Ada Jobs Foundation Looks Ahead: A Vision for Growth and Collaboration in 2025

January 8, 2025 by Ada Jobs

Economic Development Strategic Action Teams

By: Sunnie Dawn Baker

As we begin 2025, the team at the Ada Jobs Foundation (AJF) eagerly awaits the developments in the coming year. While each year holds new possibilities, this year, in particular, is exciting because of a change in leadership. Carol Ervin took the helm of AJF as President and CEO mid-October of 2024. After settling in, learning about Ada, identifying opportunities, and navigating our partnerships, Ervin has a clear vision for AJF in 2025 and is optimistic about things to come. Ervin says, “I am looking forward to the spirit of cooperation with Ada Jobs Foundation the City of Ada, stakeholders, and citizens.”

Some things, such as the Conduit Coders—our Youth Coding League team—will continue as usual, striving for excellence and teaching both technical skills and soft skills to young people to help prepare them for the future. Programs like this attract new companies when they are considering places to expand or relocate. It shows our dedication to youth, but also to the future of our workforce. While in many ways, the Conduit Coders serve as a long-term economic development strategy, in the short term they actively demonstrate our commitment to the future to emerging industries which might be interested in Ada.

While some things will stay the same, other things will change, mainly the name of our organization. The Ada Jobs Foundation has wanted to rebrand for some time because its name does not accurately reflect its purpose. For instance, many people are under the assumption that we find people jobs. That, however, is not the case. We help create jobs through economic development, but we are not an employment agency. Another part of our name which provides unrealistic expectations is the word “foundation.” While we are a foundation in our organization structure and because we partner on important grants for the community, many people think of a foundation as a place where they can ask for money or donations, which is not necessarily the case with AJF. Soon, pending board approval, we will adopt a new name that better reflects the good work we do in the community. Watch for more information to come!

While AJF has previously hosted an entrepreneurship workshop series, we plan to expand our offerings this year by actively asking the public what they need or wish they had known. While we are targeting entrepreneurs, we are also targeting small businesses, to see what gaps we can fill. We can achieve the greatest success with the help of the community and our partners. As in this past year, the entrepreneurship workshop series will conclude with a pitch competition, allowing individuals to present their business ideas while uniting the community in support of small businesses. This is one of the things that makes Ada the great place that it is while also providing a model to other communities.

In addition to this, we hope to go beyond the entrepreneurship workshop series and achieve bigger and better outcomes. Peggy Saunkeah sees an opportunity in 2025 to “create an entrepreneurship and coworking space that connects students, tech workers and entrepreneurs, building on current tech meetups and adding new elements like hackathons and reverse pitch events.” While we have been hosting tech meetups for the past year, we can expand these events by including more voices at the table, eventually leading to a full-fledged business incubator.

In addition to entrepreneurship support, the team at AJF is very excited about business retention and expansion, as well as the possibility to recruit new industries to Ada. Carol Ervin and Daniel Castaneda are planning on attending more trade shows and meeting more site selectors. Forging these connections will make it easier to attract new businesses or industries to Ada for their next project or expansion. Maintaining and strengthening our current relationships is vitally important, even as we work to bring in new businesses with significant economic impact. Castaneda says, “For the new year, I can’t wait to meet with local industry again and to see what we can do for them. With new leadership at different organizations, I am excited about how we can partner to help each other grow and expand our efforts.”

These are just a few of the efforts that the Ada Jobs Foundation is planning for the coming year, not even mentioning the many grants they are involved in through partnerships with entities like the City of Ada, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Oka’ Institute. The Ada Jobs Foundation, at its core, strives to make Ada a better place by improving its economy and providing more economic opportunities for the residents. Through our partnerships and community support, we can do great things when we work together.

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