Trans* Thriving: Mind, Body and Spirit
With increasing challenges to the rights and safety of trans* communities, fhe three-year, Trans* Thriving project comes at a critical time. The project is designed to create safe, inclusive spaces for trans* people, offering opportunities for fitness, social support, and personal growth in ways that foster belonging and well-being.
Trans* Thriving has been generously supported by a £267,520 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.
*Transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming
Trans* Health and Wellbeing
The project aims to enable local trans* people to feel equipped and supported to take action to improve their health and wellbeing, fitness, social connection and belonging. This encompasses everything from support with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. The priority for the Trans* Thriving project is to be trans* led and as such events and groups will be directed by and through a coordinated listening campaign.
Project Aims and Timeline
Project Aim
The overall aim for the project is to create opportunities for the trans* community to thrive – in mind, body, and spirit. By ‘trans*’ we think expansively about all trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming. Our starting point is our understanding that many trans* people experience barriers to accessing safe and appropriate services that can help them stay fit, active, and healthy. Over three years, this project will work with the trans* community in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland to harness their strengths and passions, and create new opportunities for them to connect with each other and, through that, overcome the negative consequences of potential social isolation.
Year 1
- Listening to the experiences, needs, and desires of local trans* people in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland through dedicated listening events and 1-2-1’s.
- Sustained outreach and network building across existing trans* community organisations across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, as well as wider LGBTQ+ organisations involving large numbers of trans* people.
- Recruit and train a dedicated group of volunteers.
- Conduct 15 listening events across the City of Leicester and the main towns in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, to identify the key types of social support and fitness/activity groups desired by the trans* community.
- Conduct two taster events based on feedback from the above listening events and community engagement.
Year 2 and 3
- Initiate five new trans-led social/support groups to support and sustain trans* thriving across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.
- Conduct four more taster events, connecting the community with supportive and inclusive fitness and wellbeing services locally.
- In addition to monitoring participation in the project and the impact it makes, we will publish short working papers to highlight learnings and best practice from the project for LGBTQ+ charities and mainstream services that aspire to be more inclusive and affirming for trans* people.
