Summary description:

V.O.W.E. — Indian Country Economic Development & Workforce ModelThis SkillBridge opportunity introduces participants to the Veteran Ownership Wealth Ecosystem (V.O.W.E.), a business and workforce development model designed to bring labor, industry, training, and business ownership opportunities into Indian Country.Participants will develop practical skills through the V.O.W.E. system and use those skills to help establish sustainable economic activity in the tribal region where they choose to build their future.The goal is simple: create people who can build businesses, create jobs, operate services, and develop the local economy.As participants successfully establish opportunities in their chosen region, V.O.W.E. will build a corresponding tribal-facing business ecosystem around them. That ecosystem will be designed around the needs of the local community and connected to the participant’s growing network of businesses, workforce, and industry relationships.Over time, V.O.W.E. will help establish and staff these local operations, providing the management, workforce, training, and business infrastructure needed to help the new enterprises grow.The model therefore works in two directions:* Develop the individual through training, apprenticeship, business operations, and ownership.* Develop the community by building the businesses, services, workforce, and industry connections needed in the region.As each participant creates a successful opportunity, that success becomes a foundation for the next opportunity. New businesses create additional jobs, additional workers create additional demand, and the growing network creates additional opportunities for veterans and members of the local community.The long-term objective is to create a repeatable economic-development model for Indian Country in which V.O.W.E. participants become the initial operators and owners who help establish a local economic network, while V.O.W.E. provides the supporting infrastructure needed to expand and strengthen that network.Rather than bringing outside businesses into a community without developing local ownership, the model is designed to develop the people first, establish productive businesses around them, and then build the larger tribal-facing ecosystem around those successful operators.The result is a workforce-to-ownership model that can be replicated across tribal communities, connecting training → employment → business ownership → local industry → community economic growth.

Job description:

Participants will train and operate within the Veteran Ownership Wealth Ecosystem (V.O.W.E.), a business development model designed to bring labor, industry, and business ownership into rural and tribal communities.The V.O.W.E. model uses three connected industries as the foundation for local economic development:FINTECH → ENTERTAINMENT → HEALTHCAREParticipants will learn how to help establish, operate, and expand businesses within these three sectors, creating a local economic network rather than a single job or business.Participants will:* Help deploy financial-services and software solutions that give local businesses access to modern financial infrastructure and create opportunities for local operators to participate in the financial-services economy.* Help develop Golf Envy entertainment locations as community businesses that create jobs, generate local economic activity, and provide an entry point into business ownership.* Help develop the healthcare network, including primary care, urgent care, behavioral health, recovery, wellness, and related services, creating another major source of employment, business activity, and community services.* Learn how these three industries can operate together so that businesses created in one sector help create customers, workforce, capital, and opportunities for the other sectors.* Build relationships with local businesses, tribal governments, workforce organizations, contractors, healthcare providers, financial-service providers, and industry partners needed to establish the local network.* Prepare and manage RFQs, RFPs, RFIs, compliance documents, technical narratives, and other procurement materials required to secure public and private opportunities.* Maintain vendor eligibility and standing with municipal, state, federal, and tribal procurement systems.* Coordinate projects across municipal, state, federal, and tribal jurisdictions.* Maintain institutional records and documentation so successful projects can be repeated in additional communities.* Help identify local workforce needs and connect those needs to training, apprenticeship, employment, and ownership opportunities.* Support the development and staffing of new locations as the local network expands.The Economic Development ModelThe purpose of this position is to help industrialize rural and tribal communities through productive businesses and local ownership.A participant may begin by helping deploy a financial-services solution. That business activity can help create capital and relationships that support a Golf Envy location. The Golf Envy location then creates additional employment, customers, and community relationships that can support the development of healthcare services.The same process works in reverse. Healthcare creates jobs and local demand. Entertainment creates a community business and gathering point. Financial services provide the infrastructure that helps businesses manage and grow their money.The three spokes therefore work together:FINTECHFinancial services, software, merchant services, and business infrastructure.ENTERTAINMENTGolf Envy and related community entertainment businesses that create jobs, ownership opportunities, and local economic activity.HEALTHCAREPrimary care, urgent care, behavioral health, wellness, recovery, and related community health services.As participants successfully establish opportunities in the region they choose, V.O.W.E. will build a tribal-facing ecosystem around that local network. V.O.W.E. can then help provide the workforce, management, training, and operating infrastructure needed to staff and expand those businesses.The objective is to create a self-reinforcing rural economic system where people are trained to become operators and owners, businesses create additional businesses, and successful locations become the foundation for further investment.In this model, the participant is not simply being trained for a job.They are being trained to help build the local economy.

Eligibility factors: