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A Little History On Victoria Day 1996, a man violently targeted the TS/TG sex worker area of Toronto. In his wake he murdered a transsexual woman, a transgender person, and a non-trans woman in his efforts to rid this city of what he called "degenerate scum". While this kind of violence was not new to the TS/TG sex workers in Toronto, it was a wake-up call to service providers that had been denying this community access for far too long. It was a reminder that their efforts to reach these women by denouncing the sex-trade was a big part of the problem, and indeed, added to the anti-prostitute sentiments that fed the kind of hatred exhibited on that day. In March 1998, The 519 Church Street Community Centre founded the Meal Trans Programme. Initially a weekly drop-in for lower income and street active TS/TG people, this program was like nothing Toronto had ever seen. For the first time there was a community based programme that was directed by and for transsexuals and transgender people. The programme was managed and directed by the very community of TS/TG sex workers that had wanted this kind of service. Its' success was certain. With a TS/TG community based effort now acting within the social service sector, staff with the Meal Trans Programme were able to advocate for the many pressing needs brought forward by its' participants. The most urgent were: HIV/AIDS, violence against sex workers, substance use, and homelessness. With the programme being limited in the scope it could provide, the then co-ordinator began the exhausting effort of developing resources for the participants based on the urgent needs they faced. A TS/TG sex worker outreach program was created. An HIV/AIDS information and promotional campaign was developed. Partnerships were made with harm reduction services across the city. However, with the exception of a few women's hostels, the biggest task at hand was trying to enter the city's hostel service system and create a non-volatile and accessible space for trans people who could not access men's or women's emergency housing. With these new partnerships in place, the staff of the Meal Trans Programme were now being approached by members of the trans community as well as service providers in the hostel system, to respond to the steady stream of incidents occurring. After consultation with community partners and consideration of the feasibility of a stand-alone trans hostel, The 519 applied for, and was granted, SCPI funding for a two year project that was called "Making Hostel Services Accessible to Trans People". The SCPI funded initiative saw the Meal Trans Programme recruit a team of TS/TG women and men from diverse backgrounds to train together and develop a workshop specific to frontline hostel workers with the aim of assisting staff in better understanding the unique challenges posed by working with, and housing, TS/TG people. The workshop covered a range of topics such as: definitions of common terms, youth issues, sex worker issues, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, self-harm, and self-esteem, but was also designed to be very interactive, giving staff the opportunity to ask questions and learn the information most relevant to them. The project was a success and saw the accessibility of Toronto's hostels almost quadruple for TS/TG women over the winter of 2001/2002. The project also saw members of the trans community gaining the valuable skills and experience needed to continue on in community based initiatives. And so, with new community partnerships blossoming, The 519 was dedicated to making sure their new partners had the support of the Meal Trans Programme and set out to take the SCPI project one step further. Shortly after the completion of the "Making Hostel Services Accessible to Trans People" project, the SCPI funded "Trans Community Shelter Access Project" began developing and offering workshops for the residents of hostels; staff workshops specific to trans sex worker issues; and workshops specific to trans youth issues, all in addition to the basic hostel staff workshop initially offered. With these workshops, in combination with the policy development services it provides, the Trans Community Shelter Access Project has been responsible for the growing accessibility for TS/TG people in Toronto's hostels. This work is far from finished, in fact it has just begun, but The 519 Meal Trans Programme together with the help of SCPI funding and our valuable community partners, has laid the foundation for hostels to begin to extend vital services to one of Toronto's more marginalized communities.
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