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Fundraising, SPECTRUM News

Spectrum’s Rainbow Community Fund

Spectrum launches endowment fund with Waterloo Region Community Foundation

Spectrum Waterloo Region’s Rainbow Community Space has been providing programs and services for 2SLGBTQIA+ people since 2012. They provide more than 30 different groups and activities each month, including peer support groups, social/recreational programming, and training.

Spectrum’s Rainbow Community Fund is being launched with an investment of $5,000.

“We are celebrating our 10th anniversary,” says Executive Director, Scott Williams, “and we are planning to be in the community for many years to come. Spectrum’s Rainbow Community Fund has been established to help provide financial stability to the organization in the long-term.”

Spectrum’s Rainbow Community Fund is one of over 400 funds held by Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF). These funds generate income that is then distributed to support a broad range of charitable causes within our community.

“We are very pleased to be able to support Spectrum as they work to build up the resources to deliver programming in the community to meet current and future needs,” says Eric Avner, President & Chief Executive Officer, Waterloo Region Community Foundation. “Endowment funds like this help us work towards our vision of a sustainable, equitable, thriving community.”

“At this time of year, we are reminded that many 2SLGBTQIA+ people do not have supportive families to gather with,” says Williams. “Spectrum provides a much-needed safe space where members of the rainbow community can find a sense of belonging. We are so grateful to the community for the financial support through individual, family, and corporate donations that makes our work possible.”

Donations can be made to Spectrum’s Rainbow Community Fund at www.wrcf.ca/spectrum. For more information about contributing to the fund, please contact WRCF at 519-725-1806 or info@wrcf.ca. If you want to learn more about Spectrum and the programs that we offer in community please contact info@ourspectrum.com

About Spectrum:

Founded in 2012, Spectrum offers over 30 different groups and activities each month. Spectrum is an organization that serves, affirms, and supports the well-being of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals in Waterloo Region and the broader community through peer support, community partnerships, education and training, resources, and events. www.ourspectrum.com

About Waterloo Region Community Foundation

Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) collaborates with partners to create sustainable, equitable and thriving communities. We connect regionally and locally, working with three cities and four townships – to include the people and places across our region. Together, we develop forward-thinking innovative solutions and seize opportunities to meet current and future needs of our community. We make philanthropy easy for individuals and companies to support organizations and issues they care about. WRCF is focused on Granting, Impact Investing and Convening to make measurable and sustainable impacts. Gifts are directed to WRCF’s endowed funds that drive positive change through grants with the income generated being distributed in partnership with Fundholders to support a wide range of charitable causes within our community. A portion of the endowed funds are also used for impact investments that deliver both financial returns as well as positive social or environmental outcomes. As a leading community-building organization, we also work to amplify voices and issues of importance by convening conversations and sharing information, while approaching our work with an equity mindset. www.wrcf.ca

SPECTRUM News

Lyle S. Hallman Foundation Children’s Initiatives Grant

We are pleased to share that Spectrum is receiving a two-year Children’s Initiatives grant from the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation to create programming for 2SLGBTQIA+ children aged 4-12!

With the Youth Under the Rainbow program, we will be partnering with Kitchener Public Library, Waterloo Public Library, Idea Exchange, Region of Waterloo Library, and Artshine to provide storytime and craft programing for 2SLGBTQIA+ children across Waterloo Region.

The grant of $152,493 over two years will allow us to hire a program coordinator to lead this work in the new year. You can view the posting here.

We are extremely grateful to the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation for their generous support!

SPECTRUM News, WAGE Grant

Community Circles in January 2023

NOTE: The fourth circle has been rescheduled for March 14th. We hope to see you there! Register here.

The next step in our community engagement project is to host four community circles In January 2023. The community circles will each have a different focus and are intended to be organic and open ended conversations with our community to reflect on pressing and relevant topics relevant to Black, Indigenous, and racialized 2SLGTBQIA+ people. These community circles will be a meaningful step for Spectrum to address our lack of affirming actions towards Black, Indigenous, and racialized members of 2SLGTBQIA+ communities.

All four circles will be happening virtually on Zoom.

Circle #1: Tuesday January 10, 2023 7-9pm virtual

We would like to discuss Spectrum’s past and hear about any historical harms that may have been done.
We would like to get opinions on the survey that is currently open and do some reflection on the survey results.
We’d like to hear more from Black, Indigenous, and racialized 2SLGBTQIA+ people about your personal experiences.
We’d like to hear which programs, services, and community members are having a positive impact today.

Circle #2: Tuesday January 17, 2023 7-9pm virtual

We’d like to discuss queerphobia in our schools, and issues being brought to school boards.
We’d like to hear about how best to engage with Black, Indigenous, and racialized families with 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth.
We’d like to discuss the impact of the police force on Black, Indigenous, and racialized queer people in our community.
We’d like to discuss anti-oppressive and queer affirming workplace strategies.
We’d like to hear which programs, services, and community members are having a positive impact today.

Circle #3: Tuesday January 24, 2023 7-9pm virtual

We’d like to discuss housing insecurities.
We’d like to discuss addiction and safe consumption.
We’d like to discuss equitable access to healthcare.
We’d like to hear which programs, services, and community members are having a positive impact today.

Circle #4: Tuesday January 31, 2023 7-9pm virtual

We’d like to discuss white supremacy in our community and issues like the removal of the Daughters of the Empire statue.
We’d like to discuss supporting queer-run Indigenous organizations.
We’d like to hear which programs, services, and community members are having a positive impact today.

These topics are not exhaustive and they may evolve based on feedback we receive in the surveys or based on how the conversation in the circles flows.

If there are any topics not listed that you would like to especially discuss or if there are any concerns please contact info@ourspectrum.com. The community circles will be co-facilitated by Spectrum’s community engagement coordinator Om Prajapati and Aashay Dalvi. The Executive Director of Spectrum, Scott Williams, will be present in an observational role. These circles are intended to be safe spaces for Black, Indigenous, and racialized 2SLGBTQIA+ people to share their honest thoughts and feelings.

To be a part of the community circles and/or be kept up to date on the progress of this work, please provide your email address here.

If you haven’t had a chance to complete our survey, we’d appreciate hearing your thoughts here.

Please save the dates!

Circle #1: Tuesday January 10, 2023 7-9pm virtual

Circle #2: Tuesday January 17, 2023 7-9pm virtual

Circle #3: Tuesday January 24, 2023 7-9pm virtual

Circle #4: Tuesday January 31, 2023 7-9pm virtual

SPECTRUM News, Survey, WAGE Grant

Survey on the Experiences of Black, Indigenous, and Racialized 2SLGBTQIA+ People in Waterloo Region

Since July, we have been working on a community engagement project made possible by an extension of the LGBTQ2 Community Capacity Fund grant administered by Women and Gender Equality Canada. Thus far, this work has included an environmental scan to discover what programs and services are available for Black, Indigenous, and racialized people from 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations in Ontario, and video interviews with local community members. The next step is a survey being released today.

Knowing that SPECTRUM Waterloo Region’s Rainbow Community Space has had a lack of affirming actions towards Black, Indigenous, and racialized 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, we are trying to take well informed and responsible steps to amend that.

We would like to identify the needs, barriers and challenges of Black, Indigenous, and racialized members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, with the goal of understanding which programs and services would be helpful in Waterloo Region. The survey will cover topics such as local 2SGLTBQIA+ organizations, personal experiences, educational curricula, workspace hiring practices, and other miscellaneous topics.

The survey is anonymous and the results will be shared with the community so that not only SPECTRUM, but also other organizations, can benefit from the findings. It is our hope that the information collected will help us understand the experiences of local Black, Indigenous, and racialized community members, and identify potential areas for education and improvement for SPECTRUM.

The survey is not the only opportunity community members will have to engage with us during this project. In the near future, there will also be focus groups to examine specific topics in detail, and we always welcome feedback by email at info@ourspectrum.com. In addition, more video interviews will be conducted in the new year.

We are extremely grateful to those willing to take the time to complete this survey and help us improve so that we can more effectively work towards our vision of an inclusive community where all 2SLGBTQ+ individuals are welcomed, celebrated, and supported as their authentic selves.

Take the survey here.

Awareness, Events, Statements

In Response to the Attack at Club Q

We grieve with the loved ones of the people who were murdered at Club Q this weekend and wish speedy healing to those who were injured.

These tragic events are just the latest in a long line of examples demonstrating that normalizing hate speech has deadly consequences for 2SLGBTQIA+ people. The few spaces that 2SLGBTQIA+ people are able to create for ourselves should be safe places for us celebrate and support one another. This should have been especially true on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize transgender people whose lives have been lost to violence.

The trauma of every homophobic comment, transphobic attack on the rights of trans and non-binary people, and act of queerphobic violence makes our lives much more difficult but we will not be silenced. Canada – and Waterloo Region – are not immune to this kind of violence. Our governments and leaders must be held accountable for allowing increasing incidents of hate speech and hate crimes to endanger 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

The fight for the rights and safety of 2SLGBTQIA+ people is not over. We have always been here and will continue to fight until we can all live safely as our authentic selves.

SPECTRUM News

Rainbow Pages Online Directory

We are pleased to announce the launch of our online Rainbow Pages directory!

This project was made possible by an extension of the 2SLGBTQ Community Capacity Fund grant administered by Women and Gender Equality Canada.

The Rainbow Pages exists as a community publication, printed annually. You can find the 2022 edition here, and the 2021 edition here. It now also exists as a searchable online database that can be updated at any time!

Visit the online directory at https://ourspectrum.com/rd/

Organizations can create an account and make updates to their listings at any time. We have created a tutorial video and written instructions to help people make use of the directory.

If you know a queer-owned, or queer-friendly business that should be listed in the Rainbow Pages please share the link!

Start exploring the directory today!

Guest post

Guest post: stories like yours

This guest post was written by Cassidy Rae Proctor.

I recognized my reflection before I knew it was mine, in the pages of a beat up paperback on a library shelf.

As a child, I all but lived at the public library in my small town. I learned to read with Peter and Jane, watched borrowed VHS copies of Disney classics, and was a dedicated overachiever each year in the summer reading club. The moment I became a teen, anxious and looking for both a creative outlet and a sense of responsibility, I became an active and enthusiastic part of the library advisory group for young adults. And the week after I finished my final college exams, I began a career in public libraries that today has nearly reached the five year mark. My love for the library hasn’t changed over the years, but I have.

I first read Tamora Pierce’s Alanna: The First Adventure when I was around eleven years old. I had never found a character I identified as strongly with as Alanna of Trebond, a young girl disguising herself as a boy to become a knight. I had read books with fantastic female heroines before, but Alanna was different: as her story went on, it became clear to both me and her that she was a girl, but also kind of a boy, and also kind of both and neither. The idea of identity being personal and complicated, and that being yourself can be the thing that takes the greatest strength, resonated with me in a way I wouldn’t begin to understand for more than a decade.

My journey to discovering myself would be a winding one that I would do my best to ignore for many years to come, but in a small town library, on an old shelf labeled JUVENILE FICTION, a little kid caught a glimpse of themselves for the first time.

The world and I have both changed since I was a kid, but the power of a community space that enthusiastically welcomes everyone, and provides free access to stories that allow people of all ages and backgrounds to feel seen, encouraged, educated and validated has remained, and continues to make public libraries an essential space and resource for our community.

SPECTRUM News

Rainbow Family Drop-In

Early in 2021, SPECTRUM conducted some community surveys to help us better understand the needs of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Waterloo Region. One of the things we heard about was a need for programs for 2SLGBTQIA+ children, families, and parents. We connected with EarlyON | Waterloo Region to talk about how we might be able to partner to make something possible.

In April 2022, we did an additional community survey to help us understand what families would like to see in a new program. Using the information we gathered, we have created a new Rainbow Family Drop-In!

On October 29th we will run our first test group at the EarlyON | Roger Street (161 Roger Street, Waterloo) location. Join other 2SLGBTQIA+ children (aged 0-6), caring adults and families in play and exploration together from 9am-11am!

EarlyON facilitators are available to provide support and information around early learning topics, community resources, programs and referrals in a play-based environment. Onsite supports will also include Beck, a YMCA of Three Rivers 2SLGBTQ+ Inclusion and Diversity Worker, and Mel, an Early Learning Child Care Navigator, funded by the Region of Waterloo.

This program requires pre-registration. Create your KEyON at https://www.keyon.ca/ and pre-register for each session. For KEyON account or registration support, please contact the EarlyON Admin team at 519.741.8585 x 3001 or earlyyearsinfo@ytr.ymca.ca

SPECTRUM has been providing Rainbow Diversity Training to all EarlyON staff and we are excited about what the future may hold for our partnership.

We hope to see you at the first session on October 29th and look forward to hearing from participants as we build this program.

Awareness, Guest post

Guest Post: For Iran

By Midas Beglari

What is Happening in Iran?

On September 16, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish women, was murdered by the morality police in Tehran, Iran; her death sparked an anti-government movement, referred to as “Woman, Life, Freedom”, in Iran and all around the world. As we share this message, Iranians inside the country are protesting in the streets, being shot at with military guns, and being abducted to unknown locations. The government has shut down internet access countrywide. Following over two weeks of protests in Iran that have left more than a hundred civilians dead (with ethnic minorities in Balochistan being especially hard-hit), the Iranian diaspora expressed their frustration with the Islamic Regime on Saturday, October 1st, the Global Day of Action for Iran, by attending demonstrations in over 150 cities across the globe. Iranian Ontarians rallied alongside over 50,000 protesters in Richmond Hill and London. Then, on October 2nd, the government attacked Sharif University, Iran’s most prestigious educational institution. Fully armed military forces with permission to open fire were sent inside the university while the doors were shut, trapping over 2,000 students, staff and faculty inside the university and its dorms. Innocent students leading a revolution for freedom were abused, arrested, and shot at by the Islamic Regime inside of their educational institution. This is just the beginning.

Why are we taking a stand?

The biggest women’s rights movement is happening right now in Iran, but Iranians are fighting for so much more than just women’s rights. Over the past 43 years, the Islamic Regime has been systematically oppressing indigenous ethnic groups in Iran (especially the Kurds) by erasing their languages, religious identities, cultural expressions, and traditional ways of life. Right now, they are bombing Kurdish schools. LGBTQ+ people in Iran are denied basic human rights and still face the death penalty. Two queer and trans activists Sareh and Elham Choubdar are currently in prison on death row waiting for the International Court of Justice to vacate their sentences. Religious minorities, like the Bahaïs, experience extreme systematic oppression at the hands of a legal system that is built to exclude them to the point of denying them access to education.

If you care about women’s rights, 2SLGBTQ+ rights, racism, police brutality, and religious freedom, you should be standing in solidarity with Iran.

The Islamic Regime has turned the hijab into a symbol of oppression for Iranian women. When Iranian women take off and burn their hijabs, they are asking for the same thing Muslim women in the West are asking for: freedom of choice and bodily autonomy. Please be mindful of this context, and do not use Iranian women’s choice to take off the hijab as an excuse to be Islamophobic.

How can we help?

-Share and Amplify Iranian Voices on Social Media and Use #MahsaAmini #womenlifefreedom

–Write to Canadian Officials (the template can be modified)

-Attend Protests and Learn about Global Day of Action for Iran

–Sign the petition for Sareh & Elham LGBTQ+ Activist

-Bypass Internet Censorship by Using Snowflake

–Donate

Awareness, Events

Results of 2SLGBTQIA+ Questionnaire for Waterloo Region Municipal Candidates

SPECTRUM worked with the OK2BME team at KW Counselling Services to create a questionnaire on 2SLGBTQIA+ issues for all of the candidates in the Waterloo Region municipal election. The questionnaire was sent on September 21, 2022 by email to all of the candidates for whom we could find email addresses. A post was made on social media the same day inviting any candidates who had not received the survey to reach out to us for the link. If you are a candidate and did not receive the link but would like to complete the questionnaire please email us at info@ourspectrum.com.

Thank you to the candidates who took the time to complete the questionnaire. Below are the responses we have received to the questionnaire. We will add responses here as we receive them. Before being published, we confirmed with the candidates that the answers accurately reflect what they want shared with the community.

City of Cambridge