From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson

MATHESON NEWS
Second Congressional District

For Further Information
Alyson Heyrend: (801) 455-5593 (cell)
www.house.gov/matheson

September 20, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Grants Support Utah Tribal Community Investment

$225,000 Awarded Navajos, Shoshone

Washington DC-Congressman Jim Matheson said today that Navajo and Shoshone financial development entities will receive grants totaling $225,000 from the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.

The recipients are the Aneth Community Development Corporation, in Montezuma Creek and the Intermountain Tribal Alliance in Salt Lake City.

The Aneth CDC will use the $130,000 grant to develop a strategic business plan, purchase office equipment, computers and software, and train staff and board members about community development finance.  The Intermountain Tribal Alliance will use its $95,000 grant to provide seed money in the form of equity using the prototype developed with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

"The CDFI Fund helps Native Americans invest in their local communities. By committing relatively small amounts of federal money (which must be matched dollar-for-dollar with private sector funding), the CDFI fund promotes private entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency," said Matheson

Housed at the U.S. Treasury Department, the CDFI Fund provides assistance leveraged with private sector funds to community financial institutions that provide basic financial services and access to credit to the country's most distressed communities.  CDFIs can be banks, credit unions, loan funds, community development corporations or microenterprise loan funds.

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Alyson Heyrend
Communications Director
240 East Morris Ave. #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
(801) 486-1236 (phone)
(801) 455-5593 (cell)
(801) 486-1417 (fax)