University of Arizona

The University of Arizona Native FORGE (Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs) is an innovative effort to develop and expand the City of Tucson metropolitan area and Arizona American Indian private sector by providing and facilitating high quality development and support services to distressed and underserved communities. Our program will work with Tribal Nations and American Indian owned businesses to develop economic-based initiatives aimed at supporting progressive entrepreneur-based economic growth while adhering to principles of traditional cultures that have sustained American Indian peoples and their economies for centuries.

Specifically, Native FORGE will (1) provide technical assistance to Tribal Nations in Arizona by conducting research and providing customized data for Tribal use in workforce assessment, business forecasting, economic and community planning, and identification of and access to capital and funding development; (2) provide technical assistance and training for Tribes on their request, in survey construction, survey administration, and survey data analysis so that they may gather, analyze and make decisions their own local data; and (3) develop a web portal to support the resources for the center participants, including the publicly available data for Tribal use.