What is GIANTS?
Gendered Intelligence's Activists Network of Trans Spokespersons (GIANTS) is a project open to trans, non-binary and gender diverse people over the age of 18 who are involved in activism to promote trans inclusion within their local communities. It’s a way for us to involve members of our communities in the work we do to improve the lives of trans and gender diverse people. We provide training and facilitation but GIANTS are self-organised. This means that all of GIANTS’ activities are community-led and you choose the issues that you work on.
Why are we doing this?
As a trans-led organisation, we’re passionate about ensuring our work meets the needs of our communities. During our ‘Thinking Big Together’ community consultation in the summer of 2019, we were tasked with providing more space and capacity for community-led activism. GIANTS is the first opportunity for trans people to become actively involved with this work.
What’s involved?
All GIANTS members undergo an initial induction training. This covers topics such as campaigning strategies and messaging techniques. This will give you the skills you’ll need to bring about change in your communities.
Following the induction, you’ll join the monthly GIANTS meetings. In these, you’ll identify key goals, monitor and evaluate the previous month’s activities and reflect on these as a group. This meeting will also provide you with the chance to seek peer support and practice community care.
The date and time of the monthly GIANTS meeting will rotate to ensure everyone can attend one meeting, once a quarter. These will be accessible digitally to ensure more people can get involved. Some meetings will be followed by a training/workshop slot to provide ongoing skills development.
What will GIANTS do?
There are two roles within GIANTS:
- Activists are the default role and anyone who is part of the Network will have the same training on campaigning skills and messaging. This means you’ll all be able to work together to promote trans inclusion in community spaces.
- Trans Spokespersons will be given additional media training and work closely with the Head of Public Engagement to work with the media and give interviews following a GI brief.
There will also be other opportunities that may present themselves around fundraising and community engagement work but these will be open to all.
What do we hope to achieve?
With the current backlash in the media and wider public life, it is necessary for us to promote trans inclusion more widely. At GI, we have the knowledge and resources to train trans people and we’re passionate about building trans people’s confidence and skills. We can show you how to advocate for inclusion within your communities and support you in doing this. We think this will be a powerful model and have a greater impact than anything we could achieve on our own. GIANTS will build stronger and empowered trans communities that can work with the wider GI team for trans liberation.