Trans Vitality is ACON’s resilience-building program for all trans and gender diverse adults in NSW. Trans Vitality focuses on trans people supporting trans people, and centres self-determination, autonomy and agency, while uplifting trans voices.
This Resilience Toolkit is one part of Trans Vitality, and it includes information, activities and resources to help build resilience, community connection, an understanding of our history, and a powerful imagining of our futures. Trans Vitality also includes some peer workshops and online community training, an eLearning for mental health and crisis services, this Toolkit and a full evaluation, gratefully funded by NSW Health.
While we know that trans liberation depends on the structural reforms needed to enable trans people to live free and equal in every community we are part of, the path to trans liberation also needs strong, connected and resilient trans people.
So with that in mind, please explore each section of this Toolkit. You can embark on the activities on your own, with a trusted friend, your counsellor or with a group of mates. If you’re not sure where to begin, visit our Getting Started page to find where is right for you.
Welcome to Trans Vitality, we made it just for you.
Trans describes people whose gender differs from what was presumed for them at birth (sometimes referred to as “assigned at birth”), including trans women, trans men and non-binary people.
Trans Vitality has been made possible with the support of the NSW Ministry of Health’s Suicide Prevention team, our trans advisory group and yarning circle, co-design and clinical consultation groups, the many wonderful people throughout ACON and the wider LGBTQ+ community in NSW.
This Toolkit features illustrations by the wonderful Will Thompson and Briar Rolfe.
In this section we will explore trans history and legacies across continents and time, as well as exploring our own achievements, and thinking about how affirming our gender fits into looking after ourselves.
When we think about ourselves, we can sometimes feel isolated even if we know there is community all around us. By imagining ourselves as part of a forest, we know that even if we imagine ourselves as just a single tree, that it’s supported and sustained by so much more.
In this section we will be celebrating and mapping our communities and support networks, as well as exploring ways to communicate with and care for each other.
Thinking about how we grow means not only considering who we want to grow into and become, but nourishing us while we do.
Growing sometimes also means putting in place supports for ourselves, the way you might prop up a branch or prune back weeds growing in the same space. This section talks about some tools and activities for helping us to grow in the ways we want and need to, and thinking about our potential ways of being in the world.
We may not be able to change the seasons, but we have developed some tools to help us get prepared for things happening that are out of our control. This section of the toolkit explores keeping ourselves safe and sound, using energy during good periods to prepare for when times are tough, and imagining expansive trans futures.
We know that every community member may not be able to make it to a Trans Vitality workshop, where we gather trans folks to explore these concepts in more depth and do activities together.
That’s why we’ve developed the Little Book of Trans Joy. This interactive workbook offers a moment to create, dream and reconnect with the positive parts of being trans. It’s designed to be used solo, with friends, or in community, bringing the spirit of the workshops to wherever you are.
Click the book or the linked text to explore a free digital copy that you can print out.
There are currently no upcoming events & workshops. Check back later in the year for more! Or sign up to our newsletter to get alerted when events happen.
TRANS VITALITY SHORTS
After successful in-person Trans Vitality workshops, we created ‘Trans Vitality Shorts’. These are bite-sized versions of the in-person workshops covering the following topics;
You can check out the video explainers for each topic below.
