In the Spring of 2016, SACE embarked on a new journey.
After over 40 years in the community, we were at an identity crisis point. We were seeing more demand for consultation, we were finding the need to grow and evolve more quickly with new programs and initiatives, and there were more conversations in the media and through social media than ever before. At the same time, we were finding that some of our materials weren’t resonating as much as they could- our website was wordy and hard to navigate and update, our brochures and info sheets wordy and out of date, and especially within Public Education there was a call for information to be made more visual. We were also navigating where and how social media fits in the picture for SACE. In short, we were facing a lot of change, and we needed to check in with ourselves about who we wanted to be and where we wanted to go.
To navigate these questions and more, SACE decided to undergo a brand refresh. We didn’t need to start from scratch—there’s a lot we think we were doing right. We needed to take stock and value our roots, but also take some of those core beliefs and ways of doing this work that dates back as far as 1975, and bring them into the context of today. We needed a facelift, a pulse-taking, a lot of checking in, and a bit of a shuffle to be intentional about where and how we’re changing, and not just reactive.
We had the will, but the next part was the means. We absolutely would not have been able to do this right without the support of the Edmonton Community Foundation. They’ve come through for us many times over the years, but we are so grateful that they saw the importance of this process to create the most accessible, engaging, considered, and most importantly useful resources we could to support our clients and the Edmonton community.
2 years later, we’re ready to share. And we hope you like what we’ve done! As much as we’ve gone from the foundation up and are seeing changes everywhere from our programs, titles, and internal processes to keep ourselves accountable and evolving, a lot of what you’ll notice most is in our new website and print materials. What we have now is just the beginning, we’ll continue to grow these resources, but we couldn’t wait to start using them. We wanted our materials to feel friendly, safe, and be as accessible as possible. Most importantly, we wanted to make sure every piece reflects the most up-to-date and considered sexual violence support and prevention information we can provide.
We invite you to explore our new website and materials as they are released throughout 2018 and let us know what you think—but this is only the beginning. As much as we’re proud of where we’ve landed, our hope is to keep these conversations going and continue to evolve our materials to meet the needs of our community. If you have a question, concern, or idea for how SACE can improve, call or email us at ac.ecas@ofni.