RJS celebrates 20 years and millions of dollars brought in

An American Indian-owned and operated consulting company on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation which has brought millions of dollars for projects and programs to Indian Country, will Saturday mark 20 years  since it was incorporated.

“We’re actually not going to be doing anything on Saturday because with our busy schedules the date just creeped up on us,” said Jim  Swan, CEO and president of RJS & Associates.

Swan said the company will plan an open house later this autumn.

Swan said he estimates that throughout its life RJS has brought in more than $350 million to Indian country, with more $200 million of that in the past 20 years much it going to Rocky Boy.

On Rocky Boy alone, where Swan grew up and is an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, it is difficult to find a building where Swan and his team did not play some part in getting its funding. They wrote grants to finance the construction of much of Stone Child College, the Chippewa Cree Justice Center, the senior citizens center at the reservation agency and  multiple housing units.

“The way I like to say it is, my staff may not have picked up a hammer and put one nail in the board, but we made that all possible,” Swan said.

RJS has written grants for funding of several programs throughout the reservation.

Most recently it announced Tuesday that they received $1.6 million dollars from the U.S. Justice Department, including $480,233 in grants from the Department of Justice’s Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation or CTAS. CTAS grants include funding for adult drug courts, victims of crime services, community-oriented policing and other Department of Justice programs meant for Indian Country.

Swan said that since 2010 when all the Department of Justice grants meant for Indian Country were combined into CTAS, Rocky Boy has been one of only three reservations that have received at least one CTAS grant each year.

He said CTAS grants are difficult to get because they are time-consuming and very competitive.

RJS also recently received funding from the  Department of Energy to put solar panels on three duplexes.

Beyond grant writing, RJS has also provided technical assistance, strategic planning, program evaluations, community needs assessments and grant-writing workshops for clients throughout much of the western United States.

Swan said that RJS & Associates was founded and incorporated  by his father Robert Joseph Swan, D.Ed., Oct. 1 1996. Swan began doing consulting work back in the mid-1970s when he was a student at the University of Montana in Missoula, Jim Swan said. Robert Swan earned both a bachelor’s in sociology and a master’s in guidance and counseling before earning a doctorate in education.

From the 1970s until 1996, Robert Swan operated as a sole proprietor engaging with various partners on projects. In the 1990s he decided to leave a position he held at Rocky Boy Schools and establish RJS & Associates.

Jim Swan has been on the board since its founding and in 2008 he took over as CEO. The company now has five employees, four at RJs & Associates on Rocky Boy and a fifth at an office in Chandler, Arizona.

In 2008, his father stepped down as CEO and Jim Swan took over. His father took on the role of special assistant  at RJS before he died in 2013.

After his father’s death,  Swan took on the role of president of the Board of Director’s at RJS.

In recent weeks, RJS has announced  that it has have obtained $6 million dollars in various grants.

Swan said his proudest accomplishment at RJS is the team he has built which has been instrumental in RJs’ success.

He said during his time with RJS he has seen associates join the team and leave, but once they leave the company they go on to other endeavors and accomplish things in their own right.

“Even though we are all individual people, we are part of a cohesive whole when we are working on these things as a team,” Swan said.