In 2024, under the guidance of Lyackson First Nation’s Consultations Coordinator, Karyn Scott, Lyackson built and launched an app to keep community members connected and informed.

The purpose of the app is to create an opportunity to connect the community in a way that is more personalized and constructive than social media. In Scott’s words:

“On Facebook, it’s like standing in the village square and shouting. Whoever hears you hears you, but then people shout back. This app, in contrast, targets communication channels. So, if there is information you don’t want to receive, you don’t have to receive it. And, if you want more information, there is a way to instantly get that. It’s a more constructive way to communicate, and people have loved it.”

Lyackson worked with the Elders to test and refine the app extensively, ensuring it is intuitive, accessible, and easy to use for all. Now, thanks to that refinement and the vision of the Lyackson team, the app has streamlined, personalized functionality that provides essential information to community members in a visually appealing format.

Community members can sign up for the Lyackson First Nation app on Google Play or the Apple App Store. Upon sign-up, users are guided through an easy-to-understand process to create a personalized content feed. The topics users can choose to receive information about include Lyackson news, job postings, and events. Each event listing provides all the necessary details to attend the event and even syncs with the user’s calendar.

The app provides a seemingly endless – yet highly organized – stream of community content, making it so all relevant community happenings are accessible in one place. For example, the app recently featured a listing for an upcoming “Healing Through Grief and Loss” event at Huli’tun Society, information about how to sign up for a flu shot, and a posting for a job at Kw’umut Lelum. The app is also home to important forms and surveys.

Users can choose to either peruse the available information in the app itself or to opt in to push notifications for one or more topics. Push notifications ensure community members never miss an important Lyackson announcement by “pushing” a notification to the user’s smartphone or tablet.
In addition to making the experience customizable for the user, the push notification function allows the Lyackson team to send targeted information to the people who need it without alerting members for whom the information isn’t relevant. Lyackson staff can, for example, send a push notification to Elders only.

The app is already proving to be a boon for Lyackson membership, with high levels of excitement among the community. According to Scott, even Chief Shana Thomas is a user and a “super fan.”

All community members are invited to submit events and job postings to share with the community via the app. To submit an event or job posting, contact Karyn Scott at consultations@lyackson.bc.ca.

To stay up to date on the latest app updates and other Lyackson news, subscribe to the Lyackson newsletter and sign up for the app on the App Store or Google Play today; just search “Lyackson First Nation.”