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Flagstaff officials and partners outline programs to help Indigenous-owned businesses
Summary
City staff and nonprofit partners told the Indigenous Commission they are expanding outreach, grants and loan programs aimed at Indigenous entrepreneurs — including targeted loan funds, boot camps, incubator space and a tailored accelerator — and asked commissioners to help with outreach and contact lists.
City of Flagstaff staff and nonprofit partners presented a series of programs and funding options at the Indigenous Commission meeting aimed at increasing participation by Indigenous-owned businesses in the city's economic-development programs.
"We don't normally see as many applications from Indigenous businesses as we'd like to," David McIntyre, Community Investment Director for the City of Flagstaff, said, urging the commission to help staff identify outreach channels and contact lists. McIntyre described city services that include analytics and psychographic profiles to help businesses target customers, an annual business retention and expansion grant, a green-business boot camp, and attraction incentives for businesses considering relocation.
Local First Arizona representatives described a suite of statewide and regional offerings for rural and tribal entrepreneurs. "We have boot camps, community kitchens, loan funds and an Indigenous loan program we call the rooted relative fund," Raphael Tapia, director of Tribal Community Connections at Local First, said. Tapia said the rooted relative fund issues character-based loans with a minimum around $30,000 and a maximum near $250,000 and that the fund has made roughly $1.2–2 million in loans to Indigenous entrepreneurs to date.
Tapia and colleagues also summarized the Northern Arizona Good Jobs Network — a workforce and employer-engagement program focused on sectors including retail, hospitality, construction, health care and manufacturing — and noted Local First's green-loan and microloan offerings, community kitchens for food entrepreneurs, and an accelerator cohort tailored for Indigenous business owners.
Discover Flagstaff staff described marketing and visitor-economy supports aimed at Indigenous cultural events. "Flagstaff Local is a community-facing initiative" designed to amplify local festivals and artists, Sabrina Beard, marketing specialist for Discover Flagstaff, said. Lori Papus, marketing and media relations manager, added that the printed visitor guide has 100,000 copies annually and discoverflagstaff.com receives more than 3 million page views a year.
Commissioners raised barriers for Indigenous entrepreneurs: housing costs that make relocation infeasible, and a need for front-of-house/customer-service training for artists and small-business owners. Diana Kari, a long-serving volunteer commissioner, said many artists cannot relocate because they must remain on the reservation to tend to family and home responsibilities. McIntyre said the city can coordinate training with partners (community college, Moonshot nonprofit, Chamber) and emphasized the council's housing priorities.
Next steps noted in the meeting included staff offering materials and contact information to commissioners for broader outreach, Local First sharing program documents, and commission members collecting lists of Indigenous businesses to improve application and recruitment outreach.
Provenance: presentation and Q&A covering Discover Flagstaff and City economic programs (topic intro: SEG 281; topic finish: SEG 1639).
