WHERE WE MEET TO

TRANSFORM

Visions, Values, Actions.

ABOUT US

Shoreline Collaboratives founders (left to right): Kavita Bissoondial, Nishan Zewge-Abubaker, and Erika Pulfer

Shoreline Collaboratives was founded by Kavita Bissoondial, Nishan Zewge-Abubaker, and Erika Pulfer, three lead consultants with a combined 30+ years of in-depth knowledge and practice in equity work.

Today, Shoreline Collaboratives continues to be owned and operated by Kavita and Erika and supported by a wide network of BIPOC collaborative partners. Together, we bring our varied expertise to develop tailored organizational solutions.

Shoreline Collaboratives’ practice is informed by our relationship to our varying ancestral territories, and where we live and work - territory of the Wendat, Haudenausaunee, and Anishnaabe, and the treaty territories of the Mississaugas and Chippewa peoples.

MEET OUR LEADERSHIP

Erika Pulfer
Founder, Principal
(she/her)

Erika is an indigiqueer/2spirit person of mixed nehiyaw (Plains Cree) and european settler ancestry, with treaty status and kinship ties at onihcikiskwapowin (Saddle Lake Cree Nation) in Treaty 6. She has been doing program development and evaluation, alongside anti-racism training and policy work using Indigenous methodologies in Tkaronto for over 12 years.

Kavita Bissoondial
Founder, Principal
(she/her)

Kavita is a queer person of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora whose work is informed by growing up as a settler and guest in Scarborough, Ontario. She has been engaged in facilitation and consulting on anti-racism, gender, sexuality, and equity for well over a decade with grassroots, student, and social service organizations/nonprofits across the GTA and nationally.

OUR CLIENTS

  • “We partnered with Shoreline Collaboratives for capacity building with our management team and staff around gender identity and expression. Due to the pandemic we offered online training sessions. We were so pleased and impressed with the level of engagement and sense of safety that Shorelines was able create and support for these learning environments for our staff. The corresponding reports that Shorelines prepared for the management team following the training sessions were very helpful in identifying gaps in some of our policies and practices on the ground. We also engaged Shorelines in facilitating discussions and the creation of a terms of reference for our Gender Inclusion committee. Their SME, facilitation and organizational change skills and expertise have truly helped us to support the safety and success for this committee."

    — Jeannette Manguiat, Director of Human Resources, YWCA Toronto

  • “In 2022, LGBT Youth Line hired Shoreline Collaboratives to work on the Anti-Racism and Settler Colonialism training modules for our Online Learning Project. Shoreline Collaboratives were wonderful consultants to work with. They were extremely communicative and thoughtful, prioritizing our unique approach as a 2SLGBTQ+ youth-led organization with a peer support perspective. They asked important questions that helped us to further clarify our learning objectives and outcomes, and pointed out gaps we hadn't noticed. When we provided feedback, they were very thorough with communicating their input and implementing the feedback. I would love to work with Erika and Kavita again one day!”

    — Sierra, Outreach and Training Manager, LGBT Youth Line

  • "Grassriots and Shoreline Collaboratives have formed a strategic partnership for various initiatives centered around Equity Focused Business Development Strategy, EDI Organizational structure, and EDI management training sessions. Collaborating with the Shoreline team has been a rewarding experience, as they have fostered an environment of safety that encourages open sharing and meaningful engagement within our team. The comprehensive equity-focused efforts have provided us with a clear roadmap for advancing the enhancements we are diligently pursuing at Grassriots. We look forward to the opportunity of collaborating with the Shoreline team once more in the future.”

    — Leah Henderson, Managing Director of Grassriots

  • “As a small organization committed to working closely with and for our organizational and community members, Toronto Drop-in Network needed creative leadership with a strong critical analysis to lead our strategic planning process. Shoreline Collaboratives understood our context and our values and was able to generate substantial engagement in the process. The result – a clear and accessible strategic plan. We are working with Shoreline Collaboratives once again, drawing on their planning, monitoring and evaluation expertise, to develop an implementation plan that will enable us to achieve our strategic planning priorities. They have been effective, as well as enjoyable, leaders and supporters of these processes.“

    — Susan Bender, Manager, Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN)

  • “Shoreline Collaboratives supported CCGSD in providing a curriculum review of our core workshop content on gender and sexuality for youth, focusing on content related to gender and colonialism, Two Spirit identities, and how to meaningfully engage in decolonial conversations on gender and sexuality with youth. They provided us with comprehensive, thoughtful feedback, key questions and recommendations that will be instrumental in supporting CCGSD's ongoing process of decolonizing our curricula moving forward. They also supported staff capacity building by facilitating two "Colonial Worldviews" sessions and one "Land Acknowledgement" building session. All of these sessions were beautifully developed and delivered, insightful, engaging, and exceptionally well-balanced.”

    — Janani Suthan, Education Programs Coordinator, The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity

  • The Faculty of Information's Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Unit (EDIU) collaborated with Shorelines Collaboratives for the BIPOC Coaching Student Circles. These thoughtfully structured circles provided interactive support for BIPOC students, fostering facilitated conversations on practicing boundaries, authenticity, coping mechanisms in the professional realm, and exploring their impacts on the body from somatic perspectives. The initiative emphasized the power of establishing relationships with boundaries as a means for BIPOC students to mitigate increased stress and barriers in academic and professional settings. Kavita and her team's facilitation approach, grounded in anti-racism, anti-oppression, and student-centric methodologies, not only enhanced student engagement but also encouraged holistic participation. I look forward to potential future collaborations with Kavita and the Shorelines team and recommend them to those seeking to create supportive spaces for students in university environments.

    — Awo Abokor, Program Coordinator – Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, University of Toronto