One platform for the whole community.

Overview

Everything a member needs to know.

Esk’etemc is a Secwépemc community in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, and its work as a government runs on information reaching the people it belongs to.

Community information, governance, and cultural expression were spread across channels that not everyone could reach. Members of different ages were reaching them in very different ways, and an announcement that lands for one part of the community can miss another entirely.

Esk’etemc engaged Burst to design a website that works as a central hub: one place for programs, council announcements, events, and contacts, built to reflect the Nation’s values while improving communication and accessibility for members of all ages.

The Challenge

Accessible to every age.

The Nation needed one platform that serves Elders and students equally well, on whatever device each of them actually uses.

Governance information, program updates, and community news had to be organized so that finding something takes seconds rather than searching. Mobile responsiveness was not a refinement here; for many members the phone is the only way in.

The platform also had to be maintainable by the people who would actually run it, and durable enough to grow alongside the Nation’s needs rather than needing to be replaced when they change.

It was never just a website. It is a tool that supports community transparency, engagement, and pride.

Strategy

Built with leadership and staff.

Burst worked closely with Esk’etemc leadership and staff to understand how information moves through the Nation today, and where it stalls.

Those conversations shaped an intuitive and accessible structure for program updates, council announcements, events, and contact directories, organized around how members look for things rather than around how the organization is arranged internally.

Special emphasis went to mobile responsiveness, clean navigation, and long-term maintainability, each treated as a requirement of the build rather than a refinement to be added once the design was settled.

Culture

Identity, in a modern framework.

Cultural elements were thoughtfully integrated into the layout, the visuals, and the tone of the site.

The intention was to present the Nation’s identity within a modern framework rather than to decorate a generic template with it. Culture shapes the structure and the voice, not only the imagery, which is the difference between a site that belongs to a community and one that merely mentions it.

The result is contemporary where it needs to be and unmistakably Esk’etemc throughout.

The Site

One hub, clearly organized.

The public site brings program updates, council announcements, events, and contact directories into a single structure that members can navigate without instruction.

Content is grouped so that the questions people actually arrive with (what is happening, who do I contact, what am I eligible for) are answered near the surface rather than several levels down.

Staff manage it through a content management system that does not require technical expertise, so information stays current without a request queue standing between an announcement and the community.

The School

Sxoxomic Community School.

Burst also developed a dedicated website for Sxoxomic Community School, a vital institution for education and Secwépemc language revitalization within the Esk’etemc community.

Guided by the school’s values and its original owl-marked logo, the design approach emphasized warmth, clarity, and family accessibility. It was built to serve parents, students, and educators alike, with dynamic tools for sharing news, staff contacts, classroom updates, and educational resources.

Language resources and cultural content sit alongside the practical, positioning the school as a key contributor to the long-term preservation of Secwépemc knowledge.

Designed to grow with the needs of the school community, it balances functionality with identity, so that students and families feel supported, seen, and connected.

The Portal

A secure place to govern.

Citizen, Burst’s customizable members portal, was deployed to create a secure digital hub for governance and community engagement.

It streamlines access to essential resources, from meeting minutes and calendars to funding opportunities and job postings, in one centralized interface, designed for clarity and security in equal measure.

By combining adaptable design with straightforward tools, the portal lets administrators share information with confidence while members stay connected, informed, and involved, anytime and anywhere.

It is the part of the platform that supports self-governance directly: internal documents behind one trusted sign-in, available to the people entitled to them without a request in between.

The Impact

Communication that reaches everyone.

Community information is easier to find, on any device and at any age. Governance is more visible, the school has a home of its own, and secure documents live behind a single trusted sign-in.

Staff maintain the platform without technical help, which keeps the site current rather than accurate only at launch.

The system is built to grow as the Nation’s needs change, so the next service can be added rather than rebuilt around.

In Closing

Preserving knowledge through design.

A platform can carry more than information. Done carefully, it carries language, identity, and the expectation that the community can always find out what is happening.

That expectation is the quiet part of the work. Once information is reliably where people look for it, participation stops being an effort and becomes a habit.

For Esk’etemc, that is the point: technology that supports the Nation’s work rather than reshaping it.