PATHS Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan

1. PATHSProvincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan Gender, Sexual Orientation and Shelter Services 2012 Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact

2. Research question How do we best provide service to transgender and transsexual people?

3. Methodology • researched the existing understanding and frameworks of sexual and gender identities, • reviewed literature on best practices in terms of sheltering transgender and transsexual individuals • identified the specific circumstances of abuse that transgender and transsexual people endure • surveyed our member agencies and members of our national network to determine existing responses • reviewed the legal precedents and requirements for service • identified community supports and services outside of the sheltering system.

4. Brief overview • 13 shelters providing service to a population of one million people • Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses is our national organization • began in the mid-1970s starting with a few small safe places in apartments run by volunteers • now 600 government-funded, professionally staffed shelters across the country

5. Shelter standards “Shelters will have the discretion to deny admission to individuals who are not anatomically female or who have not completed a male to female transgendering process. Staff will take every measure possible to find appropriate alternate accommodation for those denied admission for reasons of gender. Staff are directed to Appendix B, Gender, Sexual Orientation and Shelter Services, for direction in providing assistance to transgender and transsexual individuals.”

6. Role of Shelters in Education • leaders in educating the public about violence against women • inequality between women and men is the root cause of domestic violence • women were experiencing violence because they were women and that men were by and large the perpetrators

7. Re-examining the traditional framework • Delusions of Genderby Dr. CordeliaFine, 2010 calls into question the biological imperative of gender specific female and male behaviour. • Origins of Violence/Strategies for Change – advocating for inclusion of psychological and philosophical factors in understanding violence more generally

8. Challenges and solutions • Shelter residents have all been victimized by men and live with the resulting trauma. • The new complexity of gender identity is not familiar to the women we serve so that they are responding based on their own current assumptions and understandings. • The policy that we currently have in our standards may in reality be the best alternative at this point. • Construct shelters which allows for more privacy for individuals and families as opposed to the traditional communal living which is typical of shelters.