Our Services

We believe that individuals, communities, and organizations should lead the way in determining their own futures. This belief guides our work in helping clients chart their paths from assessing needs, to developing a vision to meet those needs, to implementing plans that turn visions into reality. Seven Sisters supports community movements by offering trainings, program development and support, tools, and resources.

With our expertise in affordable housing and homeownership, public policy, tribal public health, workforce development, food sovereignty, and community development finance, we’re here to help you create or enhance programs that align with your mission, vision, and values.

Facilitation

Creating environments where people can show up authentically, be seen, and contribute their strengths and gifts requires intention and commitment. We draw on our differences and lived experiences as we facilitate conversations that foster learning and promote healthy, welcoming environments. With expertise in facilitating meetings and cohort gatherings to support team building, managing conflict, organizational culture, goal setting, and leadership development, we collaborate with your team to assess and understand your organizational dynamics, develop a shared vision, and create a roadmap for ongoing growth.

Capacity & Skill Building

Our personalized approach helps organizations build their capacity and strengthen their operations through technical assistance and training.

Training

Seven Sisters provides customized, culturally-relevant training using participatory and active approaches to build organizational capacity. Our training covers a wide range of topics, including:

  • Facilitation and training techniques for trainers
  • Homeownership program development
  • Mortgage lending on trust land
  • Post-purchase education
  • Coaching
  • Developing successful partnerships with Native organizations
  • Understanding needs assessments
  • Understanding the strategic planning process
  • Board training

Technical Assistance

Complementing group training, Seven Sisters also provides customized technical assistance. We employ a respectful, collaborative approach informed by issue-area expertise. Technical assistance support includes operational planning, tribal housing policy development, coalition development, program development, leadership support, succession planning, affordable housing development, and grant compliance.

Curriculum Development

We design and develop curricula that are engaging and interactive. Our courses highlight best practices and successful models, incorporating a variety of teaching modalities including videos, case studies, and opportunities for learners to practice new skills. In addition to the curricula that we design and teach, Seven Sisters supports client organizations in developing and facilitating their own courses.

Public Health Infrastructure Development

We have experience supporting organizations through the initial Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) process, with a focus on PHAB Version 2022 requirements. Technical assistance support includes staff training on the accreditation process and understanding the ten domains; providing assessment, capacity building, and systems development to monitor progress; and developing key PHAB documents.

Organizational Development

Our approach to organizational development includes a consensus-building process to understand and address your organization’s needs and priorities. We use culturally-informed best practices to develop an approach that works for you. We help your organization assess and identify priority areas for growth and change, specializing in the following areas:

Strategic Planning

Seven Sisters facilitates the development of culturally grounded strategic planning processes that align an organization’s vision, mission, and values. Key activities include data gathering with stakeholders and a facilitated session to identify strategic goals. Beyond the creation of a strategic plan, our process may also include the development of an operational plan to support the implementation of organizational goals.

Team Building

Teams benefit when they create space to build connections that facilitate greater collaboration and communication. We work with you to develop a fun, highly interactive team building session informed by staff interviews and surveys. Participating in team building heightens staff’s knowledge and appreciation of each other, and your team will leave with resources, tools, and strategies to build upon and sustain the work.

Board Development

We work with your board to strengthen its operations and remain focused on fulfilling its mission through the evaluation and enhancement of recruitment strategies, financial management, committee structure, succession planning, meeting frequency, and proficiency in essential governance skills.

Communities of Belonging

Creating environments where people can show up authentically, be seen, and contribute their strengths and gifts to your organization requires intention and commitment. As a team of multicultural, multiracial women, we draw strength from our differences and use our lived experiences to facilitate difficult conversations that foster learning and promote healthy, inclusive environments. We collaborate with your team to assess and understand your organizational dynamics, develop a shared vision, and create a roadmap for ongoing growth.

Executive & Team Coaching

As asset-based coaches, we support clients in using their strengths and values as the springboard for their personal and professional growth. Through one-on-one or group sessions grounded in trust, safety, and respect, we work with clients at any level within an organization to enhance their ability to tackle workplace challenges. Common topics we address through our coaching practice include leadership and management skills, self-compassion and self-regulation, stress and time management, work-life balance, and troubleshooting organizational and personal challenges. We often serve as a sounding board for executive leadership in navigating organizational challenges.

Fundraising & Grant Writing

Our team understands the importance of resource development and advancement to meet your mission and support organizational sustainability. We can partner with you to develop a resource development plan and grants management system that aligns your organization’s resources with your strategic directions. To implement these plans, we also offer grant writing services.

Bridge Building

We build bridges to support the development of collaborations and coalitions, helping potential partners and Indigenous communities understand one another, and connecting funders to community-based projects. We strive to support true, lasting partnerships based on respect and reciprocity.

Facilitating Partnerships

 

We support national, regional, statewide, and community collaborations that leverage a variety of resources and perspectives to achieve common goals. Guided by the belief that partnerships require reciprocity and mutual benefit, we help diverse stakeholders, like-minded organizations, communities, and individuals navigate cultural differences, engage in uncomfortable conversations, and pursue shared understanding.

Developing Successful Partnerships with Native Organizations

One of our core offerings is our Developing Successful Partnerships with Native Organizations training. Designed for non-Native audiences, the course enables participants to deepen their understanding of why things are the way they are, supporting efforts to build and strengthen relationships with Native organizations and the communities they serve. Through the course, participants deepen their understanding of current realities in Native communities by exploring cultural differences, Native American history, the concept of sovereignty, Native homeownership, and economic development.

Native Homeownership

Homeownership is a pathway for Native families to improve their financial and personal wellbeing, and for Native communities to stimulate their economies and strengthen sovereignty. We have supported collaborations in South Dakota, Montana, and Wisconsin to build Native Homeownership Coalitions that share strategies and resources, as well as advocate for policies and programs at the Tribal, state, and federal levels.

Public Policy

Our team can help your group of community leaders tell its story and advocate for change at the local, state, federal, and Tribal levels. With strategies including “Hill Days,” hosting policy makers to see Tribal innovation firsthand, and facilitating round tables, we work with you to craft community-led solutions that pull the levers of power you need to achieve your public policy goals.