Canadian Centre for Climate Services

Summary

Cambium Indigenous Professional Services (CIPS) worked with the Canadian Centre for Climate Services to create case stories of Indigenous communities across Canada that are leading climate change adaptation initiatives. There were two main project objectives:

1. Develop Indigenous-relevant climate materials with and for distinctions-based Indigenous communities; And

2. Learn internally (at the CCCS) how to better meet the needs of Indigenous communities, organizations, and consultants.

Project Activities

Identify Communities of Interest

The first step was to gauge the interest from Indigenous Communities. This included various communities across Canada in order to capture the diverse and distinct cultures. The goal was to set up special community profiles and to gather potential case stories.

This step also included introductory meetings, review project charters and to set up tentative workplans together.

A project charter was developed to help guide the process. The charter was sent off to each of the chosen Indigenous Communities for revision and signatures to kick the project off.

Develop / Coordinate Templates

Developing and coordinating templates was needed to determine climate data priorities based on past, current and future work in community and traditional and treaty territory. For example, developing a case story process through discussions helped guide the process in a more streamlined fashion.

Ongoing revision and edits from each community helped to engage members and put the project in a more prioritized, community context.

Outcomes

Each of the Climate Data Profiles were developed in PowerPoint form. This made it easier for practitioner to communicate data to membership, leadership and community as a whole. Each case

story included work in progress and showcased unique climate initiatives across the Nation.

Deliverables

1) Develop Indigenous services pathways

2) Develop data profiles for Indigenous Communities

3) Develop data case stories about Indigenous led initiatives

4) Gather learning outcomes from the process

Process

Using online data tools and services, Cambium Indigenous Professional Services (CIPS) developed a process that efficiently organized the project into streamlined activities. Each stage of the project helped to build an efficient, effective and inclusive process.

The process included the following:

- Miro workshops to discuss Canadian Centre for Climate Services (CCCS) needs and vision.

- Indigenous Services Pathways graphic development to understand supportive climate services and entryways for Indigenous clients.

- Profile and Case Story co-development with communities:

- Determine communities of interest

- Introduction and project charter agreeance

- Information meeting(s)

- Internal data acquisition and organization for product development

- Review of draft products and finalization

Communities of Interest

There were 6 Indigenous Communities identified for the project.

1) Miawpukek First Nation, a Mi’kmaw community in Newfoundland,

2) Mohawks of Kahnawake in s. Quebec,

3) Caldwell First Nation in s. Ontario,

4) Fishing Lake Metis Settlement in Alberta,

5) Inuit community of Kugaaruk in Nunavut, and

6) Penticton Indian Band in s. British Columbia.

Virtual meetings were held with each of the chosen communities to discuss their data profiles and case study reviews. Information meetings were held with Community representatives to discuss community capacity and internal processes.

Results

There were two main objectives to the project:

1. Develop Indigenous-relevant climate materials with and for distinctions-based Indigenous communities; And

2. Learn internally (at the CCCS) how to better meet the needs of Indigenous communities, organizations, and consultants.

Working with Canadian Centre for Climate Services (CCCS), we were able to create case stories of Indigenous communities across Canada that are leading climate change adaptation initiatives, as well as connect other Indigenous communities with their future climate data projections to aid in best decision making when community planning.

By taking hard to read materials (graphs and tables) and creating easier to understand documents and applications, we were able to gain a much better perspective on the needs for those chosen Indigenous Communities. Related: 3 Ways to Effectively Communicate Technical Information to First Nation Communities

There may be two different types of profiles and case stories that seem to be emerging.

Community profiles:

1. Profile with only Canadian Centre for Climate Services (CCCS) data - least time, non-intrusive to communities who are more reserved.

2. Profile with Community Context – more time for relationship building process, learn from community current initiatives, include context provided by community.

Community case stories:

1. Complete case story – start to end, process of initiative, outcome and next steps.

2. Living case story – ie. Miawpukek, in the middle of process of community engagement and priorities – outline what the process is and continue to update.

Moving forward, CIPS believes that by developing Indigenous-relevant climate materials with and for distinctions-based Indigenous communities will better suit the needs for Indigenous communities in Canda. In addition, by learning internally (at the CCCS), the information will better meet the needs of Indigenous communities, organizations, and consultants