Peach Springs-Mojave Community College partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to celebrate the grand opening of the Hualapai Business Incubator, a resource for local startups.
On Wednesday, April 12, at 460 Hualapai Way in Peach Springs, community members, tribe members, MCC staff and elected officials attended the Business Incubator ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The incubator will provide Tribe members with the tools and resources to start a business serving the Hualapai Reservation, along with visitors traveling to Route 66 and the Grand Canyon.
Participants will receive assistance with office space, technology, business development services, marketing, budgeting and fundraising. Staff from MCC’s Small Business Development Center will assist you on site.
MCC and the Tribe jointly receive federal Native American Business Incubator Program grants through the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. Awarded $200,000 annually from 2022 to 2025, renewable continuously.
Hualapai Tribal Council Chair Sherry Parker told the audience, “I hope you encourage your children and relatives to come here and build a business.” Encouraging and ensuring that that education is brought back here and supported is very difficult.”
Parker said partnering with MCC is important because it can bring education back to the reservation and help community members develop their entrepreneurial talents. It also contributes to the economic growth of the region.
“We need to encourage each other, encourage our children, encourage generations,” Parker said.
District 1 supervisor Travis Lingenfelter said small businesses and local entrepreneurs are the backbone of the county. The majority of Mojave County businesses are Tier 1 companies (1-9 employees) or Tier 2 companies (10-99 employees).
“It’s interesting to note the word incubator, which is usually like a shelter and is used to raise the very young,” Lingenfelter said. “And that’s what this facility brings to our business community.”
An MCC board member of District 1 Candida Hunter said the foundation is there for growing business on the reservation, but incubators are another tool people use. Hunter said she is one of her MCC’s many alumni and that the presence of a university on the reservation will encourage the community to continue to pursue education and develop new businesses. rice field.
“I hope that we can use this opportunity to learn from the youngest children, build a foundation, and be able to support pregnant women into adulthood and seniority,” Hunter said.
MCC President Stacy Klippenstein told the audience that the MCC is on Hualapai land and territory and that the university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign nations across the state.
Opening a business incubator is one way to continue building relationships with tribe members, says Klippenstein.
“The university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Indigenous peoples and communities through the provision of education and community service through partnerships such as this,” said Klippenstein.
