March Newsletter | What has the Center done in March
President’s Office
March 2020
Find Large Donors for the Center
In 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Center’s original plan of raising funds could not proceed as usual. Therefore, Xin Ying, the Executive Director, has been looking for various fund-raising opportunities for the Center, and has also received positive responses from some community partners.
March 2020
Looking for Foundations to Set Up Special Funds
To further improve the professionalism and guarantee the sustainable development of the Center, the Center proposes to set a special fund or build up special cooperative relationships with certain foundations in 2020. At present, with the support of all partners, Xin Ying, the Executive Director, has found some potential partners and communicated about cooperation thereupon.
After the establishment of Center’s special fund, in the future, the Beijing LGBT Center will definitely provide better services to the community.
Transgender Project Department
March 14, 2020
Trans Space ｜ Online Tea Party
Trans Space aims to provide a safe and comfortable space for everyone to communicate freely. Affected by the epidemic, the healing tea talk was organized online, and participants communicated via the Tencent meeting. In this activity, more than ten participants, as estimated, engaged. Everyone said that it is very important and meaningful to know about and support each other by the online tea party during this special period.
March 17, 2020
Special Event for the International Transgender Day of Visibility: Proud of Posting Myself!
The Center and the Taobao shop owned by a transgender @ Asada-Yuki (MtF) jointly launched a special event for the International Transgender Day of Visibility. The event encourages transgender people, gender queers and allies of the transgender community, from March 17 to March 31, to repost the official Weibo of the Center with the words "companion is the power and support trans". This, together with their post of personal most confident photos, win them a chance to get the Trans Grand Prize. The purpose of this event is to encourage transgender people, their relatives and friends to stay true to themselves and to show the most confident and brave self. We also congratulate all the friends who have won the grand prize.
Monthly Work Report：
1. Events:
1) Prepared and held the Trans Space｜Online Tea Party;
2) Prepared and held a series of Special Events for the International Transgender Day of Visibility: Proud of Posting Myself!;
3) Assisted in the preparation of events for the International Transgender Day of Visibility;
4) Started the preparations for the National Transgender Youth Camp;
5) Organized a parent group activity: “Lao Pan’s Voice”.
2. Internal work:
1) Formed the volunteer team;
2) Recruited and trained interns;
3) Cooperated with the Development Department to prepare the next fund-raising plan
3. Paperwork:
1) Wrote the transgender project plan;
2) Wrote and modified medical related brochures
Mental Health Department
March 28, 2020
Successful Closing of the "Meeting with the epidemic - the online support group" Event
In order to ease the community’s anxiety and reduce negative emotions during the outbreak of COVID-19, especially on the days of quarantine, the Center specially launched a "supporting group to meet the epidemic" headed by consultants to provide psychological support. From February 27 to March 28, the supporting group organized ten events in total with around 90 participants involved. The supporting group received unanimous positive feedbacks from the participants. Everyone opined that they had received support in an equal and friendly atmosphere, and their anxiety, loneliness and helplessness was alleviated. This event is a good attempt for the Center in providing psychological services. We would like to thank all the consultants who contributed to this event.
Development Department
March 7th, 2020
Online Sharing｜Can Rainbow Flags Fly Freely in the Workplace?
On March 7th, Naying and John Shen from the Beijing LGBT Center together with Darick Qin from ShanghaiPRIDE talked about the development of pink economy at home and abroad, and shared their experiences and strategies in promoting LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace with more than 100 audience members at the online meeting. The three guests also answered questions from the audience and described how people with different identities can promote LGBT+ inclusiveness in contemporary China.
March 28th, 2020
Queer Career ｜Online Sharing｜LGBT influencers teach you how to survive in the workplace
As the first activity of the "Queer Career" series, this online sharing session invited two LGBT professionals from Fortune 500 companies and one from a public welfare organization to talk about their work experience and share their insights on relevant issues. The guests discussed with the audience the joys and sorrows at work as members of the LGBT community, sharing their thoughts on concerns from the community, such as whether to show their identity in the workplace, how friendly the work environment is, how to find allies and mentors, how to improve themselves, etc.
March 2020
Monthly Donation Report in March
In March, 26 new friends joined the monthly donation program, which means there are now 470 “Pride Partners”. The Center received 17,100 yuan as donations this month. We thank you here for your generous support and fine companionship. Hope that we will overcome the difficulties and make the Center better together!
March 2020
2020-2021 Annual Project Planning Began
This month, the Fundraising Project Department, Mental Health Department, Transgender Project Department, Workplace Diversity Initiative and Community Development Department began to make the 2020-2021 annual projects plan. According to this plan, we will focus on the fundraising of three main projects in the second half of 2020, namely the Mental Health Project, Transgender Project and Workplace Diversity Initiative, to ensure that these projects can get sustained and steady funds. At present, the project planning has reached the middle stage. Stay tuned for further development.
Monthly Work Report:
Workplace Diversity Initiative:
a) Held two online sharing sessions about LGBT people in the workplace;
b) Organized the Gender Diversity and Gay Movement History Training for the volunteers, as well as a volunteer group building activity;
c) Confirmed cooperation with the Asia Foundation to jointly develop a toolkit for advocates in corporations to promote a gender-friendly and gender-diverse environment and push against domestic violence.
d) Co-organized a meeting with officials from the United Nations Development Program and academics from Peking University to begin the preparation of a workplace research project.
e) Negotiated this year's cooperation with a number of foreign companies, private enterprises, and public welfare organizations, and get many positive feedbacks. We hope to promote a more LGBT-friendly environment in as many workplaces as possible, as soon as possible.
Media Department
March 17th, 2020
Mini-documentary Series Our Generation Started Filming
Our Generation is a mini-documentary series recording real stories and experiences of interns and volunteers in Beijing LGBT Center, and this series will be continuously updated. We will introduce to the audience the real, energetic, brave and diverse people who work as interns and volunteers at the Center. In the future, we will produce more original videos about the LGBT community and create a space where we can be heard!
Community Development Department
March 8th, 2020
“Queer Hall of Fame” Launched
"Queer Hall of Fame”, a brand activity of the Center, was launched in advance due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first sharing session began on March 8th. Combined with the theme of Women's Day, the event presented the spirit and perspective of women from the sexual minority who break the glass ceiling to bravely be themselves, and strive to pursue the life they want. There were 39 participants in this event, who actively interacted with the guests and expressed afterwards that they were deeply inspired and gained more courage to move forward.
We will see you in “Queer Hall of Fame” on the second and fourth Saturday night of every month. Tune in for our LGBT stories.
March 21st, 2020
Night Talk | What difficulties gay men above 30 years old are facing and how to tackle them?
On the evening of March 21st, we had a chat with 20 gay men over the age of 30. Everyone shared what they were facing at their age and how their living conditions had been. Some participants also shared their methods of coping with certain challenges. We encouraged and accompanied each other throughout the talk.
Monthly Work Report:
Operations Department
March 2020
Individual donations
From March 1st to 24th, the Center received individual donations of 1,195 yuan. The donation list is shown below, with the name processed. Donations marked for certain purposes will be used according to the demand of the donors. Those unmarked will be used for venue operation. Thank you for your trust and support.
We want to especially thank Y.T for donating 29,944.52 yuan to the Center in March. Thank you for your trust and support.
编辑：阿昕