Project Overview

Tribe/Awardee:
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community

Location:
Baraga, MI

Project Title:
Weatherization Training Project

Type of Application:
First Steps (Planning)

DOE Grant Number:
DE-EE0002528

Project Amounts:
DOE: $137,640
Awardee: $0
Total: $137,640

Project Status:
See project status

Project Period of Performance:
Start: January 2010
End: March 2011

Summary

The goal of the project is to build the staff capacity to enable the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) to establish a tribal weatherization program that promotes energy sufficiency throughout the tribal community.

Project Description

Background

The project addresses the needs identified in the 2008 KBIC Strategic Energy Plan to build the staff capacity and increase the knowledge base within the tribal departments and to implement an energy efficiency program through community education and financial assistance incentives.

The KBIC Comprehensive Strategic Plan environmental goals are to provide resource conservation education to tribal members, evaluate energy efficiency options for tribal government and members, explore green energy sources, and expand recycling opportunities. With these strategic planning visions in mind, the objective of this project is to train appropriate staff, both new and existing, from various departments, in the core competencies needed to develop and operate a coordinated weatherization program. In the end, the community would have a designated weatherization office coordinating all tribal weatherization efforts and programs, including community education, technical assistance, funding, and project implementation.

Project Objectives

The objective of the proposed project is to train the appropriate staff, both new and existing, from various KBIC departments in the core competencies needed to develop a comprehensive tribal community weatherization program.

The approach KBIC is taking to establish a weatherization program office is to coordinate all of the programs and department staff involved in a variety of weatherization activities throughout tribal government and the community under one central weatherization program office. This effort requires considerable coordination and cross-training of staff working on tribal facilities and individual homeowners. The KBIC Community Assistance Program (CAP) office was selected to implement the project based on the current staff skills developed working with government program funding, contractors and our tribal members in the community. 

The plan for obtaining the skills and competencies to operate a community weatherization program is to provide training for the Ojibwa Housing Authority staff and KBIC building inspectors to handle the residential and commercial/government building energy audits, technical assistance and inspections, and weatherization skills training for the contractors and installers who work for KBIC Maintenance (tribal buildings only), Ojibwa Builders (residential) and Tribal Construction Company (general), all of whom will work under the program.

One new weatherization staff position will be trained and hired by Tribal Construction Company for installation skills working primarily on tribal government and commercial facilities.

Project Location

The KBIC is a federally recognized Indian tribe located on the 59,067 acre L'Anse Indian Reservation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior's south shore. The reservation lands are scattered throughout Baraga County, as well as a small part of Ontonagon County to the west and a smaller portion of Marquette County to the east.

The KBIC has 3,466 enrolled tribal members, with 1,032 residing on reservation lands in Baraga County, or Trust lands in Marquette County. In Baraga County, Native Americans account for 12% of the total population of 8,746 residents. Approximately 20% of tribal members living on the reservation are age 55 and over.

Project Status

The project is complete. For details, see the final report.

The project was competitively selected under the Tribal Energy Program's fiscal year 2009 funding opportunity announcement, "First Steps Toward Tribal Weatherization — Human Capacity Development," and started in January 2010.

The November 2009, October 2010, and November 2011 project status reports provide more information.