The T9 NSK project for transgender people was launched in January 2015. However, special events held by the Transgenders.Novosibirsk project on trans* topics (watching films, psychological counseling and social support, informational seminars on gender identity, etc) have been conducted within the scope of the PULSAR-Novosibirsk LGBT project since 2009.
The situation in Russian society, such as the “gay propaganda” law, provokes a high level of transphobia, as well as the insular nature of the transgender community and lack of support for its members. The long-term goal is to create a network of transgender activist groups in different regions of Russia.
Mission: Increasing the level of acceptance of transgender people in society; consolidation and
empowerment of the transgender community in Siberia and in Russia.
Vision: A strong, friendly and open transgender community with active civic engagement and mutual aid
in a friendly world without discrimination.
Strategic goals for 2018–2021:
- Increasing visibility of transgender people in society; advocation work that includes increasing the number of friendly specialists.
- Education, experience exchange, and support of trangender and LGBT initiatives both in Russia and abroad.
- Incentivizing creation of activist groups in Siberia and the Far East.
- Increasing the potential and stability of the organization: involving new activists, enhancing professional competence of activists, developing new projects and programs.
- Reducing internalized stigma among the trans* community.
Directions of our work:
- Advocacy work (promotion of the rights of trans* people at different levels).
- Supporting the trans* community (psychological assistance and support groups).
- Expanding the potential of the trans* movement (events and advice on trans* activism, writing brochures, development of peer-to-peer services, etc.).
- Services and activities on health care for trans* people (health-preserving technologies, coordination services and HIV prevention).
The project’s working group currently consists of 9 people.
All the decisions we make in the meetings of our working group. The working group includes:
- 3 qualified psychologists;
- 3 professional trainers;
- 7 transgender activists working on peer-to-peer principles;
- 2 activists experienced in social non-profit project work.
We make our major decisions at full meetings of the working group. Meetings are held once per month. We value transparency to all participants, so at every meeting of the T9 NSK project we discuss our latest news and decisions made.
One of our values is the horizontal principle of leadership: the head of the project only acts as the coordinator, and decisions are made jointly.
Any project member can join the working group on the condition that they share the values and objectives of the project.
A few of our achievements:
- We have created a brochure for transgender people titled T*voya zhizn (Your Life) together with the LAVERNA project, Omsk.
- We have created a database of friendly medical specialists for transgender people and are gathering information on trans* friendly and unfriendly doctors.
- We have hosted two training seminars for psychologists out of 10 regions of Russia and Kazakhstan on the subject of gender identity.
- We have held over 30 meetings of support groups, over 50 psychological counseling sessions, and over 20 peer-to-peer consultations.
- We took an active part in the Monitoring of discrimination against transgender people in connection with the inconsistency of documents (together with the Transgender People Legal Aid Project, St. Petersburg);
- Conducted the first interregional School of Equal Consultants in the country;
- Created and published an online cyber security brochure (for trans * people, for trans * activists and for everyone);
- We have held a Marathon for the media and continue to cooperate with journalists;
- Conducted a large-scale training course on Integrated security
- We continue to provide consultations on Integrated security;
- Conducted an information campaign “I’m near” about loved ones (sisters and brothers) of LGBT + people;
- Issued booklets “How to communicate with transgender people” and “How to communicate with cisgender people”;
- And a booklet for medical professionals “Striving to help a transgender person”.
Services for transgender people provided by the T9 NSK project:
- free psychological consulting (remote and face-to-face);social support (we help people in difficult situations: job search, outing problems, etc.)
- support group (each 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month);
- peer-to-peer consulting;
- coordination service (forwarding clients to appropriate specialists);
- support groups for parents of LGBT people(each 2d and 4th Suturday of every month)
- peer-to-peer consultation;