New campaigns for reaching NWAC’s grassroots members
The communications team has launched several new web portals and digital campaigns to highlight significant functions and activities undertaken by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).
For example, this fall we created a new donation page for the Wabanaki Resiliency Lodge and ran a social media campaign to help raise funds. Our target is to raise $60,000 of the $160,000 needed to complete phase one of the lodge renovations.
We launched a new From the desk of the CEO page. This new page will house all of the CEO reports and messaging, including stories from the Kci-Niwesq magazine and Shining the Spotlight newsletter.
The team spearheaded a major campaign for National Indigenous Veterans Day, which is held every year on November 8. As part of this campaign, we released a press release urging Canadians to honour the valour, sacrifice, and bravery of Indigenous Peoples who have served in defence of Canada.
The team also highlighted the naming of our CEO, Lynne Groulx, as one of the four top CEOs in Canada in late October. We announced her win at Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, by the Women’s Executive Network Diversity Council of Canada.
As always, the team addresses emerging issues in the news along with being proactive externally by developing and issuing news releases and statements. These tools help place the spotlight on key issues that impact grassroots Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people that NWAC represents.
For example, in mid-October we issued a statement and press release demanding NWAC be given a say in the composition of a new council on reconciliation (French version) when NWAC appeared before the House of Common’s Standing Committee on Indigenous Northern Affairs. We were successful in our ask!
In early November, we released a statement on increased incarceration rates of Indigenous women—particularly for maximum-security prisoners, which account for nearly 65 percent—as outlined in the annual report of the Correctional Investigator of Canada. (French version)
NWAC’s social media reach
Our social media presence continues to grow. In total, our social media platforms have gained 11,862 followers.
Over the month of November, our overall reach totalled nearly 2 million users (1,853,419), with Facebook and Instagram showing the most engagement during this 30-day period.