Five Skies empowers Natives to achieve their goals

(NATIONAL) Writing a resume, preparing for job interviews, financial literacy, and critical thinking are all what you would expect in a typical training program. The teachings of the Medicine Wheel? One of the many elements that sets the Five Skies four-week Empowerment training program apart.  

“The way that you need to be in today’s society to succeed and thrive still ties back to our traditional values,” said Nick Kedrowski, a member of the Oneida Nation and a Managing Partner and Owner of Five Skies.

Kedrowski’s wife Nyree, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation is a managing owner and partner. 

Nick created the program after working as the TERO Director for the Ho-Chunk Nation. 

He helped tribal members find employment, but noticed that many of them were not staying with those jobs even when performing well. Nick also observed a hesitancy to accept jobs that were far from their tribal communities. 

“I started talking to a lot of the referrals that I had made that either declined extended positions or would return shortly to kinda figure it out,” said Nick. “What it seemed like they were getting a lot of pressure from communities and families to stay or they really weren’t prepared well for the challenges of the new position.”

Since 2018, the Kedrowski’s have been utilizing the Five Skies Empowerment training program to prepare tribal members for trade careers, start their own businesses, or further their education in whatever field is of interest to them. 

The curriculum is also designed to help students address intergenerational trauma and take the things they learn back to their communities and families, creating positive ripple effects beyond the duration of the program. 

“For Natives, we want to provide for our families and be able to take care of them and stop surviving and start living and that’s basically what we say to our graduates, we want you to stop surviving and start living,” said Nyree.

The four-week class provides lodging for participants who live more than 45 minutes away, breakfast and lunch, and a $300 stipend each week the class takes place. 

Most of the classes are offered in Wisconsin and Minnesota and are made possible by sponsorships from companies like Enbridge, a multinational pipeline and energy company. 

Nick says the partnership between Five Skies and Enbridge began after the success of an empowerment training with the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council. 

“Because of the success that we had with that program, Enbridge actually reached out to us to see if we would be able to do that in the tribal communities that would have been impacted by their Line 3 replacement.” 

A class of 17 recently graduated from an Empowerment training program sponsored by Enbridge in Hayward, Wisconsin. 

The company has sponsored more than 20 classes for Five Skies, and while some of the graduates have gone on to intern for Enbridge or work on Enbridge projects, it’s not a requirement for the graduate to work with Enbridge. 

“Enbridge has told us directly they consider it a win if those community members obtain employees or find success even if it’s not with an Enbridge project because that still is benefiting the community and ultimately that is their goal,” said Nick. 

And the training offered by Five Skies doesn’t end at graduation. 

“We do a lot of mentoring,” said Nyree. “I think that really makes us stand out from all the trainings out there because Nick and I, all the Five Skies, we stand behind our graduates, we refer them, we do mentoring with them. We provide support services.”

Five Skies also keeps a list of all the students that graduate so that they can provide referrals to companies with job opportunities. 

Nick says that Five Skies has enjoyed the relationship that has been built with Enbridge through the Empowerment Training over the years. 

“They do what they say and they mean what they say,” said Nick. “We’ve had other contractors that we find that are not that forthright and we’ve not worked with them.” 

Enbridge is a Native District Executive Benefactor of Verified News Network (VNN). Through this benefactor program, Enbridge provides financial support to help sustain Indigenous-led journalism and storytelling. However, VNN maintains full editorial independence, and this article was produced in alignment with our commitment to fair, accurate, and culturally responsible reporting. For more information about the Native District Benefactor Program, visit Verified News Network.