Community Resilience Plan

TASK

To redo the Kanaka Bar Band’s community’s strategic plan while applying a climate lens to it.

CHALLENGE

We were tasked with creating a renewed strategic plan that built on all the foundational work done by the community previously. We also provided a holistic roadmap that echoed the community’s vision in all aspects of achieving self-sufficiency and community resilience.

SOLUTION

We were hired by Kanaka Bar Band, located near Lytton, British Columbia, during the height of the pandemic to create a 5-year comprehensive community strategy.

What came of it was a Community Resilience Plan (CRP) designed to counteract the adverse effects of colonization, industrialization, urbanization, and globalization. The plan was also structured to make the community resilient against future challenges including, but not limited to, biodiversity loss, socio-economic crisis, and climate change.

The CRP was founded on decades of community development efforts, with our team having gathered 300 raw community resiliency ideas through virtual engagement sessions, conversations with the community, and community surveys.

The ideas were consolidated and grouped into seven main areas and prioritized using a framework created with community stakeholders. The product was a 5-year implementation schedule and unique methods geared toward measuring the project's success.

The CRP has since received top-project award recognition at a national sustainability gathering in Toronto, given its industry-leading development process and its connection to climate resiliency.

This validates our commitment to positively impacting Indigenous communities and our approach to solving problems unique to them.