Community Organizer-In-Residence
Applications are currently closed.
About the Community Organizer-In-Residence
The QTRL Community Organizer-In- Residence is designed for individuals who have demonstrated leadership in community-serving and non-profit organizations and have experience with grassroots organizing and practice. The program will provide 1-2 year-long residencies to community leaders and activists working on social and political problems affecting LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC lives and communities. The residents will work on a project of their choice that addresses social inequality in LGBTQ2S+ QTBIPOC communities. Successful applicants will also actively participate in a variety of events, such as presentations, class visits, workshops, panels, and meetings at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. While we understand that many who participate in community building projects are also employed by academic institutions, priority will be given to applicants who do not have full-time academic positions in the global north.
Goals of the Community Organizer-In- Residence
- Provide activists and community leaders the opportunity to sustain their work and help strengthen the infrastructure of social transformation by providing leaders/activists with the time and space to improve the lives of people in their/our communities.
- Support the development of grassroots organizing
- Encourage mutual learning between activists, students, and scholars to create new models of public scholarship and engagement.
2025-26
Monica Forrester (she/they) is a 2Spirit Trans Women of color, activist, community leader, sex worker, and parent. For 27 years she has been working in community services to bring awareness to the lives of racialized and marginalized Trans and 2Spirit folks that may be sex workers, under housed, unemployed, use substances, and are experiencing systemic and societal violence. She works on creating inclusive spaces for Trans/2Spirit people in places of community and employment. Her work is grounded in the belief that supervising and leading outreach teams through a harm reduction approach has better outcomes for community members that may be engaging in sex work, using substances and/or are under housed. Her current goal is to create opportunities for Trans/2Spirit people to use their life experiences and training in harm reduction to create employment opportunities to transition individuals into the workforce. Creating pathways to employment allows Trans/2Spirit people with no work experience or education to build skills to work in community services to support others in the community that may share the same life experiences. As part of the residency, Forrester will create training modules that support marginalized and racialized trans people through harm reduction and peer outreach employment methods and approaches as they apply to work.
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Previous Community Organizers-in-Residence
2024-25:
2023-24:
2022-23:
Alphonso King Jr. (AKA Jade Elektra or DJ Relentless)
2021-22: