The Central Alberta United Way has had a busy year campaigning and confronting the public about social issues such as homelessness, mental health, domestic violence, and hunger that are ongoing and ‘unignorable’ within our Central Albertan communities.

This year’s campaign is a little different in that it is more obtrusive and meant to grasp the attention of people passing by. The theme of the campaign is ‘unignorable’ and the organization has worked hard to accomplish their theme in hopes that people just don’t pass by these social issues. The United Way has been using moveable art installations, illustrations and other marketing strategies to get the message out.

“Whether it’s just the different colour we’re using or the use of the art installations that we built or the illustrations that were commissioned by United Way Centraide out of Ottawa. They are all just meant to get that second look and have somebody say what is that and start the conversations around these important issues,” said Brett Speight, CEO of United Way Central Alberta.

One of the installations addressed hunger and displayed five school lunch boxes full of food and one painted the United Way’s ‘unignorable’ orange colour that included only one granola bar. The installation was a visual representation of the fact that one in six children doesn’t get enough to eat. Recently, the installation was put in the G.H. Dawe Community Centre and worked in ways that Speight didn’t quite anticipate.

 “What ended up happening is when we went to pick it up all the food was gone. We thought that it reinforces the message that maybe it was a kid or two that were hungry and looking for a snack or somebody looking for a snack for their family but it reinforces the issue that hunger is a real issue within Central Alberta. [It was] an unintended consequence but it really does reinforce the importance of talking about this issue,” explained Speight.

In total, there are four different installations making their way through Central Alberta’s public spaces to bring attention to social issues for the rest of their campaign. So far, Speight has found their use successful in gaining attention.

“The feedback has been very strong. It allows us to dig a little bit deeper on some of these issues and provide statistics and then look for unique ways to have those conversations.”

As the installations make their way around the community, their impact is sure to spread awareness and possibly even accumulate other interesting responses.