Your personal connection is your greatest strength

What's been the most fulfilling part of working on this project?

Without any exaggeration, every part of this project has been immensely fulfilling. Being able to go back to the community and talk with gender minority youth about their experiences in organized team sports and ask them what they would like to see improved was incredibly empowering for all involved. When hearing the youth’s stories of their involvement in sport, it was great to be able to tell them that their experiences are reflected in my thesis findings and they are not alone in both their positive and negative experiences. Being able to take my thesis data and the youth’s input and create a resource that will help coaches, parents, athletes and sports officials make sport a safer place for gender minorities helps provide a glimmer of hope in these terrifyingly transphobic times.

What have been yours and your community partner’s biggest challenges working through your project?

A challenge we faced was ensuring youth in the Kootenays knew about our in-person and virtual youth group sessions. Some youth support centers in the Kootenays are new and are working to establish their membership. While we used many connections and methods of advertising and sharing the word about our sessions, two of our sessions had slightly less attendance than we had hoped for.

Any wisdom/advice to pass on to others who might try a project like this?

When doing a project where you have a personal connection to the community or topic at hand, while it can be very challenging emotionally, it is your biggest strength. Being able to enter the room with our youth and say that I, too, am queer, non-binary, have grown up in sport and have had the same experiences as them immediately established that I was not merely a visitor trying to hear about their struggles and then leave. In some sessions, Nicola and I found ourselves doing a bit of mentoring, which I did not expect, but it happened naturally and was genuine.