Municipal Awareness Week

Every year, Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador, the Professional Municipal Administrators and the Department of Municipal and Provincial Affairs come together to celebrate the work and leadership of the municipal sector in our province.

Municipalities deliver essential services, programs and infrastructure to residents across Newfoundland and Labrador. They play an important role in supporting people in our communities.  

In the past, we celebrated Municipal Awareness Day, usually marked on a day in May. One day is not enough to recognize how important municipalities are to everyone’s daily lives. This year, and moving forward, we come together to celebrate Municipal Awareness Week during the second week of May.  

Our municipal administrators and staff are an essential workforce in our province. We value and celebrate their work and we want to show young people living in or moving to our province that the municipal sector is a future place of work for them.  

To help you support and acknowledge the 2023 Municipal Awareness Week (May 8 – 12), we put together a few suggestions and resources for your celebrations. You can download the graphics as a PDF here. 

Here are a few things you can do to celebrate Municipal Awareness Week:  

Proclaim Municipal Awareness Week

Proclaim Municipal Awareness Week in your community. You can find the proclamation form here.

Municipal colouring contests

Colouring is always a fun experience for everyone! Ask residents to submit colouring sheets to the Municipal office and post pictures in their windows.

There are several websites that offer free downloadable colouring sheets. For a bit of local flavour, you could use a colouring sheet from NL artist Keli-Ann Pye-Beshara. She has made several of her paintings into colouring sheets available for download here. 

Do a social media challenge

Share photos on social media to let everyone know that municipal leadership and work are essential building blocks of our communities and civic society. Be sure to tag @MunicipalNL and @PMANL709 and @MPA_GovNL on Twitter. On Facebook, the tags are @MunicipalitiesNL and  @PMANewfoundlandandLabrador. 

Ask residents to post about their community on social media. Here are some possible topics or questions you can ask:

• A photo contest
• ask people to post about what municipalities mean to them
• Have people share favorite places in their community

Mayor for a Day contest

We know that you have done this before! Pick an age group in your community to invite submissions for mayor for a day. Often these contests are directed toward elementary school-aged children (grades 4 to 6). Form a committee, invite written submissions, and publicize your contest. We suggest asking children what matters to them in their community and what they would do to change things if they were mayor for a day. Pick a day and invite them in to celebrate. Make sure you take lots of photos and share of the socials, and tag us! 

Connect with your local K-12 schools

Civic engagement happens at all ages throughout the school system and curriculum. Let your local principals know that May 8 – 12 is Municipal Awareness Week across the province. Let them know that as leaders (councillors and administrative staff), you are available to speak with classes about how municipalities work, what kinds of services and programs they provide to communities, and how young people can become civically engaged at the municipal level.

Connect with and engage post-secondary students

Connect with and engage post-secondary students to talk about career and leadership options in the municipal sector. Students from the College of the North Atlantic, Memorial University and other post-secondary institutions are working and interacting with municipalities.  

Hold an Open House

Invite residents into your facilities to show them around! Give tours of the town hall and council chambers, or invite people to visit your recreation facilities and other municipal buildings. You could make this a virtual event by doing a tour or walkthrough on a social media livestream.