NAHC's New Website

The New www.nativehealth.org

The organization has a new website, and if you're reading this, that means it, and you, are here! Here are some things to look for on the site that you might be interested in but didn't necessarily see right away:

NAHC Blog
NAHC Digital Storytelling
NAHC Calendar
NAHC Executive Level Team Page
NAHC Publications Page
NAHC Photo and Video Galleries

The new NAHC website is connected to all of our social media because as we change, grow, and move forward, connectivity will become increasingly important, and the internet ultimately is about visibility, information, and connectivity. With connectivity, however, comes responsibility, because who are we connecting to, and what are we saying?

A website is a presentation - and because of how wrong people have been and still are about the Native world and experience - for us, it should be about re-presentation. The ways that we live, and heal, and experience our community, needs to be seen as expressed by us, the people living it, specifically the Urban San Francisco Bay Area Native community. This is what we hope to achieve in creating NAHC's new website, a vision of the Bay Area Native Community, and the Native American Health Center - what it's been, what it is, and what it will be, as we move forward, together, in one direction.

Now let's talk about the nuts and bolts of it all.

Why a New NAHC Website?

Somewhere along the way, we lost control of our own website (the old website), which was basically no one's fault, it was just a matter of it being passed on to someone who passed it on to someone who forgot to then pass it on.

This means we had very limited access to the dynamic and alive/interactive quality of our website, which means when people visited our website, it just basically seemed, dead, or inactive.

Where it stood, we could, basically, only change the calendar (which was not very user friendly, and took an immense amount of scrolling - which isn't a good way to represent easy access, intuitive interface.)

Due to some limitations of what websites staff can visit, we were unable to see some of the new and exciting media and information we ourselves were producing (available on youtube and facebook). With all of this media and info available on our own website, all staff can enjoy the website as a resource.

There was no interaction between our old website and all of the exciting social media we're doing i.e. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter.

What the NAHC's New Website Can do?

We can now house all of our new media on our own website, meaning: all of our promotional/programmatic videos, digital stories, event coverage, and promotional flyers, can all be accessed and housed on our own website, and not hosted by another site. (This is especially important in regard to protecting our communities stories, and the way our community is represented, i.e. digital stories.)

Calendar: Our Calendar actually looks like a calendar, and not a long list one has to sift through. Not only that, but We have three site specific calendars, so if you only want to see Oakland, Richmond, or San Francisco activity, you can choose that calendar as an option.

Subscribers: On the front page, users will have the option to sign up (by submitting their name and email) to receive news about what's going on at NAHC, as well as event reminders.

Future Growth: The new website will be organic, and with the potential to continually expand and grow, with staff input, as well as community input. The capabilities of Drupal 7 (NAHC's new Content Management System) has almost limitless capability.

Social Media: The new NAHC Website has links on its front page to all of our Social Media, i.e. Facebook (each department with its own Facebook page links, managed by each department), Youtube, and Twitter.

Galleries: The new website's Video and Photo Galleries are an online resource unto themselves, and are a place to explore and find out about all of the new and exciting ways NAHC is thriving as an organization, as well as a way to see our communities beautiful and vibrant images.

7 Generations 1 Direction Tab: Which will feature all information and media regarding NAHC's new forward movement campaign.

NAHC blog and Video Blog: We now have a Blog and Staff Blogger (Sandra Tavel), who will be writing a new blog every month highlighting (in overview fashion) all of the new and exciting things going on at NAHC. In addition to the NAHC Blog, we have a Video Blog, which will also be updated Monthly, and will feature various staff, community, and guest video bloggers, all talking about relevant and exciting new information in an engaging, and current forum. Lastly, NAHC will be hosting a Native California Statewide Collaborative Blog, which will discuss and explore Native California, both rural and reservation. (to find out more click HERE.)

What to Look forward to?

When the time is right (projected for this fall) NAHC website users will be able to make appointments Online!

HR Portal: HR is now designing and developing an HR Portal system which the staff and community will be able to use, accessed through the NAHC website.

NAHC Online Radio (which will feature music, interviews, and podcasts, all generated by our staff and community!)

Dynamic Views (As we get more and regular users, the new website will learn what its users want, and what they most use on the website, those things will then be more easy to access for everyone, which means - the new website will learn what its community wants, making the system more user friendly, as well as intuitive.

Connectivity: As NAHC Social Media expands, as well as its online system and community partners, so to does its connectivity, and therefore traffic, which will ultimately mean more visibility for our community.

Statistics: How will we know we're expanding, and how? With new Google Analytics technology, we can track how many new and continuing users are visiting our website, and specifically what they're doing, and when. With this data, we can not only use the website for generating exciting data for grant reporting, but it will also help and inform our decisions on future design and functionality for the website itself.

Thanks for your time, Please take some time to explore and enjoy the website!