Thread by @transaidcymru

A STATEMENT FROM TRANS AID CYMRU
View here: docs.google.com/.../1SKRhYGRIw…
Plain text version in thread below.

Folks, we owe you an apology. For a long time now, we’ve been doing too much. We’re all stressed and burnt out, and that’s not sustainable. We also recognise that we’ve
been over-reaching and attempting to do things we aren’t ready for.

As some of you may know, we were preparing to apply for CIO status and become an official organisation. We no longer feel this is the right decision for us. Maybe one day that will be the right move for TAC as an organisation, but right now, we don’t have the skills, time, or

energy for that.

While we are remaining an informal, unregistered organisation for the time being, we do still feel it’s important to have policies in place to ensure appropriate behaviour that safeguards both volunteers and service users. We’re working on these at the moment.

Our decision not to register at this time means that many grants will be unavailable to us and the big plans and dreams we had for TAC will be put on hold. So where is the money to fund our services going to come from? From where it’s always come from - this community.

We want to refocus our efforts on the mutual part of mutual aid. We believe we can help each other and we believe in the core values of mutual aid: We give what we can. We receive what we need.

So from now on we are going to focus our efforts on enabling inter-community and intra-community support, rather than trying to do so much ourselves as volunteers. To that end, we have set up a public Facebook page as well as the private Facebook group,

and we want to encourage TIN folks in Wales to be vocal about what their needs are and what they have to offer.

We will be scaling back some of our services, such as the long-term support work that some volunteers have been doing. If you are in need of any assistance or experiencing any kind of crisis, please reach out to us.

Scaling back our services does not mean we will leave anyone hanging.

If you come to us because you’re experiencing a crisis or need help with something, we will either connect you with one of our existing projects, ask people in the community if they have the skills/time/resources to help you, or help to connect you with

the services or organisations that are most appropriate and helpful for you.

Establishing professional boundaries is one thing we know we need to work on. So far we’ve been operating on a very informal basis and have been using our personal social media accounts to talk to other volunteers and service users.

But this has meant that volunteers are never off-work.

To help us separate TAC and our personal lives, we would ask that from now on, wherever it’s possible, you communicate with Trans Aid Cymru representatives and volunteers through the following methods if you are looking to speak to them as a member of Trans Aid Cymru:

-Twitter - twitter.com/transaidcymru
-Instagram - instagram.com/transaidcymru/
-Private Facebook group - facebook.com/groups/1132311…
-Public Facebook page - facebook.com/transaidcymru
-Email: [e-mail]
-Established groups for specific projects - get in touch for details

To help us establish some professional boundaries and make our work as an organisation more sustainable, we are going to be structured in a new way:

Trans Aid Cymru will have coordinators for each project we’re running, ideally at least 2, as well as admin and social media volunteers. These project or group coordinators will meet with admin volunteers for regular meetings to discuss each project’s needs.

Trans Aid Cymru will also be sending out monthly newsletter emails to update everyone who wishes to know about what’s been happening.
The projects and groups that are currently running or will be launched soon are:

-Workshop Series - funded by Comic Relief’s LGBTQ COVID-19 Recovery Fund, in partnership with METRO Charity and Umbrella Cymru, we are running workshops for the TIN community from now until July which will come with permanent training modules for trans people on our website.

If you’d like to learn more, click here - eventbrite.co.uk/o/transaidcymr…

-Mental health support - we have two wonderful trans mental health support workers who are experienced working with LGBTQ+ orgs. Because they are volunteering their time for free for our service users, we have removed the ‘Sponsor A Counseling Session’ tier on our Open Collective

We are currently working on setting up the new mental health support system, and we will announce our plans once they’re ready!

-General Assistance Grants - on the 1st of every month, we redistribute funds of up to £25 each to Wales-based TIN people.
-Emergency Funds Grants - we have a pot of money kept aside for emergencies that service users may experience. More info here - transaid.cymru/?page_id=460

-Fundraiser Grants - we will donate £10 to TIN people’s fundraisers, randomly selected from a list, and highlight them on a page, once a month (subject to available funds). If you’d like your fundraiser to be added to our list, email [e-mail] with a link!

-Trans-friendly GP map - an interactive map of trans-friendly GPs that you can contribute to if you have any experiences with particular surgeries. If you’d like to learn more, click here - google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit...

-Mutual Gardening Project - a way for folks to share tools, tips and produce from their gardens with one another. Stay tuned for news!
-Food Share Project - a scheme that provides food and meals for TIN people in Wales who want or need them for any reason. Stay tuned for news!

As always, if you are a trans, intersex or nonbinary person in Wales, please don’t hesitate to reach out, whatever your needs are!

The TIN Wardrobe is an online catalogue of clothing, free to order for trans, intersex and nonbinary people across Wales. It has recently become a separate organisation, independent from TAC, so that it can grow in a way that we are not ready to facilitate yet.

The Wardrobe and the volunteer who runs it have the full support of TAC and we’re excited to see how the organisation will grow!

You can now find information about The TIN Wardrobe on Facebook (facebook.com/groups/1348791…) or @TINWardrobe on Instagram (instagram.com/tin_wardrobe/), and the Wardrobe has its own OpenCollective now set up which you can donate to here! opencollective.com/the-tin-wardro…

We’ve been absolutely blown away by the support and trust we’ve had from trans, intersex and nonbinary people and our allies so far, and we hope you will continue to follow and support us as we re-evaluate ourselves as a collective.

Love from all the team,
Trans Aid Cymru

The link at the top didn't work, let's try this again: docs.google.com/document/d/1SK…

And here's the GP map link! google.com/maps/d/u/0/edi…