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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.

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Learn more about upcoming programs

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.

PRESS RELEASE

Letter From BC Premier

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!

Belonging Matters Conversations For Leaders

We all know working on community or system change is no “cake walk.” Navigating challenges like polarizing viewpoints, silos and conflict can lead us to feel like we are constantly putting out fires and at risk of burnout. Experience and research shows that YOU are the most important instrument for change. When you carve out time to deepen your sense of connection with yourself and others through generating practical new pathways forward, you will find the impact of your change effort grows exponentially.

In this series of 6 conversations with a small cohort of leaders like you, we identify our collective priority challenges, share stories, explore root causes and together generate tips and strategies that we will turn into an Instagram book. In six weeks, you will feel a deeper sense of connectedness and you will have the tools you need to move forward with greater ease and confidence in your change efforts.

For those interested in becoming a Belonging Matters Conversations Facilitator, this program is a prerequisite.

BE THE CHANGE AS YOU FACILITATE CHANGE

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

Justine Hwang

The Impact of Belonging Matters

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!

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.

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

Born Into a Belonging Bootcamp: What Systems Taught Me About Starting With Self

I often describe my entry into the world as being born into a “Belonging Bootcamp”. In many ways, my birth parents were part of an early Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) initiative of the 1960s. They met through an intercultural high school exchange program. After four years together, I was born.Immediately after my birth, my

10 Features of Highly Credible Change Initiatives

What creates highly credible change initiatives? We break down the 10 key features and how the Belonging Matters approach meets every one.

When Home Doesn’t Feel Safe

When home doesn’t feel safe, fear & disconnection grow. Discover how BMC helped tenants transform unsafe entrances into trust and belonging.

You can help facilitate this important change.

attend our next complimentary training to GET STARTED

Jessie Sutherland - Director and Founder of Intercultural Strategies