Chavers ’22 at the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, California

On my first co-op with the Transgender Law Center, I’ve come to learn that all skill sets are needed to become an effective organizer. I’ve learned that you don’t call the trains here “the bart” but “BART.” I’ve learned that a street without hills doesn’t exist in San Francisco. Let me tell you about a typical day…

I wake up around 7:30 a.m. every morning because my body is still on Eastern Time. I take the muni up to 24th street and walk down to Mission Station. I’ve learned that buses are my friends and so are uber eats apps. From there, I get to Oakland and walk about 3 minutes to my job. Every Monday I have a conference meeting. Normally I get my assignments through emails and get to choose what time I get my lunch.

The field of communications and development at the Transgender Law Center has been fast paced. Every day we are working on a strategy plan for social media, content to push out regarding new information, and ways we can create materials to inspire others to keep pushing in their lives, as well as for others to want to help marginalized groups. Most of my days for TLC are filled with those projects—finding the inspiring people, events, content, and writing about it.

I work with TLC’s social media platforms to communicate various messages that incorporate our efforts for the survival of trans lives and magnifying the voices of trans people of color. Our mission statement reads: “TLC does what it takes to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.”

During my time here, I’ve also worked on two legal cases and developed language for a number of TLC press releases. Next week I will be facilitating my first meeting. I’ve also written action plans for my role here and invitational forms for an upcoming congressional hearing. Learning the foundational tools of nonprofits and how they function has helped me develop new skills and understanding.

The highlight of my job has been the blog post/article I wrote for TLC for “Arianna Lint,” a trans woman of color from south Florida. The blog post is being posted at the end of June and I’m very proud of my work on it. I read a report that contained information for our division of the Protect Trans Health campaign that Arianna had worked on. This report dived into the numbers behind discrimination in the healthcare field that trans people, trans people of color and non-binary people face. From this report I crafted an article on its content and highlighting Arianna’s work in this area. She’s one of the leaders in the department Positively Trans and has her own center in south florida helping trans folks of color living with HIV. Being able to read her compelling and inspiring story and then write a piece about was amazing. From learning WordPress and how to publish on the web, now I am inspired to start my own website to share information to folks back home!

This work intertwines with my goals of becoming an activist and organizer. This co-op is giving me the tool kit I need to continue my dreams and goals for my life.