Program Performance
Approximately 70% of ANA projects receive an impact visit during the three months prior to or after the project end date. Lasting one full business day, the ANA impact visit provides the opportunity to meet project staff and beneficiaries in order to collect qualitative and quantitative project information. During the visit, ANA T/TA Providers are available to assist ANA grantees in increasing capacity to implement future community based projects. The purpose of this knowledge and data collection is threefold:
- Assess the impact of ANA funding on Native communities;
- Increase knowledge about the successes and challenges of ANA grantees, thereby improving ANA service delivery; and
- Increase transparency by sharing the unique stories of ANA grantees with fellow Native communities and the American public.
In 2007, ANA visited 93 projects, representing approximately $34.9 million in funding, out of a total of 130 projects that ended in 2007. The community impact shared with ANA during site visits clearly demonstrates numerous ANA project achievements.
Impact results presented by ANA program area:
Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS)
- Number of SEDS Impact Visits conducted: 66
- Total funding amount: $27.5 million
- Full-time job equivalents created: 406
- People employed: 641
- New businesses created: 67
- Native American consultants hired: 168
- Revenue generated: over $2.2 million
- Resources leveraged: over $17.9 million
- Partnerships formed: 1,085
- People trained: 26,230
- Elders involved: 2,547
- Youth involved: 17,401
- Governance codes developed: 60
- Governance codes implemented: 36
Native Language Preservation and Maintenance
- Number of Language Impact Visits conducted: 20
- Total funding amount: $6 million
- Full-time job equivalents created: 59
- People employed: 180
- Native American consultants hired: 86
- Resources leveraged: over $1.8 million
- Partnerships formed: 272
- People trained: 480
- Elders involved: 1,095
- Youth involved: 4,602
- Language surveys created: 7
- Language surveys completed: 6,035
- Native language teachers trained: 70
- Native language classes held: 8,082
- Youth increasing language skills: 2,803
- Adults increasing language skills: 844
- Achieved fluency in a Native language: 44
Environmental Regulatory Enhancement
- Number of Environmental Impact Visits conducted: 7
- Total funding amount: $1.4 million
- Full-time job equivalents created: 16
- People employed: 38
- Native American consultants hired: 1
- Resources leveraged: over $447 thousand
- Partnerships formed: 54
- People trained: 220
- Elders involved: 199
- Youth involved: 809
- Environmental codes developed: 12
- Environmental codes enforced: 7
74% of the 93 visited projects achieved intended outcomes, and 96% of the projects visited demonstrated positive benefits within their communities. Overall, the data and stories gathered demonstrate the positive impacts occurring throughout Indian Country.
The visits also revealed critical success factors relating to a project’s implementation. Community and other stakeholder participation were instrumental in all project phases in successful projects, as was frequent communication between the project staff and tribe or authorizing body. On the other hand, a common challenge that many grantees experienced was an underestimation of the time and resources required to complete their project.
ANA utilized this information to bolster its pre-application training, post-award training and technical assistance offerings to tribes and Native American organizations so that applicants understand the common pitfalls of ANA projects and are better equipped to develop, and later implement, realistic project work plans.
ANA will continue to analyze project success factors and common challenges to improve its trainings in order to better achieve its mission of fostering economic and social self-sufficiency for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Native Pacific Islanders. The information collected is of great value to ANA as staff continues to seek new and more rigorous ways to manage through results. These impact visits are an effective way to verify and validate the grantees’ performance and ensure the accountability not only of grantees but also ANA staff and program partners.
 
