Partnering with Indian
Communities to make homes
healthier, safer and warmer
Yianice Hernandez
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.
Enterprise Green Communities
Launched in 2004, Enterprise Green Communities is an
effort to transform the way we locate, design and
build affordable homes and to forge a powerful
coalition of housing, health and environmental
stakeholders to advance this shared vision.
Resident Engagement Resources
www.EnterpriseCommunity.org/residentengagement
Resident Engagement in Action
San Francisco, CA
Eden has set a company wide
goal of reducing energy, and
waste usage by 30% over 3
years.
Resident engagement plays a
large part and as a result, Eden
has added green education into
after-school programs at their
properties.
Over 400 youth participate in this
program annually, and created a
PSA on Water Conservation.
To view video:
http://youtu.be/Acn1mp3qTmw
Resident Engagement in Action
New York, NY
Self-help recruited four (4)
Green Resident Leaders
for the property. Green
Leaders helped to develop
the training programs,
communications and
outreach methods with the
Self-help staff and they
provided translation of the
pertinent information into
multiple languages
(Russian, Chinese and
Korean) to address the
cultural make up of the
building’s residents.
Resident Engagement in Action
Resident Engagement in Action
Austin, TX
Resident Engagement Best Practices
1. Empower staff to serve as green
champions onsite
2. Set measureable goals to track
and communicate progress
3. Survey residents to structure
engagement program based on
their interests
4. Be flexible: adapt and re-plan to
ensure an effective, successful
program
Children from Abode Communities’
Ivy Terrace clean up a local watershed.
Resident Engagement Things to Consider
1. Motivate residents with positive
feedback
2. Encourage interactivity to allow
residents to share their own
experiences and tips
3. Use visuals such as videos as a
tool to promote learning
4. Make it FUN – serve
refreshments and award prizes
to encourage participation
Farmworker Housing Development Corporation
taught residents to make and use their own
green cleaners.
For more information, see:
www.EnterpriseCommunity.org/greenresources
Red Feather: Charting our
Path Forward
Molly Jones-McCabe
Red Feather Development Group
VISION
Mission
Red Feather envisions a
world where safe housing
is available to all and
people are inspired to work
collectively to create selfsustaining communities.
Red Feather partners with
American Indian nations
to develop and implement
sustainable solutions to
the housing needs within
their communities.
Evaluating our Impact
• Rethinking the “One House at a Time”
model
• Assessing the Needs of Our Target
Audience
• Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of
Each Program
IMPACT of the “Economic Downturn”
180,000.00
160,000.00
140,000.00
120,000.00
2011
100,000.00
2012
2013
80,000.00
2014
60,000.00
40,000.00
20,000.00
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September October November December
Trend Analysis: Individual Donations
IMPACT of the “Economic Downturn”
300,000.00
250,000.00
200,000.00
150,000.00
2011
2012
2013
100,000.00
50,000.00
-
Trend Analysis: Corporate & Private Foundations
2014
Defining How We “Do Business”
Our Work is about Sustainability
• Environmental Sustainability
• Social/Cultural Sustainability
• Economic Sustainability
What This Means:
• Projects initiated by tribal members –
guidance vs. feedback
• Affordable, healthy housing
• Culturally-orientated designs
• Vocational Education opportunities (each
with a hands-on home improvement
component)
• Employment opportunities for tribal
members
The “Red Feather Way”
Each project is a partnership of many
Success is dependent upon relationships
and trust.
Community Partnerships Include:
• Homeowners (financial, sweat equity)
• Volunteers (financial, labor)
• Community Partners (land process, loan
process, labor, cultural presentations, food)
• Red Feather Members/Donors/Sponsors
(financial, materials, labor)
• Red Feather Staff (fundraising, project
supervision)
Learning is Ceremony…and
so is Teaching
1
John B. Marian
Red Feather Development Group
Circular Logic
Relationships form our reality
We are accountable to respect & honor those relationships
Workshops are a ceremony. Not a sacred ceremony, but a
process whereby students become closer and more
knowledgeable about a subject, topic or context. Through
ceremony, students respectfully seek knowledge from the
Cosmos
Community Relationships Drive the
Content RF Delivers
What and how does the
community want to learn?
Workshops are "space" for
students to become closer to
knowledge
When students share stories
& knowledge, they help
demonstrate their personal
connection to information
Homeowner Education
What did we do?
Created a Homeowner Reference
Manual and Do-It-Yourself
Workshop Curriculum
What did we accomplish?
Developed proprietary resources
to better prepare tribal
homeowners for homeownership
and enable them to create
healthier living environments
Homeowner Education (cont.)
What did we do?
Sponsored 5 Healthy Homes
workshops, which we taught in
partnership with staff of the
Northern Cheyenne Tribal
Housing Authority
What did we accomplish?
Over the course of 5 weeks we
taught a total of 35 tribal “rent-toown” residents our new Healthy
Homes curriculum.
Homeowner Education (cont.)
What did we do?
Collaborated with the Hopi Tribal
Housing Authority to offer two
do-it-yourself weatherization (Wx)
workshops.
What did we accomplish?
Taught over thirty community
members how to install Wx
measures on their home, provided
them with a DIY starter kit ($240
value), and installed basic
weatherization measures two Hopi
homes.
Learning to Teach (to Learn)
Teamwork and hands-on
learning activities establish that
students understand info, can
perform tasks, and apply it to a
problem
Personal accountability to
evolve content and pedagogy
to improve the ceremony
Every class is unique because
of the relationships
Discussion and Questions
Yianice Hernandez
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc
Molly Jones-McCabe
Red Feather Development Group
John Marian
Red Feather Development Group