relationship - centred
land - connected
resilience - focused
The Forager Hill Consulting team is grateful to live on the lands of the Stz’uminus, Kwantlen, Snuneymuxw, Stó:lō, Semá:th, Matsqui, and Okanagan peoples, and within the territories covered by Treaty 6. Our staff are honoured to contribute to Indigenous-led projects throughout the territories that are now also called Canada.
Services Offered
Our services adapt to the values, cultures, and needs of our clients, ensuring that every action reflects the identity of each Indigenous community we serve. From language revitalization to disaster mitigation, we strive to reflect the perspectives of our clients in every aspect of our work.
Grant Writing + Reporting
Since 2020, we've successfully secured over $17 million in funding for diverse community-based projects. We work closely with communities to clarify goals and priorities, then continuously track and identify the most relevant funding opportunities to match. Our comprehensive support includes crafting compelling grant applications, managing all required progress reports, and nurturing ongoing relationships with funding partners.
Language Preservation + Revitalization
Reclaiming language isn't just about words; it's about preserving and revitalizing invaluable aspects of culture, identity, heritage, and land connection. Our team assists communities with language documentation, resource development, and long-term revitalization planning.
Climate Adaptation +
Disaster Resilience
Our team facilitates planning that elevates indigenous knowledge and identifies community-specific climate impacts and adaptation opportunities. We then support leaders to initiate time-sensitive action that takes plans off the paper to expand resilience and reduce disaster risk.
Project Design + Management
By listening and learning about your Nation's priorities and opportunities, our team designs projects that align with community-specific needs. We then support community teams through all steps of the project kick-off, management, wrap up and reporting.
The Forager Hill Consulting team is grateful to live on the land of the Stz’uminus, Kwantlen, Stó:lō, Snuneymuxw, Semá:th, and Matsqui. Our staff are honoured to contribute to Indigenous-led projects throughout the territories that are now also called British Columbia and Canada.
Meet Our Team
At Forager Hill, we are driven by our commitment to prioritizing relationships above all else. Together, we're dedicated to empowering Indigenous communities through collaborative partnerships and meaningful connection.
Senior Resilience Planner & Owner
Janna Janzen
Janna is a community planning, climate adaptation, and funding specialist. She has a knack for facilitating community visioning conversations, translating community priorities into custom plans, and finding the funding to kick off action. She is completing her Masters in Disaster and Emergency Management and is a practiced Certified Community Energy Manager with over 9 years of experience in Indigenous community planning. Since 2020, much of her work has focused on climate adaptation, resilient infrastructure, and food self-sufficiency system design. Janna resides in Kwantlen Territory (Mission BC) with her husband, Jon, and their two children.
Senior Grants Manager
Stephanie Esau
As an accomplished project manager with 10 years of experience, Stephanie specializes in fund development and project management at Forager Hill. She focuses on working with Nations to promote community resilience and supporting initiatives for self-sufficiency and well-being. Stephanie's passion for sustainability and environmental stewardship led her to her degree in Environmental Practices at Royal Roads University. Stephanie lives in Snuneymuxw territory (Gabriola Island, BC) with her husband and three children to enjoy a slower-paced life.
Language Revitalization Planner
Shawna Yamkovy
Shawna is a proud member of the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation, the only Dëne community on the East Arm of Tu Nedhé (Great Slave Lake) NWT, and currently resides in Edmonton. She is a committed advocate for revitalizing the Dëne Sųłiné language, her maternal ancestral language, which she is actively learning. Shawna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a Master’s in Global Leadership, and is pursuing a Doctorate in Social Sciences, focusing on Dëne Sųłiné language revitalization. With 25 years in corporate management and operations, Shawna also volunteers with Indigenous non-profits and collaborated with Łutsël K'é on the first digitized Dëne Sųłiné dictionary. She brings humility and cross-cultural awareness to her work, emphasizing effective communication and a deep commitment to honoring Indigenous teachings, elders, culture, language, and ancestral wisdom.
Community Resilience Planner
Brinnae Cooper
With a background in natural sciences and community planning, Brinnae brings strong expertise in climate resilience and disaster risk reduction. Her work spans hazard risk assessment roadmaps, renewable energy transition research, and community engagement to identify and address local climate impacts. Brinnae is skilled in sustainability planning, ecosystem restoration, and climate change mitigation. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology, a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Chemistry, and a Master’s in Community and Regional Planning. During her time at UBC, she was one of 14 delegates selected to represent the university at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Brinnae is based in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
Community Planning Specialist
Brett Glover
Brett is a Community Planner and a recent graduate of the Master of Community and Regional Planning program at UBC, where she specialized in Indigenous Community Planning. She has extensive front-line experience as a Victim Services Worker and Youth Mentor. Because of this, she brings a strong ethic of care to every project, doing her best to ensure processes are inclusive, culturally responsive, and trauma informed. Her care for people is the foundation of all her work. In her free time, Brett likes to walk with her partner and dog, paint, or watch science-fiction/dystopian film and tv. She currently lives as a settler on the shared territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples.
Linguist
Clarissa Forbes
Clarissa brings over a decade of experience with the Tsimshianic language family to the Forager Hill linguist team in support of community language revitalization goals. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto, and has additional experience working in software development for FirstVoices. She is dedicated to advancing long-term language growth with documentation, grammatically-informed resources, and contemporary technology to support everyday use. She currently resides on Tohono O'odham and Pascua Hiaki lands in Tucson, AZ.
Project Coordinator
Heather Chambers
Heather recently interned at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, where she focused on project coordination to support humanitarians globally. Prior to this, she received her Master of Resource Management (Planning) from SFU. She brings strong expertise in climate resilience with a specilization in rural fire-resilient rebuilding. She is passionate about collaborative planning grounded in local knowledge and solutions to climate impacts that also strengthen community well-being. In her spare time, you will find her reading. She lives on the unceded ancestral lands of səlilwətaɬ, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (North Vancouver, BC).
Planning Facilitator
Kim Hayashi
Kim, our Planning Facilitator, brings a rich blend of experience in communications and facilitation to Forager Hill Consulting. With a background in promoting productive and inclusive relationships at the Canada Institute of Linguistics, Kim has now dedicated herself to supporting Indigenous communities' linguistic revitalization efforts. Her previous coaching background demonstrates her leadership skills, while her genuine interest in cultures and languages fuels her commitment to serving Indigenous peoples with humility and respect. Kim excels in creating inclusive spaces where diverse voices thrive, embodying her dedication to fostering meaningful relationships and positive change. Kim resides with her husband, Larry on Stó:lo territory, in Langley, BC.
Senior Linguist & Owner
Jon Janzen
Jon is a linguist and expert in the Wakashan language family, successfully documenting and revitalizing indigenous languages in collaboration with elders and language holders since 2010. Jon supports on-reserve language programs for the Kanaka Bar Indian Band and the Kitasoo/Xai'xais First Nation. He also contributes to FNEF, an organization that aids First Nations in language archiving and resource development, including initiatives with the Haisla Nation, Delı̨nę Got’ı̨nę, and Huu-ay-aht Nation. Jon shares his expertise as an instructor of Haisla and nłeʔkepmxcín at NVIT. Jon resides in Kwantlen Territory (Mission BC) with his wife Janna and their two children.
Senior Project Manager & Facilitator
Mitch Miyagawa
Mitch brings 25+ years of work experience across many fields to his role with Forager Hill. As a seasoned consultant, he offers a wide range of skills, including team leadership & supervision, project design, project management, writing advising, mentoring, coaching, and facilitation. He brings an open, reliable, and positive leadership style to motivate teams and groups, specializing in culture & arts revitalization, capacity building & personal development, organizational development & governance.
He is a proud sansei, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian. Born and raised in Edmonton, Mitch is now based in Snuneymuwx / Nanaimo, BC. He formerly lived and worked in Whitehorse, Yukon, where his two sons were born. He is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and is also a practicing multi-disciplinary artist, most known for his documentary, A Sorry State, about his family's experience with government apologies.
Community Planning & Grants Coordinator
Katrina Simon
Katrina specializes in sustainable and inclusive community development, with a focus on project coordination, grant writing, and social planning initiatives. Holding a degree in Regional and Community Planning from UFV, she is dedicated to advancing community well-being through projects that emphasize social, economic, and environmental resilience. Passionate about fostering long-term positive impact, Katrina brings a collaborative approach to each initiative. She calls Kwantlen Territory (Langley, BC) home, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Strategic Projects Assistant
Pavita Sidhu
Pavita brings a passion for intersectional environmental justice to Forager Hill. Pavita completed her undergraduate degree in English (cum laude) and art at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, focusing her studies on anticolonial and feminist literature. During her time at Whitman, Pavita was an active member of the student body as President of the South Asian Students Association, and a member of the Salmon Conservation Club, opening her to community organizing through planning celebratory and educational events for the Walla Walla community. Pavita’s continued interest in community-first development and decolonial frameworks leads her to work in spaces that are rooted in environmental and social care. She now resides on the traditional unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples in Coquitlam.
Strategic Projects Assistant
Sonja Semion
Sonja is a communications and grant writing professional with more than two decades of experience supporting nonprofits and community-based organizations. Her work focuses on helping mission-driven groups secure funding, clarify their messaging, and communicate their impact with honesty and precision.
Originally from the United States, Sonja now calls Snuneymuxw territory (Nanaimo) home, where she is raising her nine-year-old daughter. She loves being in the nature of Vancouver Island and is very active in creative projects and healing arts practices in her community.
Project Coordinator
Raven Hall
Raven is a dedicated project coordinator with a background in advocacy and community leadership. She has worked on critical matters like Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and has provided resources to the unhoused in Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Raven is committed to fostering growth and building strong foundations for Indigenous communities and families. A member of the Kitasoo Xai’Xais First Nation in Klemtu, B.C., she now resides on the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples with her husband and children.
Linguist & Planning Coordinator
Emily Hanser
Emily, a Forager Hill linguist, brings her growing expertise in Wakashan languages and her expanding knowledge of Interior Salish and Dene to support Indigenous community language goals, language documentation, and grammatical analysis. Emily holds an MA in Linguistics from the Canada Institute of Linguistics. She resides on Sylix/Okanagan Lands, in Vernon with her husband and two kids.
“Kanaka has a great working relationship with Janna and her team. Janna and her staff come with a wealth of experience in several areas, grant and proposal writing, project management, administrative support etc.. She has been very successful in assisting Kanaka with funding.”
— Chief Jordan Spinks, Kanaka Bar Indian Band
