Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders focuses on collaborative problem-solving and results in high engagement and cohort-generated solutions for lasting change.

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders - workbook

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Please identify your sector plus the focus of your social change efforts so that we can bring together cohorts where there may be synergy.

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Your Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders Customized Program Includes:

Detailed Overview

Why Belonging Matters
Session #1:
Why Belonging Matters (& Orientation)

In this interactive session, you and your cohort explore what belonging means, share stories and discuss your key challenges. By the end of this session, your cohort will have prioritized their key issues in preparation for Session #2 that your cohort will work on collaboratively.

Belonging Matters Conversations - priority issues
Session #2:
Addressing Our First Priority Challenge

We customize Session #2 based on one of the priority challenges identified in Session #1. Here, you and your cohort will explore your first priority challenge through sharing stories, exploring root causes and coming up with collective tips and strategies.

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders - Priority Issue
Session #3:
Addressing Our Second Priority Challenge

We customize Session #3 based on one of the priority challenges identified in Session #1. Here, you and your cohort will explore your second priority challenge through sharing stories, exploring root causes and coming up with collective tips and strategies.

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders - supportive network
Session #4: 
Build Your Supportive Network For Leaders

Having a supportive network makes all the difference in your personal wellness and ability to support teams and communities in their change efforts. Through research and consultation, we created the T.H.R.I.V.E model that identifies 6 areas to consider when building your supportive network. During this session, we will share research, resources and a handout to help guide the building of your supportive network.

BMCFL Instagram Book - Permission Slips for Leaders
Session #5: 
Finalize Visual Legacies

In this conversation, you and your cohort will finalize your group visual legacies for your co-authored Instagram book. We will also generate ideas for amplifying key insights in order to increase awareness and to help others facing similar challenges. We also encourage you to create your personal visual legacy in order to deepen your learning and remind you of your key insights moving forward. For those who wish, we provide some templates and an opportunity to connect with a member of our team to finalize a meaningful visual legacy that can be used to remind you and guide you for years to come.

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders Visual Legacies
Session #6: 
Culminating Activities and Integration

You will have an optional opportunity to share your personal visual legacies and the key insights you want to integrate into your life and leadership moving forward. As a group, we will explore how this process can support your change efforts in your unique contexts. Some groups decide to move forward by disseminating their collective key messages to create community change through blogs, articles or presenting at conferences. Other groups decide to complete the program with their personal action planning. This session comes with a “My Action Plan” handout.

Here’s what people are saying about Jessie’s work and Belonging Matters Conversations

Anita Cameron
Retired Executive Director

“

…allows for constructive resolution (or reconciliation) of differences.

What I found most useful about Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders is the opportunity for a different way of looking at things (esp. where there is conflict) that allows for constructive resolution (or reconciliation) of differences. I found the validation of feelings and experiences and different perspectives on meeting challenges was also helpful.

I will continue to build a visual reference for “bringing myself home” when necessary (or keeping me there) as well as broadening my network of like-minded people. I can get caught up in the heat of moments and not realize until too late how far off course I have strayed. Remaining focused on my own “home” values and principles will help me not get tangled up in things that do not align with my own goals.

Jessie Sutherland’s relentless positivity and enthusiasm are so motivating and encouraging!

Elaine White
Cultural Coordinator, Shawendaasowin Child & Family Services

“

Miigwech for your excellent work on bringing people of many cultures and nations together.

When I participated in the Belonging Matters Conversations with other leaders, I appreciated that if you want to see and “be the change” in this world, you need to have patience. The process helped me to see who I am, what I need to work on, and what change means across cultures.

As a facilitator, Jessie has a lot of compassion for people while bringing out their best. Gchi Miigwech for your excellent work on bringing people of many cultures and nations together.

Charito Gailling
MEd, Project Manager, BCCDC

“

Under Jessie's gentle and warm guidance, the trust and sharing was built quickly…

My key takeaway from Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders was how important even small daily reminders are in order to continually realign with the core values that support and guide us through complex relationships. Upon reflection through this program, I realize how old traumas and roadblocks such as fear of hurting others may be blocking deeper connections with others. I love Jessie's suggestion to give myself permission to unintentionally hurt someone's feelings (!) knowing you will come out with a deeper appreciation and understanding of each other.

Under Jessie's gentle and warm guidance, the trust and sharing was built quickly in this small group format, which helped immensely in terms of allowing me to connect with my own personal values and motivations as a leader. Jessie has a wonderful gift for connections and bringing people together. I appreciated how she was able to show vulnerability and participated in the discussions as a learner as well as shepherding us through the reflection process at the same time.

About Jessie Sutherland,
Director

An international speaker, trainer, and consultant, Jessie Sutherland works with organizations and communities to engage diversity, build belonging and ignite intercultural collaboration.


Recipient of BC Community Achievement Award (2023), her approach creates sustainable community change that effectively addresses complex social problems.

Jessie Sutherland - TEDx Speaker
Jessie Sutherland - 2023 Community Award - BC Achievement Foundation - seal
Jessie Sutherland - Director of Intercultural Strategies

Jessie’s work has been delivered in over eight languages and has taken her across Canada and around the world to support communities in their efforts to address challenging issues including workplace inclusion, poverty, homelessness, the overdose crisis, elder abuse, reconciliation, youth engagement and more. Many of her clients go on to win awards for their work in engaging diversity and fostering collaboration for sustainable and lasting change.

As founder of the organization Intercultural Strategies, Jessie helps leaders and groups build cultures of belonging to create change in an inclusive and positive way. She is the innovator of the award-winning Belonging Matters framework and community change model designed to change mindsets, deepen interconnections, impart greater social capital and build stronger communities.

Jessie holds a M.A in Dispute Resolution, is a TEDx speaker and author of the book, Worldview Skills: Transforming Conflict from the Inside Out.

Focus

Know where to focus your efforts for greatest impact personally and professionally.

ideas

Generate innovative ideas and solutions to increase your sense of ease, purpose and connection.

Action

Create a visual legacy of your experience and access reflective learning practices to deepen the integration of your experience into practical, actionable gems.

Clarity

Deepen your own sense of home, belonging and connectedness within yourself and get clarity around your values and how you approach your work as a leader facilitating change.

problem-solving

Strengthen your problem solving strategies and transform “people problems” into opportunities for growth and collaboration.

communication

Close the communication and understanding gap between diverse perspectives.

awareness

Expand your awareness and as a result increase your effectiveness.

collaboration

Transform leadership isolation into a supportive network and collaborative cohort community.

culture

Build a supportive culture for yourself and see the impact on your team, your organization and your social change efforts.

Belonging Matters Conversations Make A Difference

Chief Robert Joseph
Gwa wa Enuk First Nations, Reconciliation Ambassador

“

...builds a sense of belonging and inclusion for everyone…

Jessie Sutherland’s Belonging Matters framework is one of the best approaches I know of. It builds a sense of belonging and inclusion for everyone, laying the foundational building block for reconciliation on the political and economic levels.

Mary Swalla Holmes
Board Member, Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation

“

Jessie Sutherland has a gift for generating “ah-ha” moments.

Jessie Sutherland has a gift for generating “ah-ha” moments. Her gentle questioning and invitation to go deeper into your self provides a powerful means of transformation. I have benefited by moving toward healthier personal and professional relationships since my participation in her training.

Thanks, Jessie!

Justine Hwang
Adult Educator & Social Impact Calligrapher

“

Jessie’s values-based approach is a huge reason why I am able to resolve conflicts...

I have been a fan of Jessie’s values-based approach for 15 years. I have benefited in my personal and working relationships, as well as systems thinking. Jessie’s values-based approach is a huge reason why I am able to resolve conflicts as a person who values harmony and avoids conflict.

Social Change Mentoring with Jessie Sutherland

Let’s Build Belonging From The Inside Out Together!

This program is the result of more than 25 years of research and working with individuals and teams around the globe delivering training, facilitating processes and building cultures of belonging in diverse contexts. I continue to be inspired by the solutions that people create together when stories are shared, understanding is built and solutions are co-created.

It would be an honour to work with you. I invite you to join our next Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders cohort where you can connect with yourself and other leaders to find your footing again. I would be honoured to work with you and support you and your leadership so that you leave re-energized and anchored more deeply within yourself as you facilitate change in our increasingly turbulent times.

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