How to Make Change In Your Indigenous Community

If you are looking to make change within your community, but you are not within a position of let’s say….Chief or Council….and do not have the resources….then this may be the most important post you will read today.

Over the past few years we have experienced much success in the ability to get the resources needed to deliver programs that enhance our Indigenous communities.

One thing to keep in mind is that you are just one idea a way.

One idea a way from bringing an awesome program to your community.

One idea a way from helping more people learn language.

You are just one idea a way.

In this article we will share with you some strategies that you can use and start your journey right now to doing what you want to do to enhance your Indigenous community.

If The System is Broken…Don’t Use It

I see a lot of people talk about systems. Within an Indigenous community in Canada, the reserve runs on an Indian Act system which is a non-indigenous system.

The system was not designed for our success.

If the system is not working…simply do not use it. But there are some ways you can leverage it and start change from the outside.

One of the ways we accomplished this was to set up another entity. We set up a non-profit business where all the money that you get will go into your IDEA that you come up with that will serve the community.

Think of Your Vision and What You Want to Accomplish

One secret that has worked so well for us is to “start with the end in mind”.

What is the goal you want to accomplish?

Is it to start a youth group that teaches leadership?

Is it to start a Powwow program that helps community get into dancing and singing?

Is it to hold an event that you do yearly?

Think of the vision that you would like to accomplish and know what the end result would be.

Set Up a Not For Profit

One of the ways you can start change from the outside and have more control of what you want to do for your community is to set up a non profit.

You will need a minimum of 2 people to set up a private non profit and 3 or more to set up a public non profit.

It does cost a few bucks but not a lot.

There are some forms that need to be filled out and at first it can be daunting. We learned how to do it by doing a lot of Google searches to find out how to actually fill out the forms.

When you get that non profit status, you will have the ability to apply for grants which can get you some resources.

Apply For Grants….Often

Most think you need to go through some kind of course to learn grant writing.

We didn’t have the luxury to do that and also we could not find any within our local area.

So we turned to the next best thing.

We turned again to Google and Youtube and started to learn grant writing and how to write and submit grants.

Some tips to do about grant writing:

• Create a master swipe file because a lot of the grants will ask the same questions and so you can just copy and paste certain things (company mandate, company vision, company history…etc)
• Each grant person will have a program contact. Make sure you contact that person a lot and annoy them. When it comes time to choosing which grant they will support, you will be on their mind.
• Keep googling grants within your area and national grants as well. Example) “Your Location + Indigenous grants”

Start Your Social Media Pages For Your Non Profit and Post, Document, and Share as Much as You Can

When you are creating positive change for your community, you will want to start documenting everything with photo and video.

Start sharing what you are doing with the world and there are a few reasons why you would do this.

One, you will inspire others in other communities to do what you are doing for their community.

The other reason why this is important is because many other companies and organizations out there are looking for great programs to support but just don’t know where to find them sometimes.

There are many times that communities reached out to us to want to support all the cool things we are doing for culture and for the youth.

Attracting Sponsorships to do more

Sponsorships are a little different then grants and actually a lot better to have.

With grants, there are a lot reporting that is needed afterwards. With sponsorships you will get the funds and just need to provide a receipt and help promote that sponsor through whatever it is that you are doing.

The reason why you want to start building your social media is because you can track the reach of your content.

You can track how many people watched your videos, how many likes, comments, and shares, and who are the people interacting with your pages.

With this information, you will be able to attract sponsorship from companies and organizations because you will be a company that can promote them with all the great things that you are doing.

Deliver Your Programming and Start Thinking Bigger

When you start getting the funds, now it’s just time to start delivering all the great stuff you are going to do.

Do your best to deliver your programming the best way that you can.

One of the things that you will love is the people that you are serving and that you are making a difference.

Now all that is needed is to rinse and repeat with other programming or growing your program.