Who Are We?

SISCO is a feminist social impact consulting firm, working with and for Communities in Canada and around the world.

We are a certified WBE Canada-Certified WBE (woman owned business ) and we are committed to working towards ending the oppression of all Peoples.

What communities do we work with and for?

We work with, support, and advocate for equity-denied, underserved, and marginalized Communities. What sets us apart? We are:

Positive Change-Makers

We focus our energy on where we can make a positive impact for Communities.

Expert Listeners & Learners

We understand that Communities know what they want and need.

Intersectional Researchers

We bring expertise in working on complex projects involving an intersection of critical Indigenous, SGBA+, feminist and other lenses.

Capacity Developers

We hire, train, and mentor members of the Communities we serve, and we help underfunded Communities and organizations to obtain funding.

Relationship Builders

We help organizations to better engage, build relationships with and support Communities.

Quality-Focused Professionals

We are uncompromising on delivering professional, superior quality products and services that get results and make an impact.

Meet our awesome research team

We approach our work with an unparalleled combination of respect, quality and impact.

How We Can Help

We are uncompromising on delivering professional, superior quality products and services that get results and make an impact.
Our Services
With certainty, I can say that SISCO will be an asset to any team or community seeking research support. They are critical thinkers and collaborators that carry a great deal of understanding about First Nations relations between communities and within communities. SISCO is able to garner the respect and trust of advisory group and committee members they work with because of their care and due diligence in their work.
Leslee White-eyeStructural Readiness CoordinatorFirst Nations With Schools Collective
We’ve had a great working relationship with Ashley & her team since 2015. They provide outstanding project support including proposal writing, project management, and final reporting. The outputs are always top notch! We have the utmost respect for Ashley’s commitment to build the capacity within the community, especially our youth, throughout her work.
Jennifer WhiteyeExecutive Director
Southern First Nations Secretariat
I have been working with SISCO since 2016 through the SFNS Economic Leakage Study Working Committee. The plan they helped us create is evidence driven, community-based and feasible. The SISCO team includes members of our local First Nation communities who are skilled and experienced. I would highly recommend SISCO as a firm for community research and planning
Carole DelionEconomic Development Coordinator
Aamjiwnaang First Nation
At every step of the way, the SISCO team was attentive to needs and sensitive to the uniqueness of our community. With every project SISCO took on, there was a component of community engagement, a true indicator of allyship and understanding of Anishinaabe culture.
Nikki van OirschotChief of Staff
Political Office, Anishinabek Nation
SISCO has supported our team at AIAI on multiple projects since 2021, and we will continue to work with them. Their team is respectful, professional, and highly skilled in engagement, research, planning and facilitation. We can rely on the SISCO team to consistently produce high quality work, even under tight timelines
Geoff StonefishDirector of Operations
Sisco and Associates were an amazing consulting firm that engaged with all our participants during our university strategic business planning session here in Sudbury. They ensured all our Indigenous stakeholders were included as important voices from the community that provided planning guidance focused on Anishinaabe world views. We would love to work with them again in the future. Aapjigo gii nishin gii bi naakwenmaagewaad. Miigwech.
Dominic BeaudryAssociate Vice-President
The National Reconciliation Program at Save the Children Canada had the pleasure of working with the SISCO team on the development of a strength-based assessment on emergency programming with First Nation, Inuit and Metis children. Throughout the process the team was extraordinarily thorough, timely and relationship focused. The team was solutions-oriented and creative in the face of unforeseen challenges in the process. Being part of a large International non-profit, we were impressed by how SISCO was able to maintain a local focus while navigating the realities and circumstances of globally-oriented organizations.
Lewis ArcherDirectorInternational Programs and Partnerships, Save the Children Canada
The Anishinabek Nation Economic Secretariat received professional and dedicated service from the team at Sisco during our work together. Their project team members were flexible and accommodating, knowledgeable, and prepared for events and meetings during our, at times, changing schedule. Working with them was great and we are satisfied with the products delivered.
Brandon ManualEconomic Development Coordinator
Anishinabek Nation
Sisco Consulting has provided tremendous value to our organization. From the first meeting on the project until the last, they have been extremely communicative, hard-working and always deliver on tight timelines and deadlines. They have an amazing team that provides a quality of work to none other and I would highly recommend working with Sisco Consulting on a project, exercise or strategic initiative that will benefit your organization in the long-term.
Paul-Emile McNabPresident and Chair, Board of Directors
Aboriginal Legal Services
I can say with confidence that our community continues to thrive and progress with foundational documents with achievable and effective goals. I highly recommend SISCO and look forward to working with them again.
Nikki van OirschotChief of StaffPolitical Office, Anishinabek Nation

Our Story

2010

An Accidental Business is Born

SISCO was established by Dr. Ashley Sisco in 2010 as a sole proprietorship when she left her role as a Researcher with the Conference Board of Canada (a social policy think tank) to pursue her PhD in Australia. Ashley gained a great deal of skills and knowledge from her time with the Conference Board, but envisioned a different path for herself focused on her passion for Community advocacy. She agreed to help the Conference Board with the transition as a remote Consultant while they found another Researcher, but she began receiving requests for consulting services from other clients as well. At first this seemed like a great way to develop her skills and support herself during her PhD studies. However, she soon learned it would be so much more than a part-time gig!

2013-2018

Coming Home to Plant New Roots

When Ashley returned to her home community of London Ontario (Deshkan Ziibiing – Antler River) from Australia, she worked for a School Board, University and Indigenous Consulting Firm, but continued to consult on the side. Ashley fell in love with working with local First Nations and the urban Indigenous community in allyship on various projects. Consistent with community-based partnerships research, Ashley hired, trained, mentored, and learned from youth from the Communities (mostly local First Nations) that she served. Eventually, the work exceeded Ashley’s capacity in her other roles, and she had to decide whether to invest her time into other organizations or her own. Ultimately, Ashley decided to take a risk and focus her time on building an organization uniquely geared toward her passion—community-based partnership work with equity-denied Communities. In 2014, she incorporated and has since focused on building relationships, developing quality products and services, and creating positive impacts in Communities.

2019-2021

Building our Dream Team with the Communities we Serve

As the business continued to grow, Ashley knew she had to hire a team, and was set on finding the best people. She started by hiring a Director of Operations to support the transformation of SISCO from consultancy to a staffed firm. Bringing over a decade of senior leadership experience with a large corporation, Alisha Fowler joined in 2019, and has since helped to establish SISCO as a workplace that is fun, wellness-focused, and safe and inclusive for people all genders, sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, and neurotypes. That same year, we hired our first Research Associate, Jana George, who had been working with us since 2016 as a youth co-researcher. She has since grown into the Manager of Research and Policy Development leading our team of Researchers and Associates. In building our team, we have always been intentional about representing the Communities we serve. SISCO is proud to be a woman-led, majority woman-operated and majority Indigenous operated company, with an Indigenous woman-led and operated Research team and strategic partnerships with firms representing the other Communities we serve.

2021-Present

Treaty Relationships & Expanding into new Communities and Internationally

Before long we learned that the community-focused, respectful and reciprocal approach we bring to our work with Indigenous Communities—based on a deep understanding that Communities know best what they want and need, they just sometimes require support and advocacy—benefits all equity-denied groups!

Serving Indigenous Communities, organizations and partners in Turtle Island (North America), has been and will remain the heart of what we do, both because we see this work as an extension of our treaty responsibilities. However, in 2022, we began expanding:

  • into support for other equity-denied Communities, including:
    • women and gender diverse,
    • neurodivergent,
    • 2SLGBTQIA+,
    • black and racialized, and
    • newcomer Communities; and
  • internationally into:
    • Australia,
    • Chile, and
    • we continue to build our work in these and other international markets.

2024

Celebrating Our 10 Year Anniversary With Our Cottage

For years we have considered purchasing an office space. However, since we are a remotely-based team in the information sector with employees in different locations, a conventional office facility did not make sense for us. Instead, we have been regularly renting out space for team members to meet for collaborative writing and team retreats. In 2024, we purchased a corporate cottage in Port Franks, central to many of our remotely based employees. Located in a wooded area, nestled by a stunning wetland and steps from Lake Huron, Retreat Yourself is a place for our employees to access a quiet corner of the world in nature to write, collaborate with one another, and recharge. That same year, we celebrated our ten (10) year anniversary at the cottage together!

Celebrating 10 Years Incorporated

This year, we are thrilled to be celebrating our 10th anniversary of incorporating our business. We plan on celebrating in 2024 and look forward to what the future brings at SISCO.

About the SISCO Logo

In 2023, SISCO hired Katie Wilhelm (Nawash First Nation) to upgrade our branding. In consultation with our team, Katie developed a logo that highlights our core values and growth as a company.

The new logo includes more natural colours drawn from photographs of the local natural environment. The “O” has been upgraded to reflect an Earth wreath design of the local plant life interwoven together—including Elm, Oak and Evergreen leaves:

  • honours the place where SISCO originated (The Great Lakes Woodland Region, inclusive of Dekhan Ziibiing – Antler River or London Ontario);
  • symbolizes our intention to continue to focus on local Communities as the heart of our work and as our responsibility;
  • resembles the Earth, which illustrates our expansion internationally, connecting with Communities around the world to share knowledge;
  • demonstrates the diversity of our team, partners and approach, in which like the forest canopy, all is equally important and interconnected; and
  • reflects the cycle of our approach from listening and unlearning from Community to supporting and advocating for positive Community driven impacts.

Contact Us

We are uncompromising on delivering professional, superior quality products and services that get results and make an impact.