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.

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SPECTRUM News, Survey

Help Us Create a Trans Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Waterloo Region

SPECTRUM Waterloo’s 2SLGBTQ+ / Rainbow Community Space is working to develop a mental health promotion and suicide prevention toolkit for the transgender community in Waterloo Region. We need to hear from members of the trans community in the region, as well as from family members, carers, partners, friends and service providers, to learn more about their perspectives related to trans mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

Overview

The purpose of this project is to create a toolkit that reflects both research and community priorities to support trans people in Waterloo Region. In the initial phase of this project, we’re working to understand the perspectives of trans folks, families, carers, friends and service providers, in order to identify key areas of priority and key resources to be incorporated into the toolkit.

Who We Are

Opening their doors in 2012, SPECTRUM is Waterloo Region’s 2SLGBTQ+ / Rainbow community space. SPECTRUM provides a safe space for the region’s Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer community through programing, resources, events and more.

Wisdom2Action (W2A) is a 2SLGBTQ+ owned and operated social enterprise and consulting firm. Through W2A’s commitment to anti-oppression, community engagement, and evidence-based practice, we help civil society organizations and governments facilitate change and strengthen communities. Wisdom2Action is working with SPECTRUM to execute community engagement and support content creation of a toolkit around the mental health promotion and suicide prevention toolkit for the transgender community in Waterloo Region.

Get involved

If you would like to share your perspective on mental health promotion and suicide prevention for the trans community, and ultimately inform this toolkit, please complete the survey here:

http://www.wisdom2action.org/transtoolkit

If you would like to dive further into your perspectives with us, please consider expressing your interest to participate in a key informant interview here. Honorariums will be provided to all key informants for their time.

If you have any questions about this project, or would like more information, please contact Alyssa at Wisdom 2 Action.

Thank you for your interest and participation in this very important project.

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Survey

SPECTRUM Launches Survey To Help Inform Transgender Self Harm, Abuse, Suicide Reduction Tool Kit

SPECTRUM Launches Survey To Help Inform Transgender Self Harm, Abuse, Suicide Reduction Tool Kit

Thanks to a grant from the Canadian Women’s Foundation SPECTRUM Waterloo Region’s Rainbow Community Space in conjunction with Wisdom2Action (W2A) have launched a community survey to help inform the creation of a tool kit for the transgender community aimed at the reduction of gender based violence that lead to abuse, self harm and suicide. Please help us to make this a highly successful project that can greatly benefit our community by participating in our online survey. Please click here  for more details and to participate. Thank you for your support.

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Research, Survey

Perception of LGBTQ2+ people in Waterloo Region: SPECTRUM’s survey results

Perception of LGBTQ2+ people in Waterloo Region: SPECTRUM’s survey results

One of the key accountabilities defined in Project Excelsior’s WAGE Grant funding application was to conduct community surveys both of LGBTQ2+ people and non-LGBTQ2+ people in Waterloo Region. In conducting a survey of non-LGBTQ2+ people in Waterloo Region, the goal was to better understand community perceptions of LGBTQ2+ people, knowledge gaps, and what support we can provide to non-LGBTQ2+ people looking to become better allies.

In part thanks to the assistance of community partners and stakeholders, SPECTRUM received 367 qualifying responses to our survey – which was more than double the response that we got to our Spring LGBTQ2+ Community Survey. A huge thank you to everyone who either completed the survey or helped promote it!

One of the things we heard during the survey process was that there was interest in the outcome, so now that the analysis of the results is complete SPECTRUM is making a report summarizing the survey results available.

Click here for a summary report that presents the most notable findings.

Click here for a full research summary that includes open-ended response data.

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