Friends Newsletter

Thank you for being a Friend!This month’s newsletter introduc-tion is written by Kyle Crossett, a summer intern that has been working hard to get us the first Friends newsletter.

It’s an exciting time to be an intern at GI. I’ve been involved with projects here for almost four years now, but it’s clear that right now the organisation is in a phase of growth. One example of this new activity is a team of dedicated volunteers who have been working to raise GI’s profile.

We’ve also been reaching out to corporations for donations, and have recieved a number of items we can give out at our events: ftm chest binders from Underworks, as well as book donations and vouch-

ers from Foyles and Cleis Press. There might even be some

GI swag soon, so look out for badges, coffee cups and t-shirts that you can purchase to sup-port us and to show that you are Gendered Intelligence.

Some of our upcoming pro-jects include sessions of sport in a safe and friendly environment for trans youth, case studies of schools who are working to sup-port their young trans students and possibly even a series of queer-style life drawing classes.

Enjoy our first quarterly news-letter, and please introduce us to your friends and encourage them to join you in being Friends of GI.

By Kyle Crossett

Youth News

Camping Trip

(14-15 Aug) - One of our youth group’s annual highlights is a summer camping trip. This year, we had 14 young people and four staff travel to the Gil-well Park Scout Activity Centre in Epping Forest for two nights.

The youth helped set up camp and erect tents, and both nights featured a bonfire with classic campfire dishes like baked po-tatoes and chocolate bananas (heated in foil with the chocolate inside them). On the first day, everyone split into two groups to take turns building rafts or doing activities like the bouncy Aeroball-a volleyball/basketball hybrid played on a trampoline.

The second day included a swimming session, where the youth had the freedom to use whatever changing room they felt most comfortable in. One youth commented that although all the activities were great, the best thing was getting to meet people of their own age who were in the same situation.

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EducationGood Practice Guideline:

Case Studies

Catherine McNamara, one of Gendered Intelligence’s co-found-ers, is beginning the first of what will hopefully be a series of case studies that will share good prac-tice guidelines being developed within UK schools to support transgender students. Catherine says, “We get frequent enquir-ies about what schools could or should be doing to be (trans)gender inclusive, and there’s of-ten a sub-text which is really ‘how much will it cost to make the right changes to our school’.

“Our case studies will give ex-amples of some of the things taking place in particular schools in terms

of working with parents, work-ing with small groups of a young person’s friends, communicating with the wider school population, making use of support, advice and training from organisations like ours for the whole staff team.”

These case studies will be use-ful to staff, students and parents in addressing things that schools worry about, even specifics such as how a school manages the stu-dents’ participation in PE, or the use of facilities such as the toilets.

The first of these case studies will be taking place at a school in Oxfordshire that is working with mindfulness and intelligence to support young people who have a complex relationship to gender.

September 2011

Follow us on Twitter - @GIYouthGroup - Search for “Gendered Intelligence” on Facebook and Like Us!

September 2011 Gendered Intelligence Newsletter

Youth News (con’t)‘Since I’m stealth everywhere

else it was really cool to just be open about [being trans]. It made me realise how much of my life is based around worrying that peo-ple will find out that I’m trans, and how much more relaxed I am around people who already know and don’t care [...] I felt so much less stressed around peo-ple because I wasn’t worrying about whether my chest looked flat, or how my voice sounded.’

The trip also inspired confi-dence in our member’s ability to do sport outside of the camp set-ting. After the trip, GI’s Youth Sup-port Worker, Finn Greig, received an email from another attendee that read: ‘I have just got back from doing 1km at the pool, so YAY CAMPING-INSPIRED SPORT.’

Bristol ‘Equal People’ Conference

(16 Aug) - On the Monday imme-diately following the youth group’s camping trip, Finn traveled to Bris-tol to lead a workshop at a confer-ence held by Bristol’s Youth Select Committee and Youth Parliment members.

Called ‘Equal People,’ the con-ference adressed issues of equali-ty and diversity for local youth and the professionals who work with them. Originally, they assigned GI one of the smallest confer-ence rooms, but they had to move Finn into a bigger one because so many people were interested!

Our feedback forms also con-firmed that the young people at the workshop found it help-ful in providing them with new ways of thinking about LGBTQ experiences. Respondents fre-quently commented that they had learned a lot of new termi-nology; how there’s a lot more to sex and gender than straight and gay. For a few, however, the ma-terial was new and challenging.

One teenager, whose re-sponse to the workshop was initially lukewarm, wrote on her form that “I found out some stuff I never knew and it shocked me,” and concluded her evalu-ation form with something we always like to hear how she de-cided that she needed to rethink her conceptions of LGBT people. Get gender

intelligent!

Gendered Intelligence is al-ways looking for volunteers willing to pitch in their skills and time. Whether you want to gain experience with organ-ising fundraising events, help-ing out with finance, or you want to donate your own ex-perience by being a mentor for other volunteers and youth,

WE NEED YOU!

volunteer@genderedintelli-gence.co.uk

Email us today!

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Fundraising(20th Aug) - We had a success-ful summer Film Night, where we showed a powerful documentary about the experiences of trans women in the US prison system. We’re are going to try to make Film Nights a regular event in the future and are always looking for more short films with a queer/transgender theme, especially work by queer and transgender filmmakers.

If you know an artist who might like to share their films, or if you have a copies of something you’d

like to lend to us, let us know at volunteer@genderedintelligence.co.uk.

(1st Sept) - The Cutlery Drawer, a project that raises funds for chari-ties through hosting performing arts events, held a night of caba-ret, poetry, and music at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern to raise funds for GI. There was a packed pro-gramme of exciting acts, and the audience kept high spirits until it ended at almost 2am, and raised £643 for us!

GI EventsThe exact times and locations of the rest of our 2011 events have yet to be confirmed, so we’ll keep you updated. Some travel bursa-ries can be made for those outside of London. For more information email finn.greig@genderedintel-ligence.co.uk.

22nd October: Meeting for par-ents, family members, partners and friends of young trans people.

3rd & 5th November: A swimming or football session as part of our ‘Let’s get physical’ project to help trans youth feel safe and comfort-able accessing sport.

19th November: Yoga for young trans people and a creative move-ment session for young trans and LBG people and their allies.

17th December: Christmas fund-raiser party. All are welcome, in-cluding young trans people and their families and friends.

Professional Development

NHS: Bristol

(24th June) - In June, GI’s co-founder Jay Stewart led a work-shop for NHS staff in Bristol that aimed to raise awareness of trans identities and explore terms and uses of language around gender and sexuality.

The workshop then moved on to offer insight into the legislation around the rights of transgender people and the responsibili-ties of organisations, as well as how to en-sure organisations are being trans-inclusive. Sharing experiences and roleplaying scenarios helped attendees generate ways to implement equality in their workplace. Staff almost uniformly mentioned that they wished the workshop could have been longer,

but felt more confident in being able to talk to young people about gender identity at work.

Youth Services: London

(29th June) - Later on in June, GI led a dissemination and network-ing event at the Central School

of Speech and Drama for professionals who work with young people who may be trans or ques-tioning their gender identity.

The session was attended by profession-

als such as teach-ers, nurses, counsellors,

and Special Education Needs Co-ordinators. During the event, they were able to hear about GI’s work and had the chance to ask questions, share good prac-tice and make new contacts.

Donor ProfileJane Speedy

In this section, we’ll be extending a special thank you to those who have given generously to GI.

Jane Speedy, who has recently donated £500, is a professor at the University of Bristol’s Graduate School of Education. Her academic work is impacted by her personal commitment to femi-nist activism and her experience in teaching, education manage-ment, counseling and therapy.

She first encountered GI about a year ago when she went to a talk given by Finn Grieg in Bristol. Her interest at the time was as a parent of a young person, but she’s told us that she subse-quently become interested in supporting the “style and depth of work that GI does with young people.”

Thank you, Jane Speedy, for your contribution!

September 2011Gendered Intelligence Newsletter

Other EventsGaywise Festival Focus Groups

As part of the process of organis-ing the annual 2011 Gaywise Fes-tival of LGBT and queer art, there will be two focus groups to discuss trans / queer creative consultation and a background development that should benefit Gaywise Festi-val’s future work. After the focus groups, they anticipate a further process in later 2011/ 2012 that should result into an outcome of a journal. Get in touch with them to register your name and contact email: info@wisethoughts.org.

Luna Performance Project

Want to get involved in a new per-formance project? Louise Barratt runs a theatre company and is de-veloping a new touring production based on the novel LUNA by Julie Anne Peters.

She’s looking for people who might want to get in touch with her with a view to chatting about their experiences as young peo-ple with a complex relationship to gender. The story of Luna will be the main narrative but Louise would really like to also present audiences with real as well as fic-tional stories through additional film and audio.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, email her at louise@prettygoodgirl.com.You can choose whether to chat on email, or she’s happy to meet up in London too (she’s based in Somerset if that’s nearer for any of you!). You don’t need to be re-cored, but you could potentially be filmed and become part of the performance! You can view her website at: www.prettygoodgirl.com

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September 2011 Gendered Intelligence Newsletter

Director’s Corner

Gendered Intelligence was set up as a business partnership in 2007 between Catherine McNamara and myself after completing the Sci:dentity Project.

In June 2008 Gendered Intelli-gence registered as a Community Interest Company, which uses a business model that is geared around entrepreneurial initiative, but is obliged to feed its profits back into the company. The com-pany is Limited by Guarantee un-der Companies House regulation, and has charitable aims.

Since 2009, Gendered Intelli-gence has expanded its board of directors and currently has four members, who meet quarterly. Our job is to oversee the business plan and development strategies, policies and funding opportunities of the organisation. At meeting

we receive reports on the activi-ties carried out by the organisa-tion and updates on the financial status of the organisation, so that we can advise on fundraising strat-egies.

Over the past year the board has specifically worked on a Bien-nial Report as well as developed a Business Plan, which sets targets for the work and achievements we want to make over the next three years. In the last two years Gen-dered Intelligence has gone from strength to strength working with more young trans people, carrying out more activities and arts based projects, building more resources and delivering more workshops and trans awareness training.

Whilst we are busy applying for grants and trusts and exploring other entrepreneurial approaches

to raising funds, I am particularly delighted that our Friends Scheme has been launched and that so many peo-ple - including parents and fam-ily members, professionals, mem-bers and allies of the trans and queer community who want to support young people, as well as young people themselves - have all signed up to donate their own hard earned cash to the cause!

It’s simply amazing and really spurs us on to continue the work that we do at Gendered Intelli-gence.

Help InformationOur Services

Gendered Intelligence offers trans youth sessions for ages 14-24, support sessions for family, mem-bers, partners, and friends, as well as workshops in schools and Trans Awareness Professional Training.

www.genderedintelligence.org.uk

Youth and FamilyMermaids provides family and in-dividual support for children and teenagers with gender identity is-sues. www.mermaidsuk.org.uk

The Queer Youth Network is the UK’s National LBGT Youth Organi-zation, which campaigns for great-er visibility and equal rights, and provides general support. www.queeryouth.org.uk

Housing and AdvocacyStonewall Housing and the Albert Kennedy Trust both provide hous-ing support to LGBT young people.

Stonewall Housing www.stonewallhousing.org Advice: 020 7359 5767 Main office: 020 7359 6242 Albert Kennedy Trust www.akt.org.uk London: 020 7831 6562 Manchester: 0161 228 3308

Galop provides advice, support, research and lobbying around the issues of homophobia, transpho-bia and LGBT policing. You can re-port victimization or violence on-line. www.galop.org.uk Helpline: 020 7704 2040

Health PACE promotes LGBT mental health with support groups, coun-seling for individuals and families, youth work, training and research. www.pacehealth.org.uk Tel: 020 7700 1323

The Terrance Higgins Trust is a na-tional charity that fights HIV and promotes good sexual health. www.tht.org.uk Advice: 0808 802 1221

Worried? Anxious? Distressed? Childline (Under 18): 0800 11 11 Samaritans: 08457 90 90 90

Both call lines offer immediate, 24-hour, confidential support andimpartial listening from trained workers.

with Jay Stewart

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