Navajo entrepreneurship hub and housing partner win major grants
Courtesy | Change Labs
A participant celebrates during Change Labs’ July 18 grand opening of the ‘E-Hub’ in Shiprock, a new space dedicated to supporting Navajo and Hopi entrepreneurs.
CANYON POINT, Utah
A Navajo nonprofit and a long-standing housing partner working with Navajo and Hopi communities have secured major funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco’s Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development program.
Change Labs Inc., based in Tuba City, was awarded $138,000 to expand its entrepreneurship services by opening a second “E-ship Hub” in Shiprock. Red Feather Development Group, a nonprofit that has partnered with Native communities for more than 25 years, received $150,000 to grow its housing education programs that serve families on the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe lands.
The new grant will help Change Labs address everyday barriers facing Native entrepreneurs. Executive Director Heather Fleming said even basic resources can remove major obstacles. Many clients work from home in crowded households, often without reliable internet or equipment like printers. The new hub will provide them with a dedicated workspace to focus, get help with business questions, and connect with other entrepreneurs.
Fleming noted that the lack of support systems also leaves many entrepreneurs feeling isolated or hesitant to pursue their ideas. “Our spaces are places where they can build a community, … build a peer network of support,” she said. “And that’s very important to anybody who’s trying something new or taking risks just to have that safety net of peers.”
She added that building an entrepreneurial ecosystem is critical to reducing the Nation’s dependence on border-town economies. “We lost hundreds of millions of dollars each year in sales tax revenue to border town spending, primarily in the Farmington area, but also Gallup, Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook, Page, Cortez,” she said, “and all of those dollars … are what keep our communities going.”
To read the full article, please see the Sept. 18, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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