ICE Services
Indigenous & Community Engagement (ICE) Inc. is a professional service company dedicated to the socio-economic development of Indigenous peoples. We are guided by Indigenous values and principles of reconciliation with one goal in mind—to improve the quality of life for Indigenous Nations through socio-economic, community, and project development. We work with government, corporate, and Indigenous clients to support informed decision-making, shared outcomes, and mutual benefits.
Strategic Advisory Services
Aligning the layered, interactive complexities of government regulations, corporate policies, and community protocols is much more challenging than ever before. Our strategic advisory services are based on our multilateral engagements, deep community experiences, resource development projects, and Crown relationships with agencies. We help clients identify the underlying challenges, assist in scenario planning & risk management, and formulate strategic pathways in a way that leads to productive, working relationships for all parties.
Indigenous Engagement & Consultation Services
Our approach to Indigenous engagement and consultation strengthens communities through projects. Given today’s regulatory expectations, the functions of community engagement, consultation, and negotiations remain a central stream of activities for project initiation, project development, and project management. We have the professional ability and agility to align a project’s mandate with a community’s aspirations. We provide services from developing Indigenous inclusion initiatives to designing relationship-based consultations programs to implementing project agreements and managing stakeholder management systems for the record of consultation (our team is trained in Praxis, Borealis, and Staketracker).
Socio-Economic Services
Our team members are recognized leaders in the socio-economic field and are experts in working with diverse communities and stakeholder interests to achieve project goals. Our experience includes leading the design of research methodologies and work plans and supporting the baseline data collection and impact assessments. We conduct socio-economic field surveys, interviews, engagement sessions, data analysis, and report writing for our clients in accordance with national and provincial regulatory requirements and code of practice.
Capacity Assessment and Development
While frequently overlooked, capacity building is the all-important support process that enables communities and organizations to become a strategic force. We help our clients improve performance through assessing and building capabilities, skills, knowledge, motivation, and commitment at the individual, organizational, and community levels. Capacity building enables Indigenous communities and organizations to develop competencies and skills that can make them more effective and sustainable, thus increasing the potential to enrich lives and solve the most challenging problems. Capacity development and capacity support services are often provided alongside other services, such as training, monitoring, and evaluation. It is our view that building community capacity is building Indigenous nations.
Indigenous Social Research
Facts, data, and insights matter to make an informed decision. Our team members conduct specialized Indigenous-based research that produces insightful analyses of key findings. We operate with the First Nations Principles of OCAP (ownership, control, access, and possession) which means Indigenous communities own, protect and control how their information is stored, accessed, used, and distributed. We provide a range of research methodologies from community-based participatory research, storytelling, and culture-specific methods to more social science approaches such as questionnaires, focus groups, key informant interviews, and intercept surveys.
Facilitation Services
Our team also offers facilitation services for a range of contexts such as strategic planning, workshops, and problem-solving. Facilitation allows group members or stakeholders to share experiences, learn from one another, and engage participants in creating, discovering, and applying insights to the challenges and opportunities they are facing. We are Certified Professional Facilitators with the International Association of Facilitators (trained in Focused Conversation Methods, Group Facilitation Methods, Arts & Science of Participation, and Advanced ToP Tools) as well as qualified with the Certificate in Public Participation (which includes Planning for Effective Participation, Communications for Effective Public Participation, Techniques for Effective Public Participation, and Emotion & Outrage during Public Participation) by the International Association of Public Participation.
Funding & Project Support Services
With over 30 years of dealing with government grants and Canadian foundations, we have helped Indigenous communities obtain funding for a variety of initiatives from youth programs to playgrounds to land-based activities. We will work with your team to clarify your project goals and align them with the ideal funding organization. Our experienced proposal writers will help with your application based on the criteria of all available funding sources. We also provide project management and project support services for Indigenous communities and organizations. Our firm understands that Indigenous communities and organizations only have so much time and bandwidth to spend on multiple files so we help to ensure project success by being on time and on budget.