Rainbow Railroad of Toronto received $17,500 in grant awards from FOH last year, largely thanks to funds brought in through our inaugural STRUT event held last year, which raised nearly $45,000 through grassroots fundraising efforts and corporate partnerships.

Justin Taylor, Executive  Director at Rainbow Railroad was pleased to provide FOH with a status report on how those funds went to help LGBT individuals find a safe ­haven from state­-sponsored violence. Funds directly contributed to assisting four individuals at significant risk.

Travel support went out to a young gay Jamaican man who sustained severe stab wounds while defending a homeless LGBT+ youth against a violent attack. Rainbow Railroad assisted him to travel to a safer destination.

Rainbow Railroad stepped in to help a young lesbian Jamaican woman and her young son travel to safety after witnessing the murder of a suspected gay man in their neighbourhood. Following the murder, she was threatened from a local gang so her family asked her to leave their home out of concern that she would attract violence.

A young woman from Uganda experienced extreme violence, abduction, and “corrective therapy”, which included rape. Ostracized from her community just weeks before Rainbow Railroad could help her get to safety, she was abducted, drugged, and assaulted by religious extremists.  Rainbow Railroad relocated her to a safe haven in Western Europe and she is now in the process of claiming asylum.

These situations are real. They are often hard to digest and all too easy to overlook in countries like Canada. Even in Canada, we are not yet there, although the government recently tabled legislation to protect and enshrine the rights of transgendered individuals, which is a huge win. Still, the walk is not over for us and it has only begun in places like Jamaica and Uganda, among many other nations in the world.

FOH is committed to enabling the Canadian charities like Rainbow Railroad fulfill their purposes, which closely align with our own. Our vision is a world where LGBT+ asylum seekers, refugees, and newcomers live safely and are free to be themselves.

The Foundation of Hope is committed to transparency and accountability. We exist through volunteerism and fundraising, which is why STRUT is such a high-profile event that enables the work we do.

These are all tenets of our constitution, which is predicated on success. Rainbow Railroad has demonstrated this by sharing these stories so that we can in turn share them and remain transparent and accountable to our volunteers and funders. We are nothing without you.

So come out and STRUT with us on June 11th. Your support is what will sustain these gifts and effect real change. It’s that simple.

It has been almost three years since a small group of Vancouverites came together and put forth an application as community sponsors to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, now known as the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). Our group helped two gay Syrians living as refugees in Beirut make it to Canada, where they now reside as permanent residents.

This was neither an easy nor inexpensive process and it presented both challenges and opportunities that came as important lessons. The main lesson was learning that myriad organizations, many of which are registered as charities in Canada, already exist to provide unique support services to the LGBT+ refugee and newcomer community. These organizations are doing important work on the individual level, but they still require the financial means to do so.

It has now been more than a year and a half since the same group came together in August 2014 on different level to establish itself as RAINBOW FOUNDATION OF HOPE (Foundation of Hope or FOH). The foundation is a registered society in Canada with a mandate to extend financial support towards charitable organizations actively assisting LGBT+ individuals in need, whether as asylum seekers, refugees, or newly settled migrants (i.e., newcomers to Canada).

Those that have suffered through what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) deems as “well-founded threats of persecution” are a defining characteristic of what it means to be a refugee. Entire cultures throughout the world are currently under various forms of persecution, with millions either living in refugee camps or seeking asylum (i.e., have fled their countries, but are not yet accepted yet as refugees). Despite this injustice, some of those very cultures also hold strong religious perspectives that continue to view alternative expressions of gender or sexuality as deplorable, even punishable by death. This leads to a subset of refugees and asylum seekers, those that identify as LGBT+, trapped by inescapable persecution. They must hide in fear, yet many are actually living in refugee communities and are hiding among refugees. This seems hard to imagine, but it is very much a reality.

A year ago FOH created STRUT to raise this issue through a symbolic event that demonstrates what freedom of expression can look like when combined with the privilege of living in an open, accepting society like Canada’s. Fortunately for all, the timing of the inaugural STRUT launch coincided with Canada Revenue Agency bestowing charitable status to FOH. Now a registered charity, this allowed FOH to more readily reach out to donors that would in turn be provided with a tax credit as an incentive.

Amazingly, STRUT brought in well over $40,000 last year. Entirely through voluntary efforts, FOH re-organized its Board of Directors in August 2015 after drafting bylaws and forming a legitimate internal governance structure. We established committees dedicated to community volunteerism, fundraising efforts, the development of collaborative partnerships, and grant administration. We built the infrastructure needed for accepting grant applications and disseminating financial awards to other registered charities across Canada.

And we started to give.

Foundation of Hope has since administered over $25,000 in grants to charitable organizations like MOSAIC, which has used FOH funds to supply counselling service to LGBT+ newcomers suffering post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) from former acts of persecution and violence. RAINBOW RAILROAD is another organization supported by funding from FOH. It works to privately sponsor LGBT+ refugees and asylum seekers to be resettled as newcomers to Canada, as well as to supply emergency travel assistance for individuals escaping acute persecution and get them to immediate safety.

Each of these organizations represents one of two streams of dedicated funding from FOH:

1) COMMUNITY SERVICE GRANTS in the case of MOSAIC

2) SPONSORSHIP GRANTS in the case of Rainbow Railroad

Several new applications have come in from other organizations and are currently under review. Our goal is to continue to reach out across these organizations, meaningfully engage the volunteer community at the grassroots level, and build up a strong donor community on a long-term financial level.

This is the ultimate support network that will fulfill the vision and accomplish the mission of Foundation of Hope.

STRUT 2016 kicks off at the Launch Party tonight, April 23rd at 6:00 PM at Celebrities Night Club. Registration of participants and the pledging of donations by sponsors will continue through spring and up to the walkathon on Saturday, June 11, 2016 at Sunset Beach. 

We sincerely HOPE those that CARE about this issue will show up, STEP up to the task, and lend SUPPORT to this symbolic event so we can all WALK collectively to the BENEFIT of LGBT+ refugees and newcomers to Canada.

Foundation of Hope Board of Directors had an enlightening session with Julie Hamilton last Sunday. Having exceeded the goals set during the 2015 Strategic Planning workshop, Julie once again generously volunteered her time and skills to get us focused on building on that success.

Intent on growth, FOH structured the session to look beyond a single year and set key objectives for the coming three years:

1) Increase Board capacity and enhance its effectiveness;

2) National development of strategic partnerships; and

3) Become a sustainable charity through long-term financial stability.

To achieve these objectives, Julie helped identify a few strategies that require a modest retooling of FOH’s message. Enhanced involvement of volunteers, donors, partners, and grant recipients is integral to our long-term vision.

The session began with a reflection on the achievements in Year 1. What did FOH do? Who was involved? What made us proud?

We all agreed that milestones included FOH’s governance structure, charitable designation, and ability to exceed the goals set for financial gain. We ultimately delivered on our mission to financially support charitable organizations assisting LGBT+ Refugees and Newcomers. The ability to gain charitable status prominently demonstrated a commitment by the Board.

Formal establishment of a legitimate volunteer board with working committees, successful fundraising efforts, and build out of the grant infrastructure allowed FOH to receive and approve funding applications. The tireless volunteer effort from within and beyond the LGBT+ community combined with an incredible wave of generosity from our partners and donors cannot be overstated. To this end, FOH is honoured to have built such an important bridge for the larger LGBT+ community.

A presence in the Pride parade and the creation of the STRUT event brought in folks and organizations to proudly step up to support this cause, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself! Individual fundraisers held by Peter Fitzmaurice and Kevin Perra, exposure through Lush Cosmetics’ #gayisok campaign, and promotional events hosted by Neighbourhood House and Mercury Artists all demonstrate teamwork as a huge element of success.

But success is not without challenges. Valuable lessons came out of FOH first year agenda. For example, FOH understands better that it’s important to be clear when to say no. This extends to communication within social media and interpersonal relationships; it is critical to maintain clear and consistent messages and define boundaries. External challenges included being too receptive of negative feedback/criticism, which required strengthening our internal support network and growing a bit of thick skin!

So where do we go from here and how do we get there?

Foundation of Hope understands that board unity is its strength. This is not only effective, it can actually be contagious. And that’s a good thing, especially since we consist entirely of unpaid volunteers with full-time careers! Strength in unity comes through team building exercises, which we intend to foster as we move forward. This year, FOH will roll out an internal on-boarding strategy to expand board capacity in a way that is intentional, transparent, accountable, and predicated on success. It is precisely in keeping with our Constitution.

In terms of future growth and organizational development, FOH will cultivate strategic partnerships over the next twelve months. Our registered charitable status is conditioned on giving to other Canadian charities as a “rhizomatic” system (i.e., a lateral network of stems for disseminating grants). Like a farmer tending a garden, FOH aims to position itself at the heart of this network as the middle ground between the grassroots and wealthier organizations.  Through volunteerism and dedication, the individual contributions (i.e., “time, treasure, or talents”) from the grassroots are like essential nutrients from soil. This is equally as valuable as contributions from larger, deep-pocketed organizations, which act as sunlight – an energy supply to fuel growth.

Nutrients and energy are the essential ingredients that sustain a rhizomatic system of financial support, where FOH sees its role as most valuable. As a hallmark event, STRUT is our principal fundraiser that also raises the visibility of the cause. The intention is to build a financially stable legacy, though we mustn’t become overly dependent on one signature event.

Still, moving STRUT beyond Vancouver and into other provinces and cities can enable FOH to raise our profile. The cause is global in scope, so we’re gonna step up to the platform!

A metamorphosis is underway.

Reliable financial support to LGBT+ Refugees and newly settled migrants is a long-term priority for FOH. To develop a sound investment strategy, a key objective is going to be identifying the means to ensure longevity that allows us to be financially self-sufficient.

We have a lot of work to do over the coming three years. As the issue of LGBT+ identity persecution continues to pervade so much of the world, time is of the essence.