In 2018, Salal opened Canada’s first sexual assault support services specifically for trans people. Since then, we’ve offered victims services and counselling that are developed in consultation with queer and trans community, as well as increasing trans peoples’ access to all of our services.
We have learned a lot from queer trans survivors, and found that services designed for cis-gender heterosexual women are not always right for trans and gender diverse people. We wanted to share our learning with our sector, which is why we’re working now on our Meaningful Inclusion Project. During this five-year project, we will be working with trans survivors, partner organizations, and queer and trans community to develop promising practices blueprints for the anti-violence sector. This will stand as a substantial resource for anti-oppressive intersectional feminist organizations wanting to increase access for queer and trans survivors, or to implement trans-specific services like ours.
If your organization is looking for support, try our workshops page or check out our inclusion resources.
Salal offers sexual assault services for the trans community, that were developed in consultation with the queer and trans community. They’re open to all self-identified trans, Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender diverse survivors. View the complete list of support services to learn more about our approach with supporting the trans community.
Salal’s Meaningful Inclusion Community Consultation Project is seeking feedback from 2SLGBTQ+ survivors who have accessed, or hope to access, our Meaningful Inclusion (MI) Counselling. Our goal is to improve our MI Counselling Services for future clients by consulting community. If you are interested in participating in an interview, please fill out this form with your contact information. A member of the team will be in touch to schedule a virtual interview.
Participants will receive an honorarium for their time.
Recognition is a publication produced by Salal which brings together art, poetry, and writing from trans and queer survivors. Recognition was created in the understanding that, because of stigma and pathologization of queer people, it is especially hard to talk about sexual violence in our communities. We needed a space for queer people to talk to other queer people about how our experiences have been different than what usually gets talked about, and to imagine a path to healing that centres queer and trans survivors.
You can purchase past editions of Recognition on our Etsy shop or view our third issue online here.
Want to be in the next Recognition? Our Call for Submissions goes up in March, so keep your eye on our social media!
Is your organization looking to become more trans inclusive? Salal can help!
As part of our Meaningful Inclusion Project, we are supporting organizations in our sector to become more trans inclusive. In return, we are asking for participation in creating our promising practices blueprint by telling us more about what inclusion has looked like for you, what trans survivors you serve are saying, and what support would be most helpful for you.
Our support to organizations often looks like offering workshops on supporting survivors to staff teams, as well as workshops on change management and inclusive practices for your leadership or board.
For program staff, we look at the specifics of sexualized violence against trans people, as well as recognizing and intervening in transmisogyny and transphobia in your programs. For leadership, we look at the context of transmisogyny in the feminist sector, inclusive policy and practice, and how to shift our anti-violence lens to support trans and gender diverse survivors.
