Belonging Matters

At Intercultural Strategies, we help organizations build capacity to address people, culture and community challenges. Our award-winning Belonging Matters framework supports teams to engage diversity, build belonging and ignite collaboration for sustainable and lasting change.

Access Our Complimentary Guide

Culture of Belonging Temperature Check: Guide

Identify your best next step to address people problems effectively with greater impact, less effort and lasting results.

Eliana Jimeno

...tools and a perspective to empower yourself and the people around you...

The Belonging Matters approach is an ever-relevant process in the multicultural, diverse world we are living in. It provides you with tools and a perspective to empower yourself and the people around you to create spaces where we can all be our full selves and feel welcomed.

International Peacebuilding Specialist

Jessie Sutherland:

Recipient of the 2023 BC Achievement Community Award

The Community Award program celebrates British Columbians who go above and beyond in their dedication and service to others. It honours individuals who devote their time and energy to making their communities more caring, dynamic, beautiful, resilient and inclusive.
Jessie Sutherland: Recipient of the 2023 BC Achievement Community Award

photo of Jessie Sutherland receiving her award from BC's Lieutenant Governor, Her Honour Janet Austin

Jessie Sutherland - 2023 Community Award - BC Achievement Foundation - seal

Belonging Matters: A Framework For Lasting Change

Intercultural Strategies: Jessie Sutherland and Elder Financial Awareness Group - 2001

Jessie Sutherland has developed Intercultural Strategies and the Belonging Matters framework to provide the knowledge, processes and tools that can bridge the gap between people with lived experience and system influencers in order to create lasting and sustainable personal and community change.

How Intercultural Strategies Can Help You

Access the support you and your organization need to engage diversity, build cultures of belonging, and ignite collaboration to effectively address your priority challenges.

Intercultural Strategies: Jessie Sutherland - Speaker

Speaking

Arrange for Jessie to speak at your organization or next event/show.

Intercultural Strategies: Jessie Sutherland - Trainer

Training

Discover learning opportunities to build a culture of belonging in your context.

Intercultural Strategies: Jessie Sutherland - Consultant

Consulting

Customize your approach to create lasting change for your next initiative.

Intercultural Strategies: Upcoming Program(s)

LIVE PROGRAM!

Measure & Accelerate Belonging

Measure and Accelerate Belonging: A Principles-Focused Evaluation Toolkit

How do you measure the impact of your equity and inclusion initiatives so that you can learn what’s working and what needs course correcting? Learn a proven process and use effective evaluation tools to measure and accelerate your change effort’s impact. 

Access a Principles-Focused Evaluation toolkit developed by global experts Dr. Michael Quinn Patton and Jessie Sutherland.

How one changemaker integrated the Belonging Matters approach in her own work...

The Impact of Belonging Matters

Nabila Alibhai
Kenya

Jessie’s uncanny talent for teasing out self-realizations will undoubtedly transform your approach to resolving conflicts.

Engaging and energetic, Jessie Sutherland personalizes global challenges through enabling a true understanding of conflict transformation. I left her workshop with a greater understanding of how to bring about successful reconciliation at both the personal and political levels. Jessie’s uncanny talent for teasing out self-realizations will undoubtedly transform your approach to resolving conflicts.

Chief Robert Joseph
Hereditary Chief, Gwa wa Enuk First Nations

...the greatest potential for bringing about the needed healing and reconciliation...

Jessie Sutherland’s worldview skills may well be the insight that provides the greatest potential for bringing about the needed healing and reconciliation that must take place. It has the potential to provide the spark required to bring real peace, balance, and harmony…

Dr. Ihab Banabila
PhD in European Law, University of Montpellier, France

...new steps to humanize the planet to its highest degree!

Bringing human consciousness to a higher degree of vision is a guarantee of better understanding, better communication, better common vision and thus the seeds of lasting peace and serenity… The work of Jessie Sutherland is an exceptional contribution - so needed new steps to humanize the planet to its highest degree!

Amanda Brown
RSW, Director, ReAct Adult Protection Program, West Vancouver Community Health Centre

As a society, we need to shift from a reactive mode to a prevention mode like what Belonging Matters provides.

As a society, we need to shift from a reactive mode to a prevention mode like what Belonging Matters Conversations provides. The more that we hear the voices of people impacted the most, the more respectful the process and the better the outcomes.

We need to support grassroots and community empowerment processes to achieve prevention and real change.

Honourable Senator Roméo Dallaire
Former UN Force Commander, Former Senate Member

This is exactly what has to happen.

That concept of finding that home, that serenity, that reference point from which you can build your hope and can in fact provide future generations with an ability to do more is absolutely essential.

Dr. Michael Quinn Patton
Founder and CEO of Utilization-Focused Evaluation and co-teacher for "Measure & Accelerate Belonging"

Relationships matter, which is why Belonging Matters.

The Belonging Matters framework provides an opportunity for changed mindsets, deeper interconnections, greater social capital, and stronger communities...

Relationships matter, which is why Belonging Matters. This doesn't happen naturally or easily in today's busy, distracted world. Having a framework and toolkit for guidance and support can make all the difference.

Don't dabble. Commit to the whole process and stay the course. Let Jessie Sutherland, who walks the talk, guide you on a transformational journey. She has faced adversity, understands the long-term effects of trauma, and brings both personal and professional knowledge to her work.

Intercultural Strategies: Latest Articles

How Hawaii Creates a Culture of Belonging with One Word - Joe Mergens

How Hawaii Creates a Culture of Belonging with One Word

Meet Joe Mergens, a Hawaiian born Hapa-Filipino, who shares his thoughts on the importance of the guiding principles within “Aloha”.

Read More
The Missing Step In Addressing Polarization: Creating Inner Safety - fight between two male Gemsbok

The Missing Step In Addressing Polarization: Creating Inner Safety

Learn my 5 top tips to address polarization effectively, including creating inner safety and learning a few key skills.

Read More
What the BC Achievement Community Award Can Teach Us - Jessie Sutherland receives the 2023 BC Achievement Community Award

What the BC Achievement Community Award Can Teach Us

Jessie shares reflections about the importance of celebration and belonging from her 2023 BC Achievement Community Award ceremony experience.

Read More

When people feel a sense of belonging, they do their best work together to address challenging situations and complex social problems.


You can help facilitate this important change.

Jessie Sutherland - Director and Founder of Intercultural Strategies
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