About Us

Mission

The Gender Variant Working Group (GVWG) is a hub for trans-specific resources and needs within the KW community. The GVWG aims to improve the wellbeing of trans individuals, their connections to and experiences accessing services. We achieve this through prioritizing collaboration between individuals, local organizations, service providers, and other grassroots initiatives. This work continues to be informed by current legislation and research as well as lived experiences of trans folks in the KW area.

Vision

The GVWG will continue to provide trainings to local organizations and service providers about trans inclusion as well as consultations on issues of trans inclusion within our community. The working group will build community awareness of our work through improving our branding and continuing to build connections. We will streamline and formalize our processes through developing internal policies and procedures. And finally, we will create an environment where we can strengthen our capacities as individuals and as a group through skill development and networking.

Establishment of the Gender Variant Working Group

In 2012, the Ontario Trillium Foundation granted funding to the Waterloo Region Trauma Service Initiative; a collaborative made up of Sanguen Health Centre, the AIDS Committee of Cambridge Kitchener Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA), the Kitchener Waterloo Multicultural Centre, Carizon Family and Community Services, and the Centre for Community Based Research, to explore trauma service needs within the Region and develop an action plan to make trauma services accessible, affordable, inclusive and appropriate. The project had three stages: community engagement; needs assessment; and action planning. Julie Wise (Julie Wise Consulting) was project coordinator, and Dr. Jonathan Lomotey (Novell Community Development Solutions) was the lead researcher on the project. The project culminated in two community forums which brought together 72 agencies and community members to develop and adopt a community action plan to enhance access to trauma services. This action plan has resulted in a 2-year pilot project to be implemented from April 2014 to April 2016.

The needs assessment indicated that several client groups in the Region, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBTQ+) community, lack access to competent trauma services. In an effort to address an identified gap in awareness among local service providers about gender, the Gender Variant Working Group (affiliated with the Waterloo Region Rainbow Coalition at the time), created the following document to offer education, resources and support to local service providers. The main goal was to provide education about gender variance to enhance their competency when working with gender variant populations.

Since 2013, the GVWG has maintained this goal of providing education about trans identity to improve the ability of service providers to work with gender variant folks. The make-up of the group has shifted from including community members as well as service providers to being gender variant community members only, but with administrative support from ACCKWA.