Engaging with the Provincial and Territorial Member Associations

NWAC’s Capacity Building team is currently made up of three team members. Duane Ironstand, who resides on Treaty 4 territory, is the manager. Michelle Eagle Tail Feathers, residing on Treaty 7 Territory, and Adrienne Thomas, also residing on Treaty 4 territory, are community liaisons.

The Capacity Building team works in partnership with the provincial and territorial member associations (PTMAs) to help them build administrative capacity so they can provide support within their regions. Currently, our unit is:

• providing training and support for proposal writing to help PTMAs pursue new funding sources with confidence and to better support and sustain local programming
• developing customized strategic action plans for each PTMA, to identify key region-specific needs and develop or adjust programming to address these needs
• creating a funding sustainability plan for each PTMA to ensure longevity, maintenance, and growth of programming

Engagement:

Over the course of the past two months (December 2022–January 2023), the team has been engaging with individual PTMAs. We have completed introductory meetings, developed and facilitated proposal writing training, scheduled ongoing engagement meetings, conducted email communication for specific material and tasks, and maintained close connections as needed to support the ongoing efforts of the PTMAs.

Training:

The team held a training workshop on proposal writing on November 30, 2022. Seven of the 11 PTMAs took part. The training included open question periods so participants could ‘share their thoughts.’ This resulted in an open line of communication with participants sharing invaluable insights.

Key indicators from the training workshop were as follows:

• 87.5% of participants who answered the survey said this training strengthened their knowledge of the proposal writing process
• 50% of participants who answered the survey said they welcome continued ongoing support to enhance their proposal writing processes and/or guidelines
• survey responses identified a need for ongoing support to help the PTMAs create programs that meet the needs of their community

The Capacity Building team has a deeper understanding of the challenges that individual PTMAs face in their respective regions.

What we are doing now

The team is currently holding discussions with the PTMAs to assess community gender-based violence (GBV) issues, existing programming, current funding, identified funders, and needs and gaps. The information we glean from these discussions will help the team develop individual strategic action plans for each PTMA, with a focus on building organizational capacity.

The team will be meeting with each PTMA, virtually or in person, to complete the action plans.

The goal is to help each PTMA achieve financial sustainability. We are excited to be building a strategic framework that will allow PTMAs to build their capacity, thereby increasing the support they can provide to Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people.