Pu'tavi: Community Building Story

With the whole community behind it, a community organization can also change the way people of all ages share power and authority. People living on Hopi Reservation, for example, had been working to increase community involvement in social justice endeavors for a year and a half when things took a surprising turn.
Tribal authorities shut down a Village Center due to a shortage of funds. The Village Center had been both a meeting place and the site of all community activities. Everyone’s efforts to mobilize community members became much more urgent.

“Often there is this belief that you can’t get volunteers in native communities,” explains Beth Tucker, an adult partner with Hopi and Coconino Extension Director/Educator at the University of Arizona. “We found that not to be the case.”
Tucker met with the former employees of the Village Center in her office. “We used a dream cloud activity from the Innovation Center Building Community Tool Kit to discover what they wanted to see happen,” says Tucker.

This activity and subsequent meetings got to the heart of what people wanted: economic development, community outreach involving youth and youth enrichment, and community engagement. They built on strengths, such as their commitment to family and clan. They dreamed up ways that all people, from all of the villages on Hopi, would benefit from the creation of a brand new organization, and then they asked the community to help bring it to life.

The Innovation Center provided training and consulting services to Pu’tavi as it engaged community members of all ages in organizing and planning for its future. What they forged in those meetings is now a thriving, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, called Pu’tavi, that serves not just one village, but everyone on the Hopi Reservation. “Forming a 501(c)(3) is almost unheard of in Native communities,” says Tucker.

Pu’tavi has lived up to its promise to contribute to the economic and cultural well- being of Hopi and the empowerment of its young people. Since its creation, Pu’tavi has offered:
•    Training on youth safety and protection for youth development workers on the reservation;
•    A widely-attended and acclaimed annual art show, where youth and adult Hopi artists sell their work;
•    Free computer classes attended by whole families and every age group to market Hopi goods;
•    Leadership training for young men and women.

For more information about implementing these strategies in your work, contact us at info@theinnovationcenter.org or 301-270-1700.