Belonging Matters Foundations

When I participated in the Belonging Matters Conversations Facilitator Training and then the Belonging Matters Foundations series with Jessie Sutherland, I appreciated that if you want to see and “be the change” in this world, you need to have patience. The training series also helped me to see who I am, what I need to work on, and what change means in a worldwide view.

As a trainer and facilitator, Jessie has a lot of compassion for people, while also bringing out their best. She is trustworthy, open and honest. She’s thorough, listens, is patient, and knows the material. As a facilitator, Jessie covers all the material and stays within time frames.

Gchi Miigwech for your excellent work on bringing people of many cultures and nations together. Keep it up, Jessie!

I’m feeling gratitude having attended the Roadmap for Community Change training with Jessie Sutherland. I see both the Belonging Matters framework and the 3 lenses perspective as valuable. The experience also impacted my worldview, demonstrating the endless possibilities of connection and our “hive mind”. 

Importantly, the world has opened up for me about the possibilities for people with Intellectual Disabilities and their networks.

As a result of the Belonging Matters Foundations: Being a Belonging Champion training, I am viewing myself more as someone who has experience in this work to share. I am feeling inspired to continue to build out and share the lessons, structures, and tools so that others may benefit from the work and be supported in leading their own change. The training offered useful frameworks which I will apply to my work and myself, allowing me to see some of the conflicts I am in, from the personal to the larger societal systems, from a new perspective.

The pre- and post-training readings are valuable and help me to process the workshop content and apply it to my work and thoughts in between each class. I can foresee using these tools and lenses in conflict resolution in my near future.

Thanks to attending Addressing Racism From the Inside Out, I came away feeling the impacts of 3 important ideas: a) my knowledge that racism divides and hurts us all, b) my discomfort and then relief in acknowledging one of my unconscious biases, and c) my gratitude for Jessie’s teaching around compassion and providing soft landings.

I particularly appreciated Dr. Roberta Hunte's honesty at the pain she experienced and her thoughts on what white people can and need to do. I also really valued the combination of Jessie Sutherland’s kindness and her challenge / push for change and accountability. She helped us connect with each other, across differences, without pushing anyone out. Thanks to her facilitating style, my experiences included senses of safety, respect and honesty.

The Addressing Racism workbook is very well organized and visually well set up to help me reflect on experiences and consider next steps. It is strength-based, with a building blocks approach. I also look forward to accessing further learning resources and the Community of Practice support calls.

Overall, I am feeling more confident and skilled in bringing this anti-racism work to my team.

Attending Essential Worldview Skills For A Rapidly Changing World helped me realize the importance of understanding the history of how different cultures around the world arrived at their worldviews. These discussions regarding worldviews, cultural diversity, understanding, and cooperation are very timely.

I felt a shift and increase in my awareness of my own worldviews, especially the internal and external pathways taken to arrive at my views. I also learned to examine and try to understand the pathways of other cultures and individuals. I foresee that if I am involved in a conflict with an individual regarding worldviews, I’ll be better able to examine and assess the situation in the heat of the moment.

I appreciated the guest speakers’ personal stories of their journey and the feeling of hope they provided. In addition, Jessie brought her own passion and motivating thoughts to the topic. The workshop was very well organized and ran smoothly.

When attending the How to Unleash Dormant Talents training, I really loved Jessie’s stories and examples of what worked to gain trust from people. When building supportive networks, I learned what it means to really listen and know who people are and what they do.