KAREN CRAGGS - CLIENTS & TESTIMONIALS
“What I love about Karen's work is that she is sensitive to a multitude of considerations when it comes to DEI and cultural competency. She is not only a guide to sound interaction in challenging situations to create more peaceful interactions; she is a voice of empowerment that upholds ethical and moral standards that help us to create a more respectful society. THANK YOU, KAREN! You are a priceless asset to any leadership team!”
Hadassah Rose, M.S.Ed CCC-SLP, CFNIP
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”Karen is an absolutely captivating speaker. She engages people in difficult and comfortable conversations and simultaneously makes them feel safe and open. I highly recommend Karen to anyone who is looking to expand their conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion. She is an incredible resource.”
Bianca Bernardi, Q4
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"Karen's training was enormously helpful to me as a person and as a professional. I had some understanding of anti-racist concepts, Karen expanded on what I knew. Some of what I thought I knew was off-base. I saw the many ways her framework can be applied to different business types, and it helped me brainstorm new ideas I wouldn't have come up with on my own. I feel more confident to engage on these issues with people in my personal and professional life."
Tiffany Wolf, Helium Communications
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"Karen is a powerful, positive and creative energy. Working with her is a transformational experience at the individual and organizational levels. She is able to elicit new thought processes, lift limiting assumptions and move mind-sets in a simple, safe and enabling way. She is able to link deep levels of theory and models of practice with the everyday challenges that groups and organizations face in the equality space. Karen is truly an amazing resource that brings meaningful thoughts, plans, actions and ultimate delivery to fruition."
Dr Belinda Ketel, XynergistiX
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“When I think DEIB done well, I think of Karen. She has proven herself to be an outstanding and gifted leader in this work, making her a huge asset to any organization who wants to do this work well. Karen first spoke at Humber IGS on a DEIB Panel last year. She stood out as a powerful speaker, a deeply skilled practitioner and a masterful Changemaker. We were so impressed with her that we invited her back 4 times already! She consistently exceeds expectations, delivering highly valuable sessions on key concepts in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB), Decolonization and Indigenization. Karen masterfully covers a wealth of content in highly engaging yet digestible way, using vivid real life stories that resonate with our diverse staff and students. I always take away so many new insights and tips from her sessions that I can implement in my own work!! We look forward to more engagements and collaboration with Karen in the future and would strongly recommend her to any organization looking to do more meaningful work on these topics.”
Rina Di Mito, Manager, ICHub, Humber Polytechnic
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“Karen came to YMCA highly recommended as a strong subject matter expert with a great personality and a flexible, customized approach. I am so pleased to say that this was very true of YMCA Canada's experience with her. This was particularly great as not all subject matter experts are able to adapt successfully in the context of a youth-led approach, which is central to YMCA.
Karen provided relevant ideas and resources on SDG 5 to our Youth-led planning committee, she co-designed a session for our Youth Advisors and she delivered a powerful Keynote address that introduced approx. 140 Canadian and Newcomer Youth (14-19yrs) to the SDG 5 goals. Her session helped them understand gender equality in a tangible way, why this issue is important and how they as youth can do something about gender inequality in their homes, schools and communities. As a result of her opening session, the youth participants were invested in the conversations and sessions that followed and they were able to reflect, engage and take away a lot of substantive content from the conference. We were very pleased to have worked with Karen on this year's Youth conference and hope we have the opportunity to collaborate again in the future."
Esperanza Monsalve, YMCA Greater Toronto
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“When organizational staff hear “sensitivity training” or "workplace harassment training”, they sometimes become resistant or switch off. We wanted to work with an expert who engaged staff, got them on board and also made it ‘stick’. Having interviewed other experts in the field, what stood out about Karen was her authenticity and direct approach. She speaks from business realities, not a text book.
Once on board, Karen was very proactive: she took the time to understand our organization, checked in with us as she developed content, tailored her work to resonate with our organization and delivered on time on all agreed timelines. During the sessions, Karen quickly established her credibility and created a safe space by skillfully involving everyone in the discussions, including dissenting voices, which is not easy when people come from different cultures, religions, sexual orientations etc.
Karen exceeded our expectations because she didn’t just deliver the run-of-the-mill training. She brought our corporate values to life in a way that made them meaningful to everyone in the room and ultimately, impacted the organizational culture. After the sessions the feedback from every level of the organization was consistently positive. Leadership and staff loved Karen’s energy, her story telling approach, her real life examples, and her contagious passion for equality."
Kelly Glass, VP & Head of HR,
Interac Association & Acxsys Corporation
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"It is rare to find a person who can blend theory and practicality so seamlessly together. Karen did just that and more. She was able to perfectly balance positivity and moments of levity with incredibly important and sometimes deeply uncomfortable concepts and reflections so that we were able to go into those reflections but also come out of them with the ability and energy to move forward. It was truly amazing to learn from Karen. Because Karen set our space up to be open and positive and safe from the get-go, we were able to go straight to the “good stuff” - to the types of conversations that you need to have in order to create real change and make real connections."
Emily - EHB Enterprises
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“Karen is a one-of-a-kind powerhouse who leaves you energized, motivated and able to tackle hard issues. In an often divisive world, Karen dissolves artificial boundaries and quickly develops rapport - creating a safe space for women, men and other marginalized groups to step out of political correctness and into real conversations about what matters to them.
With seasoned emotional intelligence, honed instinct, a gold-mine of diverse, global experience and technical expertise, Karen is the epitome of the word "expert". Time and again, I have watched her create space for dissenting points of view and what emerges is a renewed, reconnected and realigned community, inspired and ready to take bold action. Anyone seeking to deliver on equality - do it RIGHT should be working with Karen."
David Peck, Founder of So Change,
Director of Public Engagement, World Vision.
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There are lots more on testimonials on Karen’s Linkedin!