NWIC provides model for reporting on prosperity

Like its peers, Northwest Indian College (NWIC, Bellingham, WA) wants to increase tribal prosperity. In fact, that goal is written right into the school’s Job One. But NWIC has an unusually detailed reporting requirement in place.

The number one priority in NWIC’s current strategic plan states “NWIC strengthens individual and tribal prosperity through excellent and culturally relevant education, research, and training.”

Now, it is not content to set this goal and walk away, either. It has set rather rigorous reporting standards to stay accountable on its progress.

“Key to the success of our strategic plan is the reporting of our progress on achieving the goals associated with each initiative,” according to the plan, which comes out of a process initiated back in 2003 by current President Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota).

It mandates both monthly and quarterly monitoring using baseline data and performance indicators. Then, “NWIC will publish an annual progress report comparing baseline data to available annual data demonstrating how we are achieving each of these goals.”

The college got its start directly targeting an important tribal economic sector in 1973 as the Lummi Indian School of Aquaculture. Now the college has approximately 500 students and has expanded beyond just the Lummi Tribe with satellites at Swinomish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, Colville, and Nez Perce.

NWIC set six specific goals for supporting tribal prosperity, with four performance indicators and three sets of baseline data to do the measuring. Its initiative wants to “Increase Native representation in employment areas requiring technical personnel, increase the number of Native people in professional and service careers, (and) increase successful establishment of tribal and individual enterprises.” The indicators also envision “Trained Native personnel provid(ing) stewardship of tribal, human, and natural resources.”

One way it does this is through the Northwest Indian College Training Institute, which provides training in more than 20 different areas, including construction, small business development, fisheries training, land use planning, and many more.

The institute provides training both for academic credit and for certification, and it uses both on-site and distance learning teaching. It will also customize training in other areas on request.

Mark Fogarty has been writing about American Indian housing and economic development since 1994. His work on Indian Country has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, Indian Country Today, American Indian Report, Native Americas, the New Mexico Business Journal, the Four Corners Business Journal, National Mortgage News, Origination News, U.S. Banker, and Credit Union Journal. He is the editor of National Mortgage News in New York City.