We Need Your Help
to ensure One TWU is #heretostay
Almost 10 years ago One TWU was started by
LGBTQIA2S+ students and alumni with a vision for a more unified and
more inclusive Trinity Western.
But almost 10 years later, we continue to face the same issues
we always have and more.
Despite our best efforts, ensuring LGBTQIA2S+ students and alumni have the
support they need is becoming increasingly difficult, especially as we face the most hostile President's Offices since our founding.
That’s where we need you.
We're Fundraising 100K
By 2024, our 10-year Anniversary, we are fundraising for:
5K for Communications
Currently, we are not permitted by the University administration to put up posters on campus that say something as simple as “we love you and we’re here
for you.”
However, we believe with the right digital marketing expertise and resources, we’ll be able to ensure every student knows we exist and are there for them regardless of our ability to put up posters.
5K for Events
This year our stories event had almost 400
registered attendees.
Unfortunately, this was the first year, despite 8 years previous, where we were not allowed to hold our event on campus.
We know, however, that bridging the divide and ending the culture war against LGBTQIA2S+ people starts with storytelling and realizing we're all human at the end of the day.
5K for Admin Costs
We can’t support students and alumni and we can’t run our events without certain administrative costs like bookkeeping, software, fees, and so on. This is just as core to our work as anything else.
20K for On-Campus Services
We know from hearing the uncountable stories of LGBTQIA2S+ students and alumni that they survived, and even thrived at times, during their time on-campus because they knew they weren’t alone and they weren’t the only person like them.
Our on campus services include:
Weekly confidential meetings for LGBTQIA2S+ students
For our students to hear from and support one another.
This can also include social gatherings like game nights and craft night—the building blocks to a strong community.
A Queer Faith Study
We piloted this last year and had a GREAT turn-out. LGBTQIA2S+ students are often objectified and villainized in more conservative teachings from the bible. Here, our community learns that EVERYONE is loved, and no one deserves to be left behind.
Advocacy Services
whether it’s an unsafe housing situation, anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bullying, or discriminatory practices anywhere on campus, our advocacy services are a key part to helping our students know they're seen and loved and setting the mark for how believe all members of the TWU community should treat each other.
60K for Staff
Including a Chaplain for LGBTQIA2S+ students
We believe reconciliation is possible and we believe it’s possible to ensure
our LGBTQIA2S+ students don’t just survive their time at TWU, but also thrive.
But in order to do that they need support from the peers and elders.
That’s where our chaplain comes in.
We hear from our LGBTQIA2S+ alumni that there time at TWU would’ve been
so different if One TWU existed when they were around.
We want someone who can be responsible for....
Supporting & Comforting
An LGBTQIA2S+ leader to support our One TWU student leaders.
Someone to have coffee with our students as frequently as once a week.
Someone to walk alongside our students as they reconcile their faith and sexuality or gender identity, so they know they’re
not alone.
Someone who our students can trust to ask questions (not everybody is ready to “come out,” but they still deserve support in the meantime.)
Advocating & Empowering
Someone to advocate for them, and
work with staff at the University who are trying to make things better.
It's already a huge burden to come out at a place like TWU, not to mention educating University staff on top of it. .
Mentoring & Building Trust
Someone to build bridges between
alumni and the university.
Someone to host out weekly confidential on-campus meetings.
.
Someone to connect them with mental health services specific for LGBTQIA2S+ people in the community,
Someone to walk alongside them as their relationships with their family and friends change.
Photos by tarynrosephotos.ca