COYA Productions: Impact Narrative (2023–2026)

Since 2023, COYA Productions has generated more than $588,000 in earned revenue while developing Indigenous-led educational programming, training experiences, media productions, and community initiatives across Turtle Island.

Our clients and partners have included the Moose Hide Campaign, Yukon Soaps, Animikii, OneFeather, Junior Achievement BC, Grand Challenges Canada and the Indigenous Innovation Initiative, and Wavemakers. Together, these collaborations have advanced reconciliation, entrepreneurship, education, community wellness, and social innovation.

From the beginning, COYA has committed to circulating resources back into community. We invested more than $63,000 in wages for Indigenous professionals and People of Colour; the Coya Productions Scholarship distributed $4,000 in scholarships to Indigenous educators; and directed nearly $100,000 toward Indigenous procurement. These investments included cultural protocols, ceremonies, feasts, gifting practices, and partnerships that strengthened relationships while supporting Indigenous economies.

Over this same period, COYA built the digital and physical infrastructure necessary to deliver programming at scale. We established a production studio in Lekwungen Territory, developed robust virtual learning systems, and created a global delivery model that enabled us to reach more than 16,600 learners online, in person, and in the metaverse.

At the heart of every workshop was the COYA philosophy: we are not simply the products of our circumstances—we are also the consequences of our actions. Our cultural safety program, Starts from Within, has invited 8000 educators, leaders, and organizations to begin reconciliation not as a checklist, but as a practice of self-determination. Through reflection, relational accountability, Indigenous healing modalities, and somatic practices, participants are encouraged to examine how they show up in relationship—with themselves, with one another, and with the communities they serve.

To ensure our work is grounded in shared ethics we have established frameworks that we offer publicly, free of cost, to ensure we are rising the tide for our community. Please access:
Coya’s Relationship with Time and Money
Coya’s OCAP Commitment to Artificial Intelligence protocols.

Finally we have developed our own strengths-based way to ensure we are living our theory of change. We call it Rooted Action Analysis, and offer this experience to values aligned partners.

The pivot.

Over time, we began to notice something profound. When people changed the way they related to themselves, they changed the way they related to their families. When families became stronger, communities became more resilient. What began as professional learning evolved into a deeper understanding that families are the first place where reconciliation, belonging, and self-determination are lived every day.

Those insights led us to invest in research, curriculum development, and community partnerships to test an emerging model of care that recognizes families as the foundation of thriving communities.

Those investments became the seeds of what is now the Family Stewardship movement.

The same philosophy that shaped our classrooms also shapes our lives. Beyond our programs, COYA's work is grounded in the everyday practices of tending medicine gardens, gathering on the land, celebrating ceremony, and creating joyful experiences with children and families. We believe that stewardship is not only something we teach, it is something we cultivate through relationship with the land, with one another, and across generations. As a matriarch-led organization, we understand that the future is shaped as much by the ordinary moments of belonging as it is by extraordinary acts of leadership.

Today, COYA Productions is transitioning from a project-based consulting practice into a community-led ecosystem dedicated to strengthening families across generations. Through research partnerships, public education, cultural programming, and direct support to families, we are building new pathways for belonging, prevention, and intergenerational well-being.

The Family Stewardship Centre was built within the Coya Productions ecosytem.

It begins with years of earned revenue, thousands of learners engaged, hundreds of relationships cultivated, university research partnerships established, and a demonstrated ability to transform vision into action.

Our work demonstrates that family stewardship is not merely a concept to be explored. It is the natural evolution of the COYA philosophy: that self-determination begins within, is nurtured in families, strengthened in community, and carried forward as legacy for generations to come.

All my relations,
Jace Poirier Lacerte,
Founder, Coya Productions Inc.
Founder and Vision Keeper, The Family Stewardship Centre