Divonify Incorporated

At the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, the Board and staff had the pleasure of participating in an intensive training session focused on equity and inclusion from Colleen James at Divonify. The training session was excellent, a a couple of years later, we asked for a refresher course and learned so much more that we can put into practice. I highly recommend her for these sessions. Informative, highly interactive, and helpful.

Divonify is a leader in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space. Before many others saw the merit to do the hard work personally and corporately, Divonify was already breaking down barriers and educating numerous organizations, sharing real tangible solutions. Divonify is prepared, experienced, and equipped with many tools to propel people and companies, beyond the past status quo. Amazing to work with! They are thoughtful, diligent, and passionate. I highly recommend Divonify for DEI consulting!

Colleen’s engaging and interactive workshops contributed to the participants increased knowledge and understanding of money management with a focus on budgeting and investing. During the three (3) workshops, participants gained confidence enabling them to ask questions specific to their needs for solutions. The Congress of Black Women, Ontario Inc. was impressed with Colleen’s professionalism and valuable insights presented during the effective presentations.

Collen and her team at Divonify did a presentation for our membership about integration of diversity into organizations that are focused on sustainability. Colleen was so great to work with, listened to the need we were trying to fill and developed a presentation with our members in mind. Her presentation style is very open, conversational, and encouraged participants to interact, ask questions, and be part of the learning! We would recommend working with Colleen highly!

Colleen James led two anti-racism workshops for staff and volunteers. She was very well prepared and addressed specific issues that was pertinent to the role of each group. She also had a guest, and both shared their experiences confronting racism in the Waterloo Region. Through a few questions, she got the participants to engage with the real issues around racism and help them to understand power ramifications and their impacts. I strongly recommend Divonify anti-racism workshops.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Colleen since 2014. Colleen is passionate about working with people. She customizes her training for transformational change and has taken community leadership to new heights! Engaging, strategic, professional and results driven, she does her work while engaging people on a learning journey.

We are truly blessed to have Colleen James in Waterloo Region. Her unwavering dedication to creating antiracist, equitable and anti-oppressive spaces is transformative. I know that Colleen has been a valued consultant and a committed educator for businesses, agencies, educational institutions and community members embarking on creating justice-oriented spaces. I highly recommend Colleen and her work.

Colleen is an exceptional teacher and leader in diversity training. I attended her Cultural Appropriation in Spiritual Communities in 2020 and learned so much. Colleen approaches her students with openness, and an eagerness to help open minds and thoughts about unconscious biases and behaviors that are detrimental to others. Highly recommend.

In Fall 2022, I was in attendance for Sustainable Waterloo Region's presentation of Addressing Inequities within Environmental Sustainability led by Divonify's Colleen James. I have been a part of regular DEI trainings within my profession as an architect but this particular workshop peeked my interest with its connection to Environmental Sustainability - a topic that is regularly researched and reported on in my industry.I felt that Colleen's customized workshop on this topic was thought provoking and stimulating. Colleen quickly set aside any superficial environmental action and challenged the corporate lingo of best practices" by inviting us to critically assess how/why we design the way we do.Colleen facilitates the participants through difficult and uncomfortable topics by leaving space to process information

Colleen James from Divonify spoke at our Probus meeting today. What a delight to hear her. We were all completely blown away by her knowledge and insight and presentation skills.