Previously, we were focused on entrepreneurs regardless of whether they were young or seasoned. We are getting more input from young entrepreneurs who are coming. We work with JEDI, which is a joint economic development initiative based out of New Brunswick.
We spoke last week to a forum of young entrepreneurs who are starting their businesses, and we work with them. We also provide young entrepreneurship awards, and I think that's really helpful to indigenous businesses. Any time our people can be recognized for the success we've had, it makes us proud to see someone who looks like us succeeding and making a difference.
We provide grants to small businesses. A lot of them go to the young entrepreneurs. They're small grants. We've been fortunate enough to get funding from our corporate members. It's a $2,500 grant. We're lucky that the grants that have been given to us allow the indigenous businesses to spend so much time programming our grants.
There are a lot of requirements or barriers to what they could utilize that money for. I think the partners we have realize that indigenous businesses know what they want. If you're going to say that we can spend this money but we can only do that, is it really beneficial to our businesses?
We work. We do networking. Networking is the most important thing. The more you can get out there, the more confidence you can build. It's hard to get a contract over the telephone. You build that relationship and it's going to grow over time. Networking is something that's very important, and we really want to promote our indigenous businesses.
An area we really want to focus on is young indigenous entrepreneurs. The federal government can help. They can provide programming and support. We're not a government-funded organization. We get some project money, but overall, it's hard. Resources are limited out there, but I think the federal government can step in and do more.