforce and education programs serving Native people in New Mexico that supports employment and training programs in both tribal nations and urban centers through a collective group of programs funded by the US Department of Labor under Section 166 or 477 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, who have focused on implementing a community-designed education and workforce pipeline. Panelists will discuss how their governance structure creates self-determined priorities, what policies they hope to advance at the state level, how federal policies have impacted their work to date, and finally, how philanthropy has played a role in catalyzing their efforts.

This will be the first in a series of webinars sponsored by Workforce Matters’ Workforce Grantmaking in Native Nations and Communities in 2026. For more information on this series, please email nativenations@workforce-matters.org. Register here today!

Speakers:

• Bernadette Panteah, Co-chair, Native Workforce Partners
• Megan Elkins, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Dr. Christine Meyer, Director of Education, Coeur d’Alene Tribe