providing low-barrier wellness services to
trans and gender diverse people

Join Our Board

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Are you passionate about ensuring that all trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people get access to respectful, affirming, and holistic health care and legal services? Do you want to contribute to creating access to low-barrier holistic health care and legal services that are by and for our community? Consider volunteering with the board of the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre (CWHWC)!

CWHWC is a community-led low-barrier wellness and legal centre for trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people. The CWHWC is based in Vancouver on the unceded, ancestral and shared territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations. We currently offer our services virtually to trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people across BC and will return to offering some in-person services once it’s safe enough to do so.

We’re looking for people to join the CWHWC’s board. In this opportunity, volunteer board members will work together with CWHWC staff and volunteers to help the organization grow and thrive. Becoming part of the CWHWC is an opportunity to work in collaboration with other folks who are dedicated to supporting the well-being of trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people and communities and to creating the affirming, caring spaces our communities need. Our work is rooted in an ongoing commitment to anti-racism, decolonization and creating healing spaces that centre the needs and priorities of Black, Indigenous and people of colour.

We are excited to meet and collaborate with new potential board members. This is a chance for people to bring their skills and to gain more experience working with a community-led non-profit. We are also excited to meet new faces and continue to strengthen our community and learn from one another.

Time commitment: While we’re looking for board members who may be able to dedicate as much as 12-15 hours per month, we are also striving to prioritize flexible hours for our volunteers. Volunteering includes attending monthly board meetings (via Zoom), leading board-related projects (e.g., fundraising, governance, policy development) and communicating and collaborating by email and phone/Zoom).

Accessibility: We strive to make our organization and services accessible to all our volunteers, staff, and clients. We recognize that accessibility needs are unique and invite you to share any accessibility needs you have.

Board members primarily work from their own homes or workspaces. We know this can create access barriers for potential volunteers, especially given the ways poverty and houselessness disproportionately impact trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse communities. We will work with potential board members to ensure we can meet your individual access needs around doing board work from your living/working space(s), including through offering a work from home subsidy and compensation for reasonable expenses related to board work.

When offering services in-person, the CWHWC holds its clinics in a newly renovated community health centre building (REACH on Commercial Drive) that meets recent accessibility standards. We have a scent-reduced policy. We offer child-care and travel subsidies for clinic gatherings.

Priority groups: In connection with ongoing decolonizing and antiracist work being done at CWHWC, it’s our priority to centre the experiences and skills of Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPoC) and trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people. With this in mind, we’re prioritizing recruitment of board members who are BIPoC and/or part of trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse communities, though we’re open to hearing from prospective board members of all identities and backgrounds.

Skills, knowledge and experience: We’re looking for potential board members with a broad array of skills, knowledge and experience. We’ve created a list of some of the important skills, knowledge and experience we hope to have collectively among our board members. Think of it more as a whole-board wishlist than a checklist for each potential board member. We look forward to learning more about your individual skills, knowledge, and expertise, including things you feel are important to this work that aren’t listed here:

  • Experience in decolonizing, anti-racist and anti-oppression work, including experience with supporting community organizations in that work
  • Lived and/or community/professional knowledge about the health and wellness of trans, Two-Spirit and gender diverse communities
  • Experience building solidarity and relationships with members of BIPoC communities, at individual and organizational levels
  • Solidarity with and support for sex workers and sex workers’ rights (with experience and connection with sex worker communities as an asset)
  • Experience in and/or supporting transfeminine communities
  • Experience with community-driven service provision
  • Experience in governance of health and/or social support service organization(s)
  • Experience in policy development and board governance
  • Experience in sustaining long-term, volunteer-driven organizations
  • Experience in/knowledge of organizational design and change management
  • Experience with designing and facilitating community consultations
  • Experience developing and nurturing relationships and partnerships within communities and between organizations
  • Strategic planning experience
  • Experience with raising funds* for community and non-profit organizations (*this isn’t the kind of board where each board member is expected to donate to the organization or ask for donations from their communities, though we’d love to have board members who have experience with organizing fundraising/fund development campaigns)
  • Grant-writing experience
  • Budgeting and financial management experience
  • Experience with human resources support and management
  • Legal expertise
  • Communication skills
  • Organizational skills

If you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity, please send an email to board@cwhwc.com by November 30, 2021 telling us a little about yourself, what makes you excited to join our board, what experiences in life and work you will bring to the clinic and if you have any questions for us. We welcome the opportunity to have a conversation with potential board members if you want to learn more about the CWHWC.

We also encourage you to tell us about your accessibility needs and how we can make volunteering for the board more accessible to you if you feel comfortable sharing this information in your application. We’ll also do regular access check-ins together as we know people’s access needs shift over time.

We don’t require a resume or formal letter of application.