TREC Charitable Foundation hoped to deepen its relationships with their Alberta First Nations partners in two ways: by developing an Indigenous Engagement Plan that included working with an Indigenous consultant who could facilitate face to face meetings with community members that focus on building community relationships and education and job skills training collaborations; and employee training, through Future Ancestors Services, to deepen their staff's understanding of Indigenous social equity issues in Alberta and how these issues intersect with their work in renewable energy education. At Relay Education, they collaborated with Indigenous partners for over a decade in co-developing and co-delivering educational renewable energy workshops, green collar careers workshops, and skills training to youth in their communities to prepare Indigenous youth to take advantage of the transition to a low-carbon economy. But, they also know that as an organization, they need to continually renew their staff's understanding of Indigenous perspectives, so that they can incorporate their voices and ways of knowing into their workshop delivery and their organizational structure.

TREC understands that every Nation is different, and their connections with Indigenous peoples in Alberta are more recent. Additionally, as a registered Alberta Not-for-Profit, they have made connections and delivered workshops in multiple Alberta First Nations, but they had not worked directly with leadership within communities to co-create additional programming and opportunities. As renewable energy development is taking place in First Nation communities across the province, they wanted to collaborate to provide education and skills training to support their work.

The work done through the Springboard Grant lead to partnerships with Indigenous communities, alongside ensuring their team is mindful of Indigenous ways of knowing and approaches our projects and partnerships respectfully. Relay Education supported the work being done in Indigenous communities with skills training and education to support renewable builds and planning where invited.

This initiative enabled Relay to build stronger relationships within the province of Alberta, to build cleaner energy sources and provide education and job skills in a manner that is in line with the goals of Indigenous communities. This leads to lower carbon emissions, and job training programs allow for economic growth and employment within communities for renewable energy projects. Youth education in renewable technologies also leads to lower carbon emissions in the future as youth are provided with the knowledge early to make environmentally friendly energy decisions.