Invitation

Click to listen to our invitation to share your Indigenous Innovation Initiative story.

Dear Indigenous Innovation Initiative Community Members, Friends and Relatives,

We’re sending this invitation with respect and gratitude, acknowledging and honouring the strength, brilliance, gifts and wisdom you carry. We are reaching out to invite your participation in an Indigenous evaluation framework designed by COYA Productions for everyone within the Indigenous Innovation Initiative community.

This process is designed to center relationships, empathy, authenticity and community. We honour your autonomy and want to emphasize that your participation is entirely voluntary—you are free to join or withdraw at any time, without needing to provide a reason or rationale for your choices or preferences.

This invitation is rooted in Indigenous research principles, guided by respect, reciprocity, relevance, and responsibility. We recognize the deep emotional work often required in storytelling and reflection. We are committed to walking with you in a good way—one that upholds confidentiality and respects your boundaries and knowledge.

You can view the COYA Productions Indigenous Wisdom Sharing Agreement to learn more how we will be respecting confidentiality and wisdom shared with us.

With love, kindness, respect, humility, truth, wisdom, honesty and courage,

Jace Poirier & Robyn Ward

Coya Productions | Indigenous Innovation Initiative Evaluation Team

Evaluation Strategy
FAQ’s

  • We are inviting participation from each of these stakeholder groups:

    • All of the Indigenous Innovators from Round 1 and Round 2 Funding,

    • The Indigenous Innovation Initiative team,

    • The Indigenous Innovation Council,

    • The Grand Challenges Canada Team,

    • Community Peer Reviewers, and

    • External Experts

    • The strengths and effectiveness of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative program,

    • The role the Indigenous Innovation Initiative can play in the wider Indigenous Innovation ecosystem,  and

    • How the Indigenous Innovation Initiative can centre Indigenous innovation processes, operate with Indigenous values, identify challenges, and support economic reconciliation.

  • We are inviting participation from now until June 30, 2025.

  • Respecting personal preferences and autonomy, you will be given four ways to participate to choose from;

  • Innovator Questions

    Community Questions

  • Why: Honouring the value of humility, we’re asking for feedback to gain insight into your experience to give the Indigenous Innovation Initiative team an opportunity to celebrate successes and strengths. As well, we hope to learn and identify ways in which the future funding of Indigenous Innovation can be improved for future Indigenous Innovators.

  • Jace Poirier: A MĂ©tis, BC trained teacher, Founder and CEO of Coya Productions. She is the Vice President of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre and an active participant in the Indigenous Innovator space. Learn more about Jace here.

    Robyn Ward : A Ukrainian and English trained Cultivating Safe Spaces trainer, volunteer Counsellor and an Executive Coach who lives Indigenous culture with her Anishinaabe family. Learn more about Robyn here.

  • Our confidentiality policy is outlined in our Wisdom Sharing Agreement.

    With your consent, your responses will be collected and anonymized to ensure your identity remains confidential. The data will be combined with input from other participants and summarized in a short, 2-page final report highlighting key themes and findings from the evaluation. No individual responses or identifying details will be shared.

    Simple Survey is used to house data on Canadian servers to uphold and respect OCAP® principles—Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession—developed by First Nations to govern how their information is collected, protected, and used. By keeping data within Canada, Simple Survey ensures that Indigenous communities retain sovereignty over their knowledge and contributions, avoiding foreign jurisdictions that may not honour Indigenous data rights. This practice aligns with ethical standards for Indigenous research and reflects a commitment to relational accountability, data security, and self-determination.

    1. Relational Approach

    2. Decolonized Funding & Investment

    3. Capacity Building & Self-Determination

    4. Cultural Grounding 

    5. Visibility & Knowledge Mobilization

    6. Economic Empowerment

    7. Social and Health Impact

    8. Rematriation and Gender Equity

    9. Systems Change and Policy Influence

Ways to Participate

Choose the path that feels most right for you. There are 4 ways you can participate: choose 1 or you can participate any or all 4 ways.

Sharing Circle

The Indigenous Innovation Initiative story is Indigenous data. When we sit in circle we can harvest our shared wisdom for the betterment of one another and future generations. Come to a sharing circle to offer your story of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative.

Join a 2-hour community circle, guided by traditional circle protocols where everyone within your group is invited to answer the questions in a sharing circle.

Qualitative Data: Story sharing and personal experience.

Story Sharing

Your story is yours to tell. We respect your wisdom, humility, bravery, and courage to speak your truth. We offer you a private storytelling interview with a trained cultivating safe spaces trainer, and a coach who lives Indigenous culture with her Annishnaabe family. We think telling our story is a healing practice.

Book a 1-hour individual conversation with the COYA Productions Evaluators, Jace Poirier and Robyn Ward during a time that works best for your schedule.

Qualitative Data: Story sharing and personal experience.

Online Survey

We value your time. We hope this option gives you the opportunity to share your wisdom within a timeline that works best for you. Offering you the chance to contribute as much or as little of your experience with the Indigenous Innovation Initiative you would like to share.

There is a 30 minutes (or less) survey for innovators and a survey for all other stakeholders.

Available 24/7 for you to complete anytime before June 30, 2025.

Quantitative Data: Most questions are rating your experience on a 5 point scale.

Record Video

You can upload a video of yourself answering the questions. As well, if your story includes any additional photos, videos, documents or data that you want included, please feel warmly encouraged to share them here.

Record a 30 minutes - 1 hour response to the questions.

Qualitative Data: Story sharing and personal experience.

Innovators
đź‘€ Preview the Survey Questions:

Community Members
đź‘€ Preview the Survey Questions:

Innovators

đź–Ą Take the survey from your desktop:

https://questionnaire.simplesurvey.com/f/s/innovator

Innovators

📲 Scan the QR code to take the survey from your phone:

Community Members

đź–Ą Take the survey from your desktop:

https://questionnaire.simplesurvey.com/f/s/community

Community Members

📲 Scan the QR code to take the survey from your phone:

Community Survey QR Code

Our gift of thanks for being in knowledge exchange with you:

Coya has created a new framework called Rooted Action Analysis.

Rooted Action Analysis is an Indigenous-made, cyclical framework helping organizations move from theory of change to daily action— creating measurable impact and building multi-generational legacy.

Grand Challenges Canada - begun the evaluation of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative with Rooted Action Analysis.

Try it for yourself, or book Coya to lead your organization through this strengths-based approach to evaluation:

Gifts 🌿

Self Care Gifts for You with Gratitude for your work

To thank you for your time and consideration, we’re offering a small digital gifts to encourage wellness and self care guided by the 4 themes from Indigenous Innovation Initiative of:  Wellness, Food, Land, and Tech. 

As well as, we would like to offer Coya’s ceremonial welcome bundle to all participants who we will be meeting with to begin our relationship from a place of love, kindness and friendship.

Lastly, we would like to offer an Indigenous Innovation Social Impact Report to all of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative Fund Recipients. We hope this Impact Report supports further investment and support for your innovation.

Please choose one, many or all gifts offered. ♥️

  • To help you speak your truth with honesty, bravery, courage, and humility, we include a visual Feelings Wheel, to support emotional awareness. Naming our feelings—beyond "happy," "sad," or "mad"—is linked to greater mental health and self-awareness (Lieberman et al., 2007). Download the Calm Feeling Wheel to start using more feelings words.

    • Try naming two feelings daily to build emotional fluency and strength. These two feelings can be at the same time. We’re complex beings. We can be frustrated and happy at the same time, or scared and energetic. We hold so many feelings at once, and naming the feelings is the first step to really understanding what’s going on for us. We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling beings that think. Usually, the feeling comes first and the thoughts follow.

  • Enjoy some Indigenous whole foods recipes, try one new recipe per week:

  • Inspiration to connect with Mother Earth in simple ways with this Land Wellness reminder card.

  • Inspiration for self care tech tips with this Tech Wellness reminder card.

  • Coya has created a new framework called Rooted Action Analysis.

    Rooted Action Analysis is an Indigenous-made, cyclical framework helping organizations move from theory of change to daily action— creating measurable impact and building multi-generational legacy.

    Grand Challenges Canada - begun the evaluation of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative with Rooted Action Analysis.

    Try it for yourself, or Book Coya to lead you through a 1 hour Rooted Action Analysis workshop to learn more about this powerful tool.

  • Social Impact reports are powerful tools for businesses and innovators because they clearly demonstrate the value their work brings to communities, beyond financial metrics. These reports communicate outcomes, lessons, and ripple effects in ways that build trust with funders, partners, and the public. By capturing the real-world impact of a project—such as improved well-being, environmental sustainability, or community empowerment—social impact reports showcase accountability and transparency, and help organizations learn, adapt, and grow. They can strengthen investment opportunities, support policy influence, and deepen relationships with those most affected by the work.

  • Interested in exploring wellness through coaching? We’re offering 2 complimentary 1 hour coaching sessions for anyone curious about this type of wellness resource. You can book time with Robyn Ward, using this link https://calendly.com/rewardingrelationships or email her directly at robyn@rewardingrelationships.ca for more times available.

  • Bringing Wellness Bingo to the workplace is a fun, accessible, and community-building way to support team health and wellness. It encourages employees to engage in small, meaningful acts of self-care—like drinking more water, taking screen breaks, stretching, or expressing gratitude—which can boost mood, reduce stress, and improve overall mental and physical well-being. When paired with friendly collaboration and small prizes, Wellness Bingo adds motivation and excitement, creating a positive workplace culture where wellness is celebrated and prioritized. It opens up conversations about self-care and team support, helping to foster connection, empathy, and balance across the team.

Jace Poirier, Lead Evaluator

“I’m an Indigenous woman driven to create and measure social impact outcomes for Indigenous Peoples.

I have a stake in these stories. I am this data.

The stories Coya harvests will guide the next iteration of the Indigenous Innovation initiative.

I want the innovators stories told accurately, so we can do more of what works for the intended beneficiary of this project:

Indigenous Innovators of Turtle Island advancing gender equity and rematriation. ”

Let’s Keep the Circle Open

We’d love to hear from you. If you feel called, please contribute any feedback, comments, or suggestions on any part of this process. We would love to hear from you. Also, a warm invitation to send us your favourite wellness practices to our shared list. We’ll add it to the page. This is a living circle of wisdom—your stories, resources, wisdom, and guidance may inspire wellness for other Indigenous Innovators.

This process is designed to center relationships, empathy, authenticity and community. We honour your autonomy and want to emphasize that your participation is entirely voluntary—you are free to join or withdraw at any time, without needing to provide a reason or rationale for your choices or preferences.

With love, respect, humility, truth, wisdom, honesty and courage,

Jace Poirier & Robyn Ward

♥️

Coya Productions | Indigenous Innovation Initiative Evaluation Team

www.coyaproductions.ca