Welcome to The Kinship Collaborative

What if there was a group of people who cared as deeply about equity as you do?

What could you learn from a community of advocates on the same journey as you?

And, what if you could have the exact professional impact you desire, even when faced with (seemingly) insurmountable challenges?

In the Kinship Collaborative, you can have all of that, and more.  

It's where you will find your tribe, deepen your learning, and build your resilience, so that you can confidently navigate the path towards meaningful, systemic change in your organization.

I am a nerdy-nerd who loves to nerd.

Books are my people, school is my happy place, and I strongly believe that if you want to change the world, there’s no such thing as knowing too much. 

I created a community of praxis for equity professionals so that they could learn, grow, and achieve their goals, together.  That last part is key: 

Communities allow you to grow and transform in ways that you simply couldn’t if you were on your own.  

(And coming from someone who’s 99.99999% introverted… that’s saying a lot.)

Now, I know that online communities are not always very… communitarian. In fact, for “justice sensitive” people like us, they can often be unsafe. 

That’s why the Kinship Collaborative is a protected space. Every one one of us shares responsibility for creating and maintaining that protection, from the ground up. 

Even better, because the Collaborative is built on the Mighty Networks platform, you - and your emotions - are not the product. Instead, you are part of  a member-driven community that is designed in a thoughtful, care-centred way. 

Sounds great, right?

That's because it is.

To give you a better understanding of why I created the Kinship Collaborative, I need to take you back.

All the way to the beginning, in fact...

I am the daughter of Afro-Caribbean parents who immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Like most immigrants, my parents wanted to give me a “better life”. This meant that I was raised and educated in very suburban neighbourhoods that were almost exclusively white.

As some of you may know, the 1980s and 90s were a time when Canada’s dominant narratives about equality, inclusion, and diversity reinforced a kind of “we are all the same on the inside” superficial moralism. This, in turn, jarred with the racial and gendered aggressions I experienced on an almost daily basis. Worse, I had no way to understand these experiences, nevermind articulate them.

So it’s no surprise that when I entered graduate school (nerdy-nerd, remember?), I focused on critical perspectives in multicultural education. This not only helped me to better understand my lived experiences as a Black female in what I came to understand is a hetero-patriarchal white supremacist society, but also helped me to develop my identity as a scholar-activist through research and teaching.  

Coupled with more than fifteen years of professional experience across multiple sectors (check out my LinkedIn profile for details), I now have a high degree of expertise in navigating spaces, institutions, and systems that are steeped in white supremacy culture. Moreover, I know how to navigate these spaces while also successfully integrating equity and social justice principles into my work.

For the past four years, I’ve been the Principal and Founder of Fictive Kin Equity Lab. As I’ve worked to figure out this whole “entrepreneurship thing”, I’ve had many opportunities to reflect on what has made me so good at doing equity work in organizations. Three things stand out for me:

Compassion, courage, and a strong intuitive sense of how to fix something when it’s broken.  I’m an INFJ-A, which means I’m a deeply empathetic - and empathic -  listener, sounding board, truth-teller, cheerleader, field commander general, dream interpreter, partner in crime, and all-around awesome advice-giver. 

Most importantly, I’m a determined idealist, who is very good at translating my ideals into action.

Deep understanding of what makes people “tick”, because I am both Highly Sensitive and an unapologetic Book Person. This means that I can quite readily make sense of other people and their perspectives on the world they inhabit. It’s easy for me to figure out who they are, why they do what they do, what they need, and what they have to do in order to get it.  

Because of these abilities, I’m fluent in the languages of hope, resilience, care, and justice… which I believe are at the core of meaningful equity work.

Speaking truth to power with nuance, savviness, and quiet conviction. Not only can I do this, I also know how to teach others to do them, too. 

Throughout my career, I’ve shown teachers, graduate students, youth innovators, civil servants, along with community developers, organizers, and activists, how to successfully navigate the complex, liberating, frustrating, joyful and sometimes uncomfortable (un)learning journey that is required to do equity work, andI’ve helped them to integrate equity principles in ways that are meaningful and sustainable.

So now...

If you have:

* A TBR (To Be Read) list about equity / inclusion; or 

* Attended a workshop on DEI leadership; or  

* Considered buying a coaching package, or registering for a certificate program, because you want to improve your DEI practice; or

* Done / thought about doing anything like the above (because this list is not meant to be exhaustive); and

* If you were left feeling unsatisfied... 

Ask yourself why. 

Was it because you didn’t want to do all that extra work alone? Or maybe because you realized that the return on your investment wasn’t all that great (especially given the ever-increasing corporatization of “DEI")? 

Might it even be because you weren't getting what you needed, even though you couldn’t quite articulate what you were looking for? 

Well…

The Kinship Collaborative can give you exactly what you need, with the same value as those other resources, but with a lower time commitment, and at a fraction of the cost.

In the Collaborative you will get to:

👋🏾 Connect with other equity advocates, truth-tellers, dreamers, and storytellers who feel the same way as you.

🗓️ Engage in honest, thoughtful conversations about your equity practice, every single week: Member Mondays, Tremendous Tuesdays, WTF Wednesdays... you get the gist.

💸 Receive discounts on other Fictive Kin Equity Lab programs.

🎊 Celebrate your wins, big or small.

🧘🏾‍♀️Take a step back from your work and just breathe, whenever you need to.

🤗 Get unconditional support during your challenges.

📘 Deepen your knowledge of the principles that are foundational to your work.

💪🏾 Strengthen your practice, so that you can have the impact you desire, regardless of what obstacles you may face.

🤔 Easily apply what you’re learning to difficult, ambiguous, and / or complex situations.

🤩 Share examples of equity work that excites and energizes you, and get the same from the other community members.

Ultimately, you’ll get the chance to expand your ideas of what equity work in organizations can look like; build a “Found Family” of like-minded others that provides you endless support, encouragement, and love; and increase your resilience as you work within systems to change systems.

Membership to the Collaborative is offered at a sliding scale, to help reduce financial barriers to access. The graphic below is designed to help you determine which option is right for you.

Image summary: The Kinship Collaborative Sliding Scale. Collaborator - $35 / month: subsidized Founder rate (~50%). Partner - $48 / month: subsidized Founder rate (~25%). Founder - $63 / month: standard membership rate. Activator - $75 / month: increased Founder rate (~20%).

Better still, you can try out the Collaborative for 14 days, at no cost, regardless of membership level. Choose a plan below to get started. 

Have some questions first? 

No problem! Check out the FAQ, or book a no-obligation call. 🙂