July 2024 Recipients

1) Allies in Action Project - Saltspring Island ($1875)

Allies in Action, is a series of four community discussion events that focus on the wellbeing and quality of life of older adults (55+) and seniors (65+). Each event begins with a video segment, produced by onmyplanet.ca, that highlights the experiences of a diverse cross-section of 2SLGBTQAI+ older adults, promotes inclusion and allyship practices, and explores alternative community-building methods. The video will be followed by a moderated group discussion, networking/social time and great snacks.
The gatherings provide an opportunity for 2SLGBTQIA+ older adults and a general population of older adults to connect with each other, with existing services, and with opportunities for intergenerational exchange. This particular grant would be used to include a community discussion event on Salt Spring Island.

2) Gender Generations Project - Victoria ($1875)

Website: https://www.gendergenerations.org/

GGP centres its programming around our twice-yearly weekend retreats for 2STNBGD children and youth, ages 5-18. The project fosters connections between youth and adult mentors with shared or similar gender identities who can support and inspire them to live their truths in spite of adversity. The grownup mentors are at all stages of adulthood, including emerging adults, folks in middle-age, and seniors, who serve as sensitive and energetic role models and a dazzling array of possibility and potential for our trans youth to imagine themselves growing into. Past retreats have offered workshops in fine arts, (including writing, visual art, and performance), social justice activism and leadership, employment skills and capacity-building, sports and athletics, faith and spirituality, and resilience and self-care. During the retreats, youth learn from and with trans experts in a variety of fields and have successfully executed large, creative projects, including two published books.

Since our inception where we welcomed just 12 youth in 2017, we have steadily grown to now having 73 children and youth at our last retreat in Fall 2023. Though our programming was originally envisioned for high-school age youth, more and more younger children and youth have applied each year, with a current mean and median age of 11 years old. We subsequently began offering dedicated, age-appropriate programming for younger 2STNBGD children and their parents, families, and caregivers during our retreats. Our efforts in providing the support for younger children and parents, as well as the rapidly increasing numbers of youth, has been limited due to financial constraints. With the increasing attack on transgender people – especially children, youth and their families, we anticipate this need will only increase in the coming years. We would appreciate support from IQAAWC to focus on developing these program areas with increased staffing and targeted program streams. We have recently opened our programming to specifically include a stream for trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit and gender creative older adults/seniors (those over age 55).