Summary

This weatherization grant will develop weatherization core competencies and subsequent employment for tribal members who complete the basic and advanced weatherization training. The goal of the Weatherization Training Program is the development of human resource capacity necessary to establish a weatherization program that consistently delivers high-quality weatherization services on the Bishop Paiute Reservation.

Project Description

Background

It is vital that the tribe establish its own weatherization program for several reasons. A tribal weatherization program provides additional employment opportunities to tribal members. Unemployment on the reservation is currently 39%. Tribal members who complete weatherization training funded by First Steps Toward Tribal Weatherization will have skills in a growing industry that makes them more employable on and off the reservation. While there is a nonprofit agency in Bishop, California, that provides weatherization services to occupants living on the reservation, cultural barriers exist, and many tribal members are unaware of the services.

Project Objectives

There are two key project objectives for this weatherization grant:

• Objective One is to identify and train tribal members interested in developing weatherization skills.
• Objective Two is to provide classroom and on-the-job training to tribal members accepted into the training program. Tribal members will attend a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-identified facility specializing in weatherization training and receive on-the-job training from weatherization experts.

Project Location

The "Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community" have a federal reservation, the Bishop Community of the Bishop Colony, in the upper Owens Valley above the City of Bishop, California. The reservation is on the lower slopes and alluvial fan of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains and is 877 acres (3.55 km2) in size. Approximately 1,441 tribal members live on the reservation. The reservation was established in 1912. In 1990, 934 people were enrolled in the federally recognized tribe.

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 project status report provides more information.