Oxfam America and TCEDC’s Mentorship Project is an integral component of this system to provide assistance to Native American, Hispanic, female and other marginalized rural communities, that will secure sustainable livelihoods in agriculture and food-related projects. TCEDC incorporates all components of the wheel in this project:

* Education & Training
* Outreach
* Business Development
* Job Creation & Value-Added Services
* Environmental Justice Strategies
* Policy Development & Advocacy
* Marketing & Distribution Assistance
* Health & Nutrition Services
* Passing of the Wisdom

TCEDC offers Mentoring and Partnership to targeted land-based and rural communities by sharing our Family Kinship Model of Community Development. This model builds upon the strength and wisdom of land-based and rural cultures in developing and implementing food system programs/projects designed to honor traditional values and beliefs while increasing economic benefit to families and communities. Our successful model is an alternative to and predates the corporate, hierarchical paradigm that exists in the dominant society today and can provide inspiration and assistance to other human and resource-rich communities suffering social and economic distress.

TCEDC’s family has grown to include: Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) in Arizona; Bad River/Chippewa Nation in Wisconsin; Tsyunhehka, Oneida Nation in Wisconsin; White Earth Land Recovery Institute on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota; Muscogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma; Aloha A’ina from Hawaii; Chickaloon Village from Alaska and the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Each group is working on a number of food-related activities in their communities and have indicated that TCEDC’s model and experience would be helpful in their work. Over the past 2 years TCEDC has formalized agreements with these groups continues work with the groups through phone conferences as well as at least one site visit. (TCEDC has visited TOCA, Tsyunhehka, White Earth and Muscogee Creek, and Chickaloon Village.