A program to help organizations and businesses build their capacity to support and promote spaces that are inclusive and positive for transgender and gender nonconforming adults and youth.
Through engaging in a variety of creative tools and activities, this program will create a space for participants to learn, question, challenge, and reflect on topics of gender, gender identity, and inclusive and positive spaces.
Together, we will explore terminology and concepts to better understand the complex and diverse experiences of trans and gender nonconforming people and the ways in which gender is entrenched within our world.
We will then apply this learning to identify clear strategies for creating trans inclusive and positive spaces at your organization externally (for those accessing your services) and internally (for employees/co-workers). These strategies will apply to both day-to-day interactions as well as organizational structures such as policies and infrastructure. We aim to be responsive and will adapt content and tools to your needs and context as much as possible.
Objectives
Participants will
- Create and participate in a supportive community of learning and questioning
- Gain a solid base understanding of terminology and the complexity of experiences of trans and gender nonconforming people
- Gain an understanding of the ways in which our gendered world impacts trans and gender nonconforming people
- Identify strategies for making the world around more trans-positive, both personally and professionally
- Apply learnings in the context of identifying necessary structural changes within organizations to promote trans-inclusivity for both service users and employees
- Develop a network of supportive peers and gain resources to support continued work on creating trans-inclusive spaces
Program Cost: $380 ($283 tuition+$97 meals/accommodations)
Local Price: $333 (program cost without overnight, without breakfast)
Please register at least 2 weeks in advance to secure your place in this program
Leadership
Andrew Jantzen
Andrew Jantzen is a social justice activist with a background in community development, focusing on youth and issues that are important to youth. He has been working with organizations and community groups to build and promote safer spaces for queer and trans people through workshops, support groups, public awareness initiatives and research. He sits on the Board of Directors for the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, a provincial organization advocating for LGBTQ rights, and has been involved with the Tatamagouche Social Justice Youth Camp since 2010, connecting his work around safer spaces to larger struggles for social justice. He currently works for HeartWood Centre for Community Youth Development, supporting communities with youth engagement for positive change.
Nolan Pike
Nolan Pike works as a Community Educator for the Youth Project – a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to providing support and services to youth, 25 and under, around issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Nolan has been an active participant in the queer arts community as a writer, video artist, and musician. He is currently completing an English Major at MSVU and working on his first novel. Nolan is passionate about queer community building, disrupting the gender binary and the show Roseanne.
Rena Kulczycki
Rena Kulczycki, Program Resource Group (PRG) facilitator, is an activist bent on building inclusive communities that celebrate diversity. In her experience with youth program delivery, she loves finding ways to engage young people as active citizens through exciting and innovative programming. She believes that the best educational experiences are a shared in an environment of mutual support and respect where our ideas are co-cultivated and limits challenged.