Project Name: Angoon Small Business Center

Project Manager: Toby Harbanuk sife@uas.alaska.edu

'

Project Description:

,

This project works with the center developers in Angoon to set up a small business center with computers, knowledge, and the other equipment that will help Angoon’s citizens to gain the knowledge and support to begin working and/or start their own business.

Needs Analysis:

'

Describe the need that was addressed by your project.
Angoon, Alaska has an extremely high unemployment rate as well as a high rate of poverty. The village of Angoon is also lacking entrepreneurs with one citizen owning a majority of the businesses in the village. This project will greatly improve the lives of Angoon residents as well as the village as a whole.

Describe the business that was targeted and/or helped by your project.
The target audience consists of residents of the small, Native Alaskan village of Angoon, Alaska, specifically those that are unemployed and need the financial perks of employment will be targeted.

Describe why you chose to focus on this need.
Angoon is in a desperate need of new businesses to increase the services that the citizens have available to them. Also, the citizens of this community do not realize their potential. We chose this project because we knew that with some encouragement and guidance we could help Angoon's citizens reach their dreams and strive for success.

Project Analysis:

'

Describe the project your team created and implemented to address the above need.
Angoon Small Business Center. This project works the center developers (Tlingit and Haida Central Council – a Native Alaskan shareholder organization) in Angoon to set up a small business center with computers, knowledge, and the other equipment that will assist Angoon's citizens to gain the knowledge and support to begin working and/or start up their own business. Specifically, the center has a high need for distance education to bring in the greatest talent and resources to this small native village. UAS SIFE has developed both audio and video lectures on six entrepreneurship topics – Entrepreneurship overview, Human Resources, Ethics, Economics, Marketing, and Accounting/Finance. UAS SIFE will continue to work with the center developers to create distance education that conforms to the needs of the center and of Angoon's citizens. This has been accomplished through trips to Angoon to consult with the business leaders and citizens there as well as utilizing the tools that UAS' distance education business program provides. In addition, UAS SIFE assisted with the set-up and layout of the new facility in Angoon. The UAS SIFE team will also possibly assist with the creation of an Angoon Small Business Center website that acts as a chamber of commerce for the village of Angoon to attract visitors to the area where the highest concentration of brown bears in the world is as well as provide an opportunity for Angoon residents to sell their products and services online.


Describe why this project best fit the needs of the business.This project best fit Angoon's needs because before beginning this center, the village only had 1 grocery store, 1 police/fire station, 1 health clinic, 2 schools, 1 lodge, a post office, and a float plane/ferry area. This town was in need of new services and businesses! The vast majority of citizens were far below poverty levels and relying on Native funding to survive. They were in desperate need of some assistance and encouragement, which is exactly what our project provided.

'

Success Analysis:

'

Describe the way in which your team measured the success of the project.
We have measured success in two ways. First, with our lecture series, we performed a pre and post test of the listener's knowledge to measure their gain in knowledge by watching the lectures. Second, we have taken comments and viewed progression of select individuals to portray how grateful they are for what we have accomplished.

Describe why your team chose the measurement tool(s) used for the project.
We chose these measurement tools because they were a mixture of numerical data that could easily show our progress as well as the actual expressions of the people we assisted. This combination makes for a powerful message of what we have assisted with in the community of Angoon.

Outline the results of the project based on the measurement tool(s) used.
This project is currently underway with few current measurable project results. Video and audio entrepreneurial lectures have been created and distributed to a test audience of UAS students revealing an average of 50% growth in knowledge after viewing the lectures (as proven by a pre and post test). We expect results similar to or greater than this when this lecture series is completed in Angoon near the end of February 2008. Project results will also come from following certain individuals from the learning phase (participating in our distance education) to the development phase (planning a new business) to the implementation phase (actually starting their new business). Even after the start-up of the center on 29th of January, we have already received comments from citizens about how grateful they are for what we have done.

'

SIFE Criteria Met:(plus description of how it met the criteria)