Trans-Inclusive Chicago!
Our Trans-Inclusive Chicago! Campaign contains five primary grassroots initiatives: the Pilot Trans-Inclusive Andersonville! Campaign, Trans Art Is, #HireTransNOW, Get Trained, and Get Feedback.
All initiatives are supported, led, and challenged by a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to ensure Trans-Inclusive Chicago is a campaign made for and by Trans community members it is intended to celebrate and support.
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Read our Trans-Inclusive Chicago! Campaign Overview.
Pilot Trans-Inclusive Andersonville! Campaign
Trans-Inclusive Chicago! began in the summer of 2018 with our pilot initiative: Trans-Inclusive Andersonville!. Trans-Inclusive Andersonville! strives to mutually benefit Trans community members, Andersonville businesses, and the wider Andersonville community by facilitating Andersonville’s ongoing evolution as an LGBTQ-inclusive destination for Chicagoans and beyond.
True to Chicago Therapy Collective’s mission to center and serve the Trans community directly while empowering others to do the same, Trans-Inclusive Andersonville! started with the opening of Trans Art Is at the Andersonville Galleria. Meanwhile, Chicago Therapy Collective has been empowering local businesses to become stronger and more skilled allies through the provision of direct trainings to local businesses and by serving as a founding member of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce’s Business Task Force.
Trans Art Is
Running from August 2018 through March 2019, the first season of Trans Art Is has aimed to create an explicitly Trans/Gender Non-Conforming-centered space in Andersonville, provide employment and economic opportunities for Trans/GNC folks and artists in particular, and serve as a Trans/GNC visibility and community education initiative for neighbors and businesses. To date, we have showcased and sponsored over 50 local Trans/GNC artists and engaged over 500 Trans community members and allies in our Trans Art Is initiative. Experience it yourself at our March 31st Trans Day of Visibility Celebration, or by visiting our current exhibit, Trans Art Is: Love & Liberation at the Andersonville Galleria.
#HireTransNOW
Secure employment is a vital part of all of our health and wellbeing. CTC’s #HireTransNOW initiative works to increase employment of trans individuals and communities by reducing the stigma of hiring transgender people, facilitating the readiness and inclusivity of local business, and by directly linking businesses and organizations to prospective job candidates when they have an opening. Learn more about our #HireTransNOW initiative by emailing our Core Organizer, Alexis Martinez at [email protected].
Get Trained
Many businesses and organizations hesitate to hire Trans people out of fear of not knowing how to support that employee or how to address issues that may arise over the course of a Trans individual’s employment. Additionally, many don’t even know the ways in which their goods, services, or physical spaces exclude or negatively impact Trans individuals. Our Get Trained initiative provides highly individualized training to support businesses and organizations interested in hiring Trans folks. Email our Get Trained team at [email protected] to schedule a free 30 minute consultation on how our Get Trained education, training, and consultation services can enhance your business or organization’s experience for Trans employees, customers, clients, and patients.
Get Feedback
The goal of our Get Feedback initiative is to inspire and ensure accountability for businesses and organizations striving to be stronger allies for Trans individuals. Our survey also enables a broad representation of Trans folks’ experiences, perspectives, and priorities have a voice in Trans-Inclusive Chicago!. We built our Get Feedback as an accessible way to learn about Trans folks’ experiences as customers, clients, patients and employees and to give Trans folks’ the opportunity to express their experiences, inform campaign priorities, and connect our advocates with organizations that might need more support in their Trans-inclusivity efforts.
Iggy V Ladden