What Clients Say

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Ms. Bell's specific areas of expertise include:

  • Human Rights
  • Learning Coach
  • Anti-racism, Anti-oppression, Equity & Diversity
  • Disability, Inclusion & Accessibility Issues
  • ADR (alternative dispute resolution), Mediation, Conflict Resolution, Transformative Justice
  • Education, Child Welfare and Youth Matters
  • Change Management & Strategic Planning, Team Building
  • Facilitation
  • Motivational speaking

The following indicate some of the specific tasks that Sandi Bell engages in through EMPOWWORD Inc.

Human Rights

Part Time Commissioner - Canadian Human Rights Commission

The vast majority of the activities in which Sandi Bell has been engaged over the past 30 years have included:

Coach to senior executives on how to make their organization more welcoming from an equity, diversity and human rights perspective.

ADR - Mediation - Negotiation

Sandi Bell's communications and negotiations skills are an integral part of her profession. Specifics include:

Certification (General, Advanced and Applied) as an Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediator.

A Roster Member of the Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program in Ottawa and Toronto. Includes participation in many types of mediation from employment to automobile accidents to insurance and wrongful dismissals.

On the roster of Hydro One which involves management/employee issues (both union and non-union employees)

Private mediation consultant to the Toronto Board of Education and Ontario-based social service agencies.

Mediation in a number of different contexts including: family mediation (matrimonial cases and those involving children); Long Term Care Facilities for persons with disabilities and elderly people; various Aboriginal/First Nations reserves.

Teaches mediation to a wide range of participants, including persons who have historically been disadvantaged.

Teaches communications skills to students, youth, women, people new to Canada, as well as persons with disabilities, as well social service agencies, mediators, etc.

Mediation

Provides Mediation Services privately and as an OMMP Roster Mediator in Toronto and Ottawa and the Hydro One mediation roster (certified ADR mediator);

Mediates a wide range of civil and workplace conflicts, including inter personal, intra and inter group;

Mediates family and child welfare matters;

Mediates delicate Aboriginal & First Nations issues;

Mediates highly sensitive matters, including issues of race, culture, religion, gender and disability;

Develops course material, teaches and coaches;

Assists parties to resolve sensitive issues from broad range of communities;

Provides coaching services for mediator trainees in all three levels of Windsor Law School's mediation programme, that is provided by Stitt Feld Handy Group;

Mediates in schools and school communities (often highly volatile situations);

Presents mediation training to educators, including top administrators in Newfoundland;

Assists corporations, both public and private, to resolve problems associated with implementation of Equal Opportunity;

Provides workshops pertaining to effective School Councils, including resolving conflicts;

Develops approaches to incorporating traditional Aboriginal and First Nations ways with current dispute resolution techniques;

Develops material and trains mediators in Sensitivity to Diversity Issues, privately and as a guest lecturer for educational institutions, including Osgoode Hall Law School Intensive Mediation Programme;

Mediates team issues by helping management/staff in conflict resolve their differences.

Learning Coach:

Taught and enhanced Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Skills for Victoria University in Labrador and Frontier College in Toronto;

Develops and presents a variety of learning experiences dealing with anti-oppression, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism;  Developed a comprehensive literacy program for Black youth;

Developed and facilitated Immigration/Refugee training for CAS workers; Authors, edits and publishes books and manuals;

Creates training manuals for both public and private organizations; Developed a course and provides private coaching of communication skills;

Develops material to enhance broader community to understand and respect traditional problem solving techniques of aboriginal and First Nations people;

Assists not-for-profit organizations with governance, including running effective meetings, intra group communications and chairing;

Provides a variety of workshops and seminars dealing with communication skills, leadership skills, problem solving, personal growth, team building, board development, and management skills.

Ms. Bell has practiced team-building both as part of her approach to business at EMPOWWORD Inc, and as a professional facilitator. 

Models team building principles as Chair of numerous boards and committees.

Stakeholder Management / Forging Relationships

Ms. Bell continues to work on an ongoing basis on the front line with people of colour, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal/First Nations people, alienated youth, and other disenfranchised groups to assist them in developing skills to be their own change managers.

Ms. Bell has also been an instructor in community development at Ryerson University in the Disabilities Studies Program, with a focus on how to bring together care givers and people from disenfranchised groups and providing them with the tools to become capacity builders in their own community.

Motivational Speaker

Made presentations across the country on equity, diversity, accessibility, inclusion and human rights issues.

Keynote speaker / workshop leader on issues related to human rights, diversity, inclusion and equity, for numerous conferences, workshops and events.