Guest Post: Supporting a Grassroots Movement

*Below is guest blog post from Parker Spence, the driving force behind Respect Chief Spence.*

On Wednesday I decided to create an online movement to support Idle No More, an indigenous movement of reawakening of Aboriginal voices, and of Chief Theresa Spence, on day 23 of a hunger strike against government inaction.

On Thursday I called up Josh and Amy at cStreet Campaigns, asking if they could help. Two hours later they were on board, and literally less than 24 hours later, we launched respectchiefspence.com.

I never imaged that kind of turn-around. Rapid, professional and creative. Amy and I spent many back and forths honing messaging and strategy that she would turn into a great site. Josh and I made sure the powerful tools of NationBuilder, the software behind the site, could be deployed to full effect.

I was and am delighted with their work, and with NationBuilder in general. On Friday, I thought - what about asking people to sign a note of support to Chief Spence. Twenty minutes later, that functionality was built in.

I'm pretty new to this online-organizing space, and it's been great having Josh and Amy to lead me through it.

Now, fingers crossed, we'll be able to generate lots of traction and nudge the needle a little bit on Canadians' empathy for aboriginal issues.