Happy Pride, everyone!
First of all, we have a big thank you and announcement. Here is a special note from our current administrator, Eve:
We would like to announce to the community at large that Sammy, our Co-admin and Co-Manager has left TAC to work on other projects and continue their journey through life.
Sammy has been with us at TAC since the beginning, and has been the backbone of the finances until quite recently, being the sole person involved in our reports and budgets for a long time until we needed to shore up TAC for the future, making sure that we had a solid foundation.
Last year when TAC nearly came to an end because we didn’t have the capacity and the people, it was Sammy that worked very hard to keep us going. Working alongside them for those months we built TAC a sure way of moving forwards without fear of one person leaving the organisation and for it not being able to function.
Putting in policies and working on an onboarding plan, making sure to keep us going and to be there as a pillar to us all. I have had the great honour of doing this work alongside them now for some time, at all the different points in TAC’s life span, from different changes that have made the organisation to what we are today but also the fact that they can feel safe in the fact of leaving and the walls won’t come tumbling down in their absence.
Sammy and I worked hard on some of the surgery packs together, arranging them and sending them out to people in the community, and in all honesty I never thought about how important they were to people, until a short while ago I met one of those people out of chance.
Them telling me how important that pack was, and how much it helped them at a time when things were so hard made me think back to those days, where Sammy and I would be looking for all these things and trying to get it all to the people in time. It made me think that sometimes it’s so amazing the effect you have in people’s lives that you may never meet.
Well, I would like you all to thank Sammy in any way you can, be it a thought, a piece of art, or an act of kindness to a stranger in your community, as to you it could be a simple act but to them it could change their day.
Sammy has and I believe does hold TAC very dearly to their heart, and we at TAC do as well and always will do, a place will always be saved for Sammy here at TAC in whichever form that takes.
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Our team echo Eve’s sentiments and already miss Sammy so much. We’re so excited to see what they do next (after getting some much deserved rest), and we strive to make them and the other TAC founders proud with where TAC goes from here.
And now for our regularly scheduled programme:
Here’s what we were up to in May:
We received £2,348.22 in donations from 111 contributors and we spent £2,746.91. We have £12,275.18 left in our main pot, £550 left of our Consortium Devolved Nations Fund Grant, and £2,000 in our Fund For Wales Grant.
For those interested, we also published our monthly finance rundown for April which you can find here: https://x.com/transaidcymru/status/1921837906269786217
We had a great time at Chapter with you all at the ‘Sing to Stay Alive’ workshop hosted by Jenny Moore on the 7th! We’re thankful to be able to participate in so many cool events like this one!
We had amazing turnouts for our Swim and Gym events in May. Thank you so much to everyone who joined us on the 9th and 23rd! We hope to see you at our next one on the 27th! As a reminder, swimmers are welcome to swim without a swim top. We also have access to a full gym! As always, many thanks to Not a Phase for collaborating with us on these events.
As we prepared for Sammy’s departure, we sent out a call for volunteers. Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest so far! As we work on onboarding, we’re excited to see how much more we can do as a team! If you are interested in joining the team as a co-admin, check out the information here: https://transaid.cymru/co-administrator-and-manager-vacancy/
We were glad to see @PrideCymru drop Barclays due to their transphobia, although their complicity with the genocide in Palestine and climate crisis should have caused this drop far sooner. We created an open letter to Pride Cymru which you can see here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11P-MsJV2bmNHvrFQl_0eA_bzO5JdVlKPdMssDPE44NM/edit?tab=t.0. If you are interested in signing as an individual or on behalf of an organisation, you can do so here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEtQDiD967BsMaBkja3k_8-OUDc3ZgsU9e17t-ptJJ2aAVyQ/viewform?usp=sharing
We were glad to see them drop political parties later, as well. You can catch more context around our response here: https://x.com/transaidcymru/status/1926330692654272712
On the 17th, we had an absolutely lovely time at Swansea Pride! A few of our volunteers attended with lots of goodies to give away – thank you to everyone who stopped by! Please don’t be afraid to come say hi if you see us at other Pride events. You can catch us at the Big Queer Picnic on the 21st; Abergavenny Pride on the 28th; and Chepstow Pride on the 29th!
Here’s a reminder of some recurring resources:
We run our grants on a bimonthly basis. Trans, intersex, and nonbinary people in Wales are able to apply for up to £60 per month. You can find out more here: https://transaid.cymru/how-to-apply-for-grants/ We are hoping to re-open our emergency grants very soon.
We run a meal share scheme! If you are in need of meals, you can find out more and apply for it here: https://transaid.cymru/our-projects/#mealsharescheme If you have some extra time and can help deliver meals or help with the administrative side, please DM us on our socials or email [email protected] to get involved.
For those of you interested in research, we have an opportunity to share:
Here’s some context from the researchers:
The purpose of this research is to explore the relations between eating disorders, neurodivergence, and gender diversity. We are also interested in understanding diverse lived experiences of eating disorders and how these are related to gender identity and neurodivergence. This online survey forms part of a larger programme of research funded by Health and Care Research Wales that aims to improve awareness, understanding, and support for gender diverse and neurodivergent adults with eating disorders.
This research is important because both neurodivergent and gender diverse people are more likely to develop eating disorders compared to neurotypical cisgender individuals. Eating disorders may present differently in neurodivergent and gender diverse people compared to neurotypical cisgender people, which may impact on their experiences of accessing effective support promptly. By raising awareness and understanding of these diverse lived experiences, we aim to improve the recognition of eating disorders and support the development of effective support that is able to meet the unique needs of these groups.
We are aware that our research addresses sensitive topics and have taken steps to minimise the risk of causing distress. Our research team have lived experiences of eating disorders, gender diversity, and/or neurodivergence. We have also consulted with an advisory group of community members with lived experience and professionals in relevant fields, including Beat. This project has undergone review, and has received approval from, the Cardiff University Research Ethics Board (EC.24.11.12.7066A).
Those interested can find out more here: https://cardiffunipsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1SuFhbh0lxu2ZaC
That’s all for this month. See you soon!
In solidarity,
Your TAC Team