The New Mexico Economic Development Department's Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office — or JEDI Office — recently struck a partnership with a New Mexico Tribal entrepreneurship program that will help the office expand its services to Tribal communities throughout the state.
The state's Economic Development Department (EDD) announced in late September that its JEDI Office signed a memorandum of understanding with the New Mexico Tribal Entrepreneurship Enhancement Program, or NMTEEP. It's an entrepreneurship support program run through the University of New Mexico Rainforest Innovations to create opportunity, wealth and job growth in Tribal communities, according to its website.
Partnering will allow the two organizations to collaborate on events, workshops and other programs, alongside more initiatives to "enhance marketing and data sharing," according to a Sept. 27 release from the New Mexico EDD. It'll focus on financial literacy programs and tailored technical assistance, the release notes.
"As we've been doing this work within the Economic Development Department, our goal has been to be able to connect with communities that aren't traditionally being hit by EDD programming," Shani Harvie, the JEDI Office coordinator, told Albuquerque Business First. "And for a lot of small businesses, creative businesses and underserved and rural businesses, that means that we need to be better connected with partners in our community."
The partnership with NMTEEP, through Rainforest Innovations, is one example of that connection, Harvie said. Rainforest Innovations is a wide-ranging technology transfer and economic development organization attached to the University of New Mexico and housed at the Lobo Rainforest Building in Albuquerque's Innovation District.
Although Rainforest Innovations is based in Albuquerque, Harvie said the JEDI Office's partnership is "really around connecting with Indigenous entrepreneurs throughout the entire state." That could include Tribal members in communities that have been affected by the closure of coal mines in New Mexico, Cecilia Pacheco, the program manager of NMTEEP, told Business First.
Pacheco said NMTEEP and JEDI hope to provide technical training to communities affected by coal mine closures while advocating for entrepreneurship as an economic pathway forward for those communities.
It's important, too, Pacheco said, to ensure the work of the program and the office is informed by people with real-world experience building businesses and encountering barriers or other obstacles.
To do that, the partners are working with several "liaisons" in Tribal communities, including two folks from the Navajo Nation in Northwest New Mexico, one in Albuquerque, one from the Apache Nation and another from the Jemez Pueblo. That also includes talking to representatives from other organizations like the Southwest Native Assets Coalition, a regional homebuyer education and financial literacy organization based in New Mexico, Harvie, the JEDI Office coordinator, said.
She added the JEDI Office has started preliminary conversations with those liaisons to learn more about their needs. Part of that need-based work could include helping business owners find the right kind of financing when they need capital and aren't established enough to access support through Local Economic Development Act funds or the state's Job Training Incentive Program, while also instructing business owners on how to tap into existing resources, fiscal or otherwise, Harvie said.
The EDD established the JEDI Office in April 2021. It hosted a Black Business Summit in February of this year and will host a Hispanic Business Summit in partnership with the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 14.
