The Pivot Centre for Collective Action
We are community builders, facilitators and trainers who are committed to empowering and enabling collective action.
Our network is rooted in strong, supportive relationships and a shared vision of a world that has transitioned away from exploitative, extractive and colonial capitalism towards communities of care where people empower each other. We are working for a more equal distribution of power, wealth and well-being that benefits people who are experiencing injustice and exclusion.
We develop projects and support organizations that are part of our world’s pivot towards:
societies that prioritize connection, relationship, mutual aid and mutual care
economic systems organized around collective wellbeing and solidarity
political systems that serve the public interest
We believe that the crises of our time are related and we exist to tackle complex, interconnected and intractable problems together. Our areas of action include:
Poverty and class-based exclusion
Housing and homelessness
Environmental and Climate Justice
Food security
Participatory community and urban planning
Community building
What we do
Projects that Build Collective Power
We develop and carry out community-based projects that address interconnected injustices through collective empowerment. Read about our current projects here.
If your community would like to work with us to develop your project, click here to tell us a bit about it and to schedule a meeting
Facilitation and support
We work with groups on all kinds of processes, including collective decision making, visioning, strategic planning and more. We will work closely with you to determine the need and design a thoughtful, collaborative and creative process that helps your group tap into your collective power and find your own answers.
Click here for more information
Workshops
We have developed several workshops, and can also design sessions to meet your needs. Contact us for more information.
Community-Based Action Research
We support do-it-yourself social research. Using community-based, participatory and action-oriented approaches to knowledge creation, we help groups answer their own questions and create their own understanding of issues so they can build better strategies and more powerful actions. Read about projects we’ve supported, and our own projects, here.
Our Story
From left to right: Natalie Caine, Shannon Franssen, Laura Severinac and Kerry Le Clair in July 2022 after our second in-person visioning retreat.
In 2022, Shannon Franssen, Laura Severinac and Kerry Le Clair began meeting virtually to discuss similar gaps all of us were noticing within the mainstream environmental sector. Monthly meetings turned into weekly check-ins, followed by an in-person retreat in Hamilton in the fall of 2022. With the addition of our collaborator Natalie Caine we began bringing shape to our vision and the Pivot Centre for Collective Action was born. Soon after our first retreat, we created our website and began to sink our teeth into our shared work. In July 2024 we had our founding Annual General Meeting where we solidified our Board of Directors.
Our Board
Ankei Yau is a driven analytics professional with extensive experience in various roles within the airline industry. Throughout these roles, Ankei demonstrated a strong ability to develop and implement strategic initiatives that drive revenue growth and operational efficiency. Ankei holds a deep passion for driving change and innovation, leveraging their extensive experience and expertise to lead transformative projects that deliver tangible results.
Beyond their professional achievements, Ankei is deeply passionate about volunteering and giving back to the community. This passion stems from a desire to make a positive impact on the lives of others. and allows Ankei to connect with diverse groups of people, learn new skills, and contribute to various causes. This commitment to service and community engagement further enriches Ankei's professional and personal life.
Soraya Gallant (they/them) is an Acadian storyteller, researcher, writer, editor, and community advocate who is passionate about making a better, more inclusive, and caring world. A student of decolonization, anti-oppression, harm-reduction, climate justice, and a proponent of letting marginalized voices lead, Soraya has also written and edited for the youth feminist magazine, Shameless; interned at and researched for McClelland & Stewart; taught internationally; and freelances to help foster queer education.
They divide their time between Hamilton, Toronto, and New Brunswick, where they are devoted to fostering, maintaining, and upholding the diverse communities in which they live and move.
Zoë Heyn-Jones is a white settler researcher-artist, cultural worker and mother who grew up on Saugeen Ojibway land in Ontario, Canada and on Tz’utujil/Kaqchikel Maya land in Guatemala. Zoë holds a PhD in Visual Arts from York University and a graduate diploma in Latin American Studies from CERLAC (the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, York University). Zoë currently holds an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta (2023-25) for her research project “Composting Research-Creation: Organic Waste Management and/as Art for the Climate Emergency” for which she received the Dorothy J. Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship Prize.
Zoë was one of two inaugural SSHRC postdoctoral fellows (2021-23) at the Centre for Sustainable Curating in the department of Visual Arts at Western University where she co-founded (with Dr. Amanda White) the Creative Food Research Collaboratory. Zoë is also one half of Dupla Molcajete, an emergent collaboration (with Beatriz Paz Jiménez) that serves to create spaces for experimentation at the nexus of art, food, and culture from Mesoamerican and hemispheric perspectives, with a current focus on edible insects. She also is part of the Materia Abierta collective that runs, among other projects, an annual independent summer school on art, theory and technology in Mexico City. Zoë lives and works in Mexico City and Tkaronto/Toronto.
