The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (TVCDC) was awarded a Sustainable Communities Planning Grant in October 2010 to work in partnership with multiple tribal governmental agencies, local non-profits, a team of experts, including BNIM, and the Oglala Lakota Oyate (people) to develop a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. This plan will serve as the blueprint for investment decisions, both public and private, to support a more sustainable future for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, part of the greater Sioux Nation of South Dakota.

This planning project is the first of a small class of 45 grantees working with the newly created HUD-EPA-DOT Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Partnership works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution.

The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant allows the TVCDC-led team to look at comprehensive ways to integrate housing, land use, economic and workforce development, transportation and infrastructure investments in a manner that empowers the Oglala Lakota Nation. Among other things, the plan considers the interdependent challenges of economic competitiveness and revitalization; social equity, inclusion, and access to opportunity; energy use and climate change; and, public health and environmental impacts.