NEWS

The Project Reports are available on-line in pdf format here.

Our Community Survey instrument is now on line. This is the Survey that was filled in by over 850 members of the Ottawa-Carleton GLBT community during the data collection phase of the Wellness Project. We have placed the survey instrument in the public domain to encourage other groups to carry out similar assessments in their own communities. You may view or download the survey here.

Information about the Project

The Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Wellness Project will identify, for the first time in Ottawa-Carleton, the wellness needs of local GLBT residents. It will lay the foundation for actions to address these needs and for on-going partnerships between community-based health and wellness providers and groups and agencies within the GLBT community. Most importantly, it will bring information into the homes of GLBT people and their families on wellness options and strategies, thereby contributing to the well being of more than 70,000 local residents.

The GLBT Wellness Project is a community-based survey to determine the wellness needs of the GLBT community and to document existing wellness resources available to GLBT residents of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC). The GLBT Wellness Project is a Pink Triangle Services (PTS) sponsored community project in collaboration with the GLBT Health Task Group, funded by the RMOC and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The results of the project will provide important information about the GLBT community
and its wellness needs to:

• local residents and groups in the GLBT community,
• public health planners,
• educators,
• local wellness agencies,
• service providers and spiritual counselors, and
• local, provincial and federal departments of health and social services.

The project should take a year to complete and will produce a GLBT wellness handbook (modelled after the Vancouver Handbook) and web site, providing extensive information on local resources to meet GLBT wellness needs. Moreover, the project should contribute to the breaking down of homophobic and transphobic barriers that interfere with access to culturally appropriate wellness services for GLBT people and their families and friends by:

• providing reliable information on wellness services options
• promoting wellness strategies which enhance the well-being of GLBT residents and their families; and,
• raising awareness of the need of GLBT residents and their family members for "safe" places of service delivery and ways to contribute to trust and security.

Messages

• The GLBT Wellness Project is important to all GLBT people and
  their families and friends.
• Wellness includes physical, mental, spiritual, sexual, intellectual, social,
  and emotional well being.
• GLBT people and their families and friends need "safe space" from cradle
  to grave, in public and in the workplace.
• GLBT wellness is a community challenge and helps to build a healthy community.
• Partnerships between service providers and the GLBT community will breakdown barriers and contribute to "safe places".
• There are many success stories and models for success.

For more information:

• E-mail: pts@pinktriangle.org
• Subscribe to the Wellness Project listserver by entering your email address below
  and clicking on the join button:

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to the Ottawa-Carleton GLBT Wellness Project Main Page since 14 Nov 00.

Last updated: 6 June 2001