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 Greetings!We hope to keep our newsletter informative, interesting, and useful. Be sure to let us know if you have any comments, suggestions, or article ideas. About the RDC
The RDC oversees a number of small business orientated programs in Northern New Mexico, including Northern NM Connect (NNMConnect.net), Northern New Mexico 20/20 (NNM2020.org) and the Northern New Mexico Regional Economic Development Initiative (NNMREDI.org).
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Six Receive Grants From Native American VAF
Venture Acceleration Fund Sponsored by NM Department of Indian Affairs and Los Alamos National Security, LLC
Six Native American businesses received grants through a new Native American Venture Acceleration Fund jointly created by the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department and Los Alamos National Security, LLC. The grants are designed to help the recipients create jobs, increase their revenue base and help diversify the area economy.
"The purpose of the newly created fund is to develop tribally held businesses in Northern New Mexico," said Kurt Steinhaus, director of the Laboratory's Community Programs Office. "LANS and Los Alamos National Laboratory are excited to announce the first of these Native American Venture Acceleration Grant Fund recipients and we look forward to working with these and other Native American businesses to promote economic development in Northern New Mexico." Continued
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REDI Producers to Grow Value Added Agriculture Cluster
Conference in Rio Arriba County
On February 23rd the RDC's REDI initiative participated in the second annual Rio Arriba County Food Policy Council's Aqui y Alla Conference. Over 100 local agriculture producers and stakeholders participated in the all-day conference at Northern New Mexico College.
The RDC through REDI helped create this annual conference in 2012 with the goal of aiding local producers develop the skills to grow and stabilize production and also develop aggregation strategies to help regional producers cooperate in identifying larger markets for their products. This year's event provided presentations and breakout sessions designed to aid local producers with production topics from producing organic produce in winter to aiding beef producers to finding new markets and sources of capital to fund growth.
The RDC through the REDI initiative continued its active role in this conference and conducted a interactive presentation/survey of all participants to identify capacity and needs to help guide the RDC and region in identifying projects for development. Eric Vasquez and Naomi Engelman with the RDC worked with conference participants to identify their strengths weaknesses, and difficulties.
Final results are still being compiled but through this survey we were able to develop a snapshot of who the region's agriculture producers are. The average age of farmers and ranchers in Rio Arriba is 57 years old with an average of 23 years' experience as a producer and a medium of 12 acres per operation.
Continued
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Innovate+Educate Awards $200K to Address Skills Gap
Goal is to improve workforce skills
Innovate+Educate has announced $200,000 in funding to communities in New Mexico interested in building their talent pipeline. The grants will bring together industry, community and education leaders to bridge the skills gap and develop new mechanisms for hiring, skills assessment and training. Awardees include: - CHRISTUS St. Vincent's Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe
- Four Corners Economic Development (4CED) in the Farmington region
- The Regional Development Corporation(RDC) serving a four county region in Northern NM
- The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce
The Northern New Mexico grant award through the RDC will include UNM Los Alamos, Santa Fe Community College, UNM Taos, Northern New Mexico College, the Taos Entrepreneurial Network and the Greater Espanola Valley Community Development Corporation as partners. Partners will work together to educate businesses about new ways of hiring and give job seekers new ways to demonstrate their abilities. Continued |
Accelerate Helps Student Initiate Second Career
Accelerate is a joint program of the RDC and 6 Northern NM Colleges with the goal of graduating non-traditional students with technical degrees
Gerard Martinez had been on and off unemployment and without full-time work for over three years whenhe heard about the Accelerate program. Martinez had been thinking about going back to college to pursue a new career, but feared he wouldn't be able to complete the math requirements. When he heard that the Accelerate program offered a "Math Boot Camp" to help students get through remedial math courses, he enrolled in Santa Fe Community College and simultaneously joined the Accelerate program. The Technical Training and Job Placement program, known as Accelerate, focuses on transitional workers with retraining needs and non-traditional students enrolled in technical certificate and 2-year degree programs. Accelerate offers an innovative approach to increase technical degree completion, professional readiness, and job placement. Today, Martinez continues in the Accelerate program while pursuing his Associates in Applied Science in Sustainable Technologies. He has already obtained certificates in OHSA 10, Biodiesel Production, Biomass/Biogas Production, Solar Heating - and he's made the Dean's List. Continued |
Quality Childcare Leads to Stronger Economies
Three workshops scheduled in Northern NM
The RDC is proud to co-sponsor a series of 3 workshops in Northern New Mexico designed to introduce childcare providers to resources that can support their businesses. The availability of high quality childcare is important to supporting the region's economy. What most often holds childcare service providers back are lack of knowledge around business practices - how to market their services, keep the books and comply with regulations. Please join us for these workshops to support childcare providers in increasing their awareness of business resources. The first half hour of the event will be dedicated to networking. - Espanola, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, 5:30 pm - Northern NM College-Joseph Montoya Administrative Building
- Taos, Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 5:30 pm - UNM Taos Klauer Campus
- Las Vegas, Thursday, April 4, 2013, 5:30 pm - New Mexico Highlands University
For more information, please contact Baji at 505-243-5437 or RSVP to theteam@NewMexECA.org. Top |
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Native American VAF (Continued)
Funding comes from the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department and LANS, which manages Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Native American Venture Acceleration Fund is managed by the Regional Development Corporation (http://www.rdcnm.org/ ) To be eligible for a Native American Venture Acceleration Fund grant, applicants:
- must demonstrate they are a Native American-owned business in which a tribe or tribal member has at least a 51 percent stake in the enterprise
- be a tribal business or corporation from the pueblos of Nambe, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, Santa Clara, Pojoaque, Taos, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Cochiti or Jemez
- be located in Sandoval, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, San Miguel, Mora, Rio Arriba or Taos counties.
Grant recipients, amount awarded and purpose are: - San Ildefonso Development Corporation: $20,500, for upgrades to existing account software and training
- Three Eagles Development Corporation, Picuris Pueblo, $10,800, update computer and account systems, software and hardware
- Cochiti Pueblo Development Corporation, $20,000, for restructuring of the Corporation to include an environmental services firm
- Avanyu Construction Services, LLC, privately held business by San Ildefonso and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo members, $25,000, new accounting software to fulfill federal contracting requirements and begin 8A (small disadvantaged business) certification process
- Sunbeam Indian Art, San Ildefonso Pueblo, $3,400, to develop website capabilities to increase online sales
- Than Povi, San Ildefonso Pueblo, $4,400, for website development, online sales capability and point-of-sales software for it's a new retail outlet in Cuyamungue.
"A vital part of the mission of the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department is improving the quality of life of Native Americans in the state of New Mexico by increasing economic opportunities," said Arthur Allison, Cabinet Secretary of New Mexico Indian Affairs Department. "This newly created fund is one of the many strategies our Department has to grow native owned businesses and create job opportunities for Native American people in New Mexico. " Twelve, high-quality proposals were submitted for funding last fall; all will receive funding or technical assistance. More information about the Native American Venture Acceleration Fund is available through Kathy Keith (Kathy@rdcnm.org), executive director of the Regional Development Corporation, or Vangie Trujillo (vangie@lanl.gov) of LANL's Community Programs Office. Top |
Innovate+Educate (Continued)
"In today's economy, the traditional hiring system is no longer working for the jobseeker or the employer." stated Jamai Blivin, CEO, Innovate+Educate. "Our model identifies a new way to match jobseekers to jobs, and creates tremendous ROI for the employer. These grants are for communities to seed their own innovations and create models for Innovate+Educate to scale nationally." "As Chairman of the Board of Innovate+Educate, I am thrilled to help create the vision to solve the skills gap not only in New Mexico, but nationally," stated Jami Grindatto. "This grant program is the first phase of Innovate+Educate's work to contribute to New Mexico's continued economic growth." About Innovate+Educate Innovate+Educate is a national leader in developing strategies and implementing solutions to address the skills gap. The research, tools and proven systems developed and marketed by Innovate+Educate is fueling nationwide adoption of new industry-driven, competency-based hiring frameworks and alternative jobseeker training and credentialing. These grants were made possible due to the funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to advance the New Options Project. www.innovate-educate.org | 505.780.8488 |
Agricultural Conference (Continued)
These producers identified marketing, water issues and a lack of capital to address these issues as major bottlenecks constricting growth. Further dissecting of the responses and follow up questions revealed possible strategies for the region to jointly address these issues. The findings of this survey will be shared with all stakeholders in the region to help coordinate strategies. Top |
Accelerate Success (Continued)
Martinez says his favorite parts of the program are working one on one with an Accelerate Career Technical Advisor (CTA) and the Internship program. CTAs pro-actively touch base with students to make sure they are progressing and to help them with problem solving on issues that could impact school work. In the winter of 2012, Martinez was awarded an internship through Accelerate with the Solar Department at Santa Fe Community College. He is working with the NM Solar Energy Association to put on a solar fair that would feature potential employers in the area. Top |
About Us The RDC is a regional economic development organization for Northern New Mexico, focused on creating a diverse and sustainable economy. The RDC works collaboratively to create new jobs in the region by strengthening services to businesses and developing the infrastructure, public policy and workforce to support job growth. Its principal service areas are Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe, Taos, San Miguel, Mora and Sandoval counties. Visit the RDC Website Sincerely, Kathy Keith
Executive Director
kathy@rdcnm.org 505-820-0402 Top |
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