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The SAEFTY Story
SAEFTY Ottawa was founded in the fall of 2017 by a group of trans and gender diverse youth in Ottawa, many of whom are still SAEFTY facilitators today. We were frustrated by the lack of spaces available to us that were organized and facilitated by other trans and gender diverse people - rather than cis adults. We also wanted a space where we could meet and connect with older trans youth and adults and where younger trans kids could find each other and meet older youth and adults who they could relate to.
We knew that other trans youth in Ottawa were feeling frustrated by the same things - many of us just wanted a place to connect, hang out, and make friends, so that’s exactly what we decided to create.
With the advice and support of trans adults and experienced community organizers, and generous donations from our communities, we invited our friends to join us and began hosting drop in events in parks and community centres.
We are entirely run by and for trans and gender diverse youth, and funded entirely by donations. This means that the only people we are accountable to is you - our community. Our most important goal at SAEFTY is to meet the needs of our communities, and we are always looking to find out more about how we can support trans and gender diverse children, youth and families in Ottawa.
Who are we?
SAEFTY Ottawa (Support And Education For Trans Youth Ottawa) is an independent organization and advocacy collective created and run by and for trans and gender diverse youth. We aim to bridge the gap between trans and gender diverse people of all ages, by creating a safer space to connect. Before the pandemic, we hosted drop-in events twice monthly that were open to trans people of all ages, as well as their families. During the pandemic, we shifted towards online events, as well as working on advocacy in the form of workshops, and providing financial support to the community through the MeFund and other grants. We aim to provide positive and relatable role models to trans kids and youth.
Our Guidelines
Our group is open to trans kids, youth and adults of all ages and their families. Some events may specify that they are also open to a broader audience of cis allies, friends or community members. We respect everyone's names, pronouns and identities and believe that each and every young person is the expert on their own body, life, and experiences. SAEFTY is not open to cisgender service providers or researchers/interviewers. We reserve the right to turn away anyone who does not follow our values or guidelines. If you are unsure if our space is for you, or have concerns about anything that has occurred at one of our events, please contact us.
Mission
SAEFTY Ottawa fosters spaces for trans and gender diverse children, youth, and adults, along with their families to connect with each other through youth-centred events outside of mainstream health and social services in the Ottawa region. We aim to amplify the voices of trans and gender diverse youth through community-based research, education, and outreach to advocate for healthcare, schools, and social services that are reflective of our community's needs.
Vision
SAEFTY Ottawa envisions trans and gender diverse youth as leaders in sustainable community organizing and advocacy. We strive for trans and gender diverse children and youth to have autonomy over their bodies, lives and identities, and to be supported by peer and inter-generational connections. We are inspired by spaces where children and youth are empowered to be unapologetically themselves.
Values
We aim to create safer spaces for all trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse children, youth and families at our events and in healthcare, schools and social services. We pride ourselves on being run entirely by and for our community and moving away from the medical model that trans youth are often faced with. We believe that trans youth should have access to environments where they are not under the scrutiny of medical or social service professionals and support the autonomy of trans kids and youth to make decisions about their own bodies and lives.
SAEFTY’s Advocacy Team
As we got the youth group started, we began hearing stories from participants about negative experiences they were having accessing transition related healthcare. From there, we decided to do a survey to learn more about trans youth and their experiences at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) gender clinic. We created a large report summarizing these experiences and realized that we wanted to continue forward with this work. So we created a second branch of SAEFTY focused solely on advocacy work. We decided to keep this branch of SAEFTY somewhat separate from running our typical events because we believe that trans youth should have a space to connect with others without feeling pressured to take on advocacy projects or to do additional work.
The SAEFTY Advocacy Team participates in events across the country. We have presented at numerous conferences and given workshops to a number of organizations. We continue to work with CHEO and other service providers, to amplify the voices of trans and gender diverse youth and families to improve the state of trans healthcare in Ottawa.
Past Conferences
Members of SAEFTY have presented our work at a variety of conferences and events across Canada, including:
Stop Assessing Us for Kyle’s Place and Speqtrum 2020 in Hamilton, Ontario
Euphoria! Challenging the Narrative on Trans and Non-Binary Bodies for University of Ottawa Pride Week 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Transition in the OCDSB at the Rainbow Youth Forum (Ottawa Carleton District School Board) 2018 and 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Gender Identity and Health Care at Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee Sexual Education Summit (OYEC) 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Research Ethics in Marginalized Communities Guest Lecture co-facilitated with Hannah McGechie for Introduction to Research Methods for Social Workers at Carleton University 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Stop Assessing Us Guest Lecture for Social Justice in Action at Carleton University 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Stop Assessing Us Guest Lecture for Child and Youth Studies at Carleton University 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario
Stop Assessing Us: The Future of Transition-Related Youth Healthcare at Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health Conference (CPATH) 2019 in Montreal, Quebec
The Gender Affirming Care Model in Depth: What Affirming Care Really Looks Like, co-faciltated with Diane Ehrensaft at Restoring the Circle: Trans Youth Inclusion in Healthcare Schools and Social Services, A trans-youth led event in partnership with international leaders (Ryerson University) 2019 in Toronto, Ontario.
“Supporting Engagement Between Transgender/Gender Non-conforming Youth and a Hospital-based Pediatric Gender Clinic cofacilitated with Rika Moorhouse at Embracing the Disruptive Edge of Healthcare (Canadian Bioethics Society) 2019 in Banff, Alberta
Trans Affirming Care from the Perspective of Youth at Transgender Health and Wellness Conference (Kitchener-Waterloo Health Initiative, University of Waterloo, WIlfred Laurier University) 2018 in Waterloo, Ontario