Subsistence Activities

Subsistence activities can include gathering or preparing food, making traditional goods, and providing services.

Some examples include:

• Hunting, gathering, farming, and preparing traditional food
• Making clothing, footwear, and blankets
• Gathering fuels
• Constructing traditional shelters, tools, and other equipment
• Creating traditional arts and crafts
• Creating ceremonial objects or regalia
• Making or gathering products for traditional healing practices

The Value of Subsistence Activities

Self-employment through subsistence activities draws on important traditional practices. It supports well-being through cultural traditions, community linkages, and a healthy lifestyle.

• Traditions are supported through:
  • Sharing knowledge of harvest and preparation methods
  • Linkages with nature and the environment
  • Passage of cultural values and traditions from elders to young people
• Community is supported through:
  • Sharing with neighbors who may not participate in subsistence activities themselves
  • Self-reliance in remote communities through resource sharing and bartering
• Health is supported through:
  • Good nutrition through natural and healthy foods
  • Exercise or physical activity through participation in subsistence activities
  • Mental health associated with connections to one’s community and nature

Identifying Subsistence Opportunities

Self-employment through subsistence activities is a better fit for people who have experience with a subsistence lifestyle and live in a rural or remote community. If this applies to you, think about the types of subsistence activities your family and tribe participate in and which of these activities you are able and interested in taking part in.

Needed Skills for Subsistence Activities

Subsistence activities often rely on traditional knowledge and skills. Although you may have experience with a subsistence lifestyle, you might also need additional help learning or adapting subsistence activities to accommodate your disability.

Once you figure out the subsistence activities you want to take part in, you and your counselor will discuss the needed skills and knowledge to do these activities.   

• What skills do you currently have that apply to the subsistence activities you are interested in?
• What skills do you need to learn?
  • These might include things like how to make nets, skin animals, or build a sled
• What activities might need to be adapted to fit with your disability?
• What information do you need to know?
  • For example, this might include laws and regulations about established hunting grounds, tribal hunting rights, and hunting limits and seasons
• Who in the community might assist you in learning these skills and knowledge?
  • Do you have a relative, neighbor, or tribal elder who could help you?

Needed Resources for Subsistence Activities

You and your counselor may discuss the equipment or supplies you need to take part in subsistence activities.

• What equipment, assistive devices, materials, or supplies are needed to do these subsistence activities?
• What do you currently have?
• What do you need?
• What resources do you have to exchange or pay for needed equipment, materials, or supplies to get started?

Laws and Regulations

Subsistence activities often have rules or restrictions about where, when, and how much you can harvest. These regulations vary by location so it is very important to learn about the specific rules that apply to your region and subsistence activity.

Questions to answer include:

• What international, federal, state, or tribal laws dictate where, when, and how much you can catch or harvest?
  • Examples: The Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act
• Are there rules about harvesting methods?
  • For example, do you need to fish using seines, gillnets, hand held lines, or certain baits?
• Do you need any specific permits or licenses to participate in subsistence activities?
• Are there specific requirements for getting future permits, such as reporting last year’s harvest?
• Are there rules about specific places you can hunt or gather and how much you can take?
• Are there rules regulating what time of year certain activities can take place?
• Are there certain expectations or rules from your tribe?

Talk with people who are familiar with these types of rules and regulations in your region to find out which apply to the subsistence activity you will be doing.

Combined Employment Plans

There are different options for employment plans, including self-employment through subsistence activities. If you can meet all of your employment goals through subsistence activities, your employment goal could just be self-employment through subsistence activities.

Another option is combining two or more employment options. For example, if most of your subsistence activities happen in the fall, you might do some seasonal paid employment in the summer.

Combination employment plans include two or more of the following employment options:

• Paid employment – seasonal, part-time, or full-time employment working for someone else for wages
• Self-employment through a small business – starting a business selling a product or service for cash
• Self-employment through subsistence activities – using natural resources and customary practices to meet basic needs and subsistence through barter, sharing, and trade

Talk to your TVR counselor about your likelihood of becoming self-sufficient through subsistence activities, and if you think a combination plan could be a good fit for your employment goals.

TVR Support of Subsistence Activities

Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations includes specific language for American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services (AIVRS) that allows for self-employment through subsistence activities. Specifically:

34 CFR Part 371.6 - Subsistence means a form of self-employment in which individuals produce, using culturally relevant and traditional methods, goods or services that are predominantly consumed by their own household or used for noncommercial customary trade or barter and that constitute an important basis for the worker's livelihood. (Authority: Section 12(c) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; 29 U.S.C. 709(c))

Under the law, AIVRS programs can support self-employment through subsistence activities for individuals with disabilities. Each TVR program is unique, however, so check your own agency’s policies and procedures about supporting self-employment through subsistence activities.

IPEs for Self-Employment through Subsistence Activities

Subsistence IPEs are developed with the purpose of starting or resuming self-employment through subsistence activities. They generally include the following parts:

• A description of the consumer’s disability and how it impacts their ability to be self-sufficient
• A description of the consumer’s subsistence activity goal(s)
• A description of training, mentorship, or support the consumer needs to achieve subsistence goal(s)
  • Who the consumer would like to provide this training, mentorship and/or support if needed
• Equipment, including adapted equipment, and supplies needed to achieve subsistence goal(s)
• Costs the TVR program will cover for training, equipment and supplies, and how the remaining costs will be covered
• A description of how the counselor or TVR program will determine if the consumer is achieving the subsistence activity goal(s)

Training or Mentorship

Sometimes, the consumer will need to learn new skills for doing the subsistence activity, or new ways of doing things to accommodate a disability. The counselor and consumer work together to identify one or more people to become a mentor and teach these skills. Mentors might be an elder, a family member, or another community member. The consumer and counselor work together to:

• Define the type of training that is needed and to develop a schedule for getting it
• Choose mentors who have the necessary knowledge and experience in identified subsistence activities

Based on the mentor’s time, effort, and skills, the counselor will:

• Determine if the TVR program will pay the mentor(s) a training stipend, and for how much
• Help mentors develop effective teaching methods for the consumer

Equipment and Supplies

The consumer may need to purchase some equipment and supplies to participate in subsistence activities.  These can range from small items such as buckets, fishing line, small tools, or ammunition, to more costly equipment, such as a snow machine, 4-wheeler, boat, or motor. Each TVR program will have specific rules for the types of expenses they can and will cover.

In meetings with the consumer:

• Determine what equipment, adapted equipment, and supplies will need to be purchased for getting started in the subsistence activities.
• Determine what funds are available to the consumer and what the TVR program can cover.
• Discuss plans for covering ongoing costs (such as gas, repairs, and other supplies) that will come up in the future, once the case is closed.

TVR Case Closure and Reporting with Self-employment through Subsistence Activities

The Workforce Innovation Opportunities Act (WIOA) defines successful closure (or a status 26 closure) in terms of achieving vocational goals listed in the IPE and meeting benchmarks for the 90-day follow along period.

TVR only takes credit for a successful closure if the TVR services provided were the contributing factor to employment. In the final report, counselors write a summary that includes information on:

• How TVR services had an impact on rehabilitation
• Employment goals
• A brief description of guidance and counseling provided
• Services provided
• Work-performance (including interpersonal relationships)
• Type of work (full time, part time, seasonal, permanent, self-employment, or subsistence)
• Whether the wage is comparable to similar positions
• How the environment may or may not impact the consumer’s condition
• Discussion of post-employment services.

Case closure

When closing a successful combined employment case (for example, self-employment through subsistence activities and paid employment), report paid employment as the employment outcome, BUT note in the summary that the employment goal also included self-employment through subsistence activities.

When closing a case where self-employment through subsistence activities was the only form of employment, report unpaid self-employment though subsistence activities as the employment goal.

Because TVR does not require specific benchmarks such as earned income or economic values, case notes and other documentation are very important for determining case closure.

Prepare

Use the information in this chapter to prepare for a discussion with your TVR counselor about your ideas for self-employment through subsistence activities.

• What experience do you have with subsistence activities?
• How will your disability affect how you participate in various activities?
• Who can help you learn needed skills or knowledge, and are they willing to do so?
• Can you survive on subsistence activities alone, or do you need to think about also having additional employment, such as a part-time job, or another form of self-employment?