RDI services are designed to meet the culture and needs of your group or community. Contact the RDI office to find out what we can do for you!
rdi@rdiinc.org // 541-684-9077
Download some of our most asked-for and highly rated planning, facilitation, and community building tools.
Our Tribal Services program provides technical assistance and consulting services to Tribes and other Native organizations. We provide culturally relevant services in the areas of: facilitation, community development that focuses on leadership training, networking, organizational development, as well as, economic vitality. RDI encourages the development of mutually beneficial partnerships to expand opportunities in the areas of job creation and economic development in Indian country. We also provide Cultural Competency Training (CCT) to non-Indian organizations and groups working in Indian country.
- Tribal Facilitation Services
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What is Facilitation?
"Facilitation" is a term that means different things to different people. In the context of Tribal operations, facilitation is generally considered to be a process in which a neutral person helps a group work together more effectively. Facilitators may work with small groups within an organization, or with representatives of different organizations who are working together in a collaborative or consensus-building process.
A Tribal facilitator’s primary responsibility is to create an environment for discussion that is a neutral space where all parties feel that their voice can be heard. Ideally, a facilitator is someone who will not benefit in the outcome of the meeting. Therefore he or she can fully concentrate on how members of the group are working together and assist the group to work toward its goals, without bias but through the use of a shared cultural lens.
RDI helps communities and organizations to conduct difficult conversations, build consensus, and to make the most of limited meeting time while effectively engaging all parties in a discussion. Our facilitation style is highly collaborative and responsive to the characteristics of any group that we facilitate. - Community Development
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Community Development in Indian country (CDIC) is a broad term applied to the practices of Tribal leaders, involved Tribal citizens and professionals to improve various targeted aspects of local tribal communities. RDI seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by partnering with Tribal communities to provide a support base of organizational development and trainings. We help organizations with Board Development, Strategic Planning, Fund Development Planning and more.
Some of RDI’s key services offered in the area of Community Development are:- Economic development and capacity building for Tribal enterprise
- Social capital formation that positively affects shared tribal interests and productivity
- Asset-based community development that surfaces and promotes already existent strengths within Tribal communities as a means for sustainable development
- Participatory planning projects including strategic planning and community-based approaches to funding of Tribal projects
- Native American Leadership Training
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The creation of programming that is relevant to Native cultures and leadership is not any easy task. We at RDI understood early on, that designing a curriculum which would satisfy the needs of multiple tribal entities would be a complex endeavor. As a result we took our time to create a training program that is based on the premise: “culture is what defines leadership and leadership styles in any society.” The recognition and appreciation of this premise allows RDI the opportunity to deliver consistently high quality leadership in Indian Country that is accepted as culturally acceptable and appropriate.
RDI’s first step in the process of designing a Native American Leadership Training was to request the assistance of a number of Native people, representing over 10 tribes, to serve as a Native American Advisory Group. The group met to discuss significant topics to be addressed in Native leadership training. The results were unanimous; a Native curriculum had to be created and designed specifically by and for Indian folks and it had to address the issues of Sovereignty and Self determination as a significant portion of the training. Addressing leadership through understanding the unique status of Native Tribes then became foundational to the design process.
The Native American Advisory Group also recognized that Native leadership does not exist in a vacuum and that the practice of leadership by Native people takes place both on and off tribal lands. The group reviewed the highly successful and well regarded leadership programming RDI has offered for many years and created an experiential learning program that is relevant to Indian audiences.
The Native American Leadership Training (NALT) program is offered free of charge to Tribes that are located in the State of Oregon and in Siskiyou County in Northern California. It is a two day experiential training that can be used as a legacy leadership component to Tribal management. It is a powerful and dynamic training that gives the participant more leadership tools to work across borders. - Partnering With RDI
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Partnering with RDI on projects that are as diverse as setting up and training a home-grown business retention and expansion team for your community, facilitating your economic development strategic plans, assisting with buy-local campaigns, and administering assessment tools to determine community readiness and capacity for economic development are only a few of the important ways that Tribes and Tribal organizations can partner with RDI.
RDI is an active partner in many Tribal communities and has brought nearly $200K to the Celilo Village in the past year through grant writing and fund development for the community.
