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Impact Report 2024

Read about the highlights of the past year.

Written by

Published on

Mar 24, 2025

Dear friends, partners, and supporters,

At the beginning of 2025, we recognize the tremendous challenges so many communities face today who are impacted by colonization and its aftermath, economic disparities, war, exclusion, food insecurity, healthcare access, extreme weather events, and more. Yet, we also celebrate their resilience, survivorship, and ingenuity.

SeeChange was founded in 2018 to listen, understand, and support community action to address the disproportionate and untenable tuberculosis outbreak among Inuit in Nunavut. From the start, our goal has been to contribute to community-led health and humanitarian responses, and this purpose continued to guide our work throughout 2024.

In the past year, SeeChange collaborated with amazing colleagues and committed partners, from Nunavut to Brazil. We completed a critical phase of a major project that developed a framework and tools for community-centered humanitarian health responses and piloted a new initiative with Inuit youth. We faced significant financial constraints in our efforts. Yet we amplified our impact, forged connections and partnerships, and continued to learn and grow.

Summarizing a whole year in a few words is a daunting task.

The best way may be through the themes of consolidation, challenges, and connection.

Read our impact report

Consolidation

SeeChange’s Dr. Violeta Chapela and Jessica Farber, with the input and collaboration of multiple communities and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff, successfully created a ‘Community First’ toolkit and framework for community-led action on humanitarian and health crises. The toolkit was launched in Rio de Janeiro in partnership with MSF Brazil, in a workshop with humanitarian workers from across Latin America, several of whom have begun using the community-centred approach in their projects. The initiative marked the completion of the second phase of a multi-year project funded by MSF’s Transformational Investment Capacity, which included pilot projects in Sierra Leone, Peru and Venezuela.

CommunityFirst workshop with MSF staff in Brazil. Photo credit: Leonardo Nakamura

SeeChange’s Inuit Intercultural Health Lead, Naomi Tatty, was invited to support a TB Sanatorium healing journey to Quebec City, organized by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) and Makivvik Corporation, the legal representatives of Inuit in these regions. This healing journey followed the historic visit SeeChange co-organized with NTI and Ilisaqsavik society, bringing Inuit Elder TB sanatorium survivors and youth to Hamilton, Ontario in July 2023. Naomi also published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail, advocating for Inuit Elder TB Sanatorium survivors and the ongoing need to support their and intergenerational healing.

Connection & Interconnectedness

SeeChange recognizes the deep connections between generations—Inuit Elders who have survived TB sanatoriums and residential schools, and younger generations impacted by intergenerational trauma, and the importance of remembering history, knowledge-sharing, storytelling, and healing. After Inuit youth joined the TB sanatorium visit to Hamilton in 2023, they expressed a strong desire for more youth-focused opportunities.

In partnership with the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-UK Arctic Research Program (CINUK) Carving out Climate Testimony: Inuit Youth, Wellness & Environmental Stewardship program, we supported an interactive Inuit Youth Town Hall at the ArcticNet Arctic Change Conference in Ottawa in December 2024. The session, "Let’s Tell a Story" brought together Inuit youth from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories who shared experiences, stories, songs, and initiatives promoting well-being and environmental stewardship.

Christopher Idlout and John Tatty perform at Arctic Net. Photo credit: Carmen Koessler.

In partnership with the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, we hosted a virtual talk with Silla Watt-Cloutier: "Human Trauma/Climate Trauma: The Importance of Inuit Traditional Knowledge and Advocacy on Climate Action." Silla, an officer of the Order of Canada, interwove Inuit history and the harmful impacts of colonial policies with cultural pride, hope for youth and recognition of Inuit in resourcefulness and resilience.

Challenges

Fundraising remains a significant challenge for small social purpose organizat ions like SeeChange, and 2024 was a particularly difficult year, with a decline in charitable giving across Canada. While we weren’t able to raise the full amount needed to fund all the initiatives we had planned, we are pleased that our programming and research still had an impact.

Navigating the evolving landscape of donor priorities and funding restrictions remains difficult, particularly as we strive to align our community-centered work with the shifting requirements. However, we find hope in emerging models like decolonized grantmaking, social finance, impact investing (see SeeChange’s CommunityFirst Perpetual Fund update below), and trust-based philanthropy, which are beginning to reshape the funding landscape.

We launched a crowdfunding campaign in support of Inuit youth at a ‘Night for the Inuit Nunangat’ in October in Toronto. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all guests and donors, to Dorset Fine Arts/West Baffin Cooperative for co-hosting the event, as well as to Inuit performer Sylvia Cloutier, and speakers Naomi Tatty and Iola Oshoweetok for sharing insights on the challenges and dreams of Inuit youth.

Sylvia Cloutier performs at the Night for the Inuit Nunangat. Photo credit: Claudia Blume

Looking Ahead

In 2025—a year of uncertainty—we remain committed to our purpose to support and promote community-led initiatives to combat health emergencies, and we are looking forward to an Inuit Intergenerational Healing Journey to Hamilton with Inuit TB Sanatorium survivors and youth in May 2025 - building on the historic healing and closure journey with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) and Ilisaqsavik in 2023. Thanks to the Hamilton Community Foundation for major support for this upcoming visit.

Times are challenging and SeeChange is looking to pivot in later 2025, but we take solace in our founder and CEO’s Rachel Kidddell-Monroe’s recent words on a podcast, The Power Shift: Decolonising Development:

“We have to take the time. That means that the results are slower. The results are not linear… We have to embrace different ways of thinking, more circular ways - the idea we have amongst some First Nations here in Canada, of the seven generations back and the seven generations forward - that every act you take is affecting.”

Thank you for your unwavering support,

Carol Devine, SeeChange Chief Operating Officer

Ekambi Mbella, SeeChange President

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