The JQT Seniors Initiative is a Community Response Network hosted by JQT Vancouver, a 100% volunteer-led Jewish queer and trans charitable nonprofit. The group has been meeting monthly since March 2021.
Our Mission: To make visible and close gaps in the care of Jewish queer and trans seniors by working collaboratively with Jewish, 2SLGBTQIA+, and healthcare organizations in BC.
Our Vision: Inclusive, culturally appropriate care for Jewish queer and trans seniors throughout their larger communities in BC.
Our Goals:
To increase collaboration among service and care providers, community organizations, and Jewish queer and trans seniors.
To provide integrated outreach to Jewish queer and trans seniors, whether they are affiliated or not with the Jewish community, and whether they are living independently or in care.
To foster organizational learning through mandatory and continual staff training, and to the adoption of inclusive, diverse, and accessibility policies.
Our Values:
We believe in the inherent dignity and right to appropriate care of Jewish queer and trans seniors; and we believe that everyone has a responsibility to help make this a reality.
We strive to foster respectful, open, and honest communication with our community partners and those we serve; and in cultivating strong and healthy relationships within and outside our organization.
We honour individual and organizational rights to privacy and/or confidentiality while seeking to resolve conflicts in ways that foster growth and positive outcomes. Click here for the initiative’s policies.
Community partners include: JQT Vancouver, Louis Brier Home & Hospital, Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Jewish Family Services - Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health, PRISM Services, iCANACP Diversity Access Team - SFU Gerontology Research Centre, Canadian Virtual Hospice, Dignity Seniors Society, and Chevra Kadisha (Vancouver).
The JQT Seniors Initiative is offering a free online training workshop, scheduled for February 19, 2025 from 9AM-12PM PST.
The goal of this workshop is to build upon identified and potential allies within different types of healthcare services for seniors, and offer support, education, and training to any care providers who express an interest and willingness to learn more about the needs of our Jewish queer and trans community.
While this workshop is geared towards those in healthcare serving seniors, anyone is welcome to register (whether they be a caregiver for a family member or a mental healthcare professional or simply someone interested in this intersection of identities).
Workshop topics will include:
Education on the barriers impacting Jewish queer and trans seniors in healthcare
Resources such as the BC Jewish Queer & Trans Seniors Resource Guide, and JQT Affirming Care: A toolkit for mental health providers
Recommendations on making healthcare more inclusive for Jewish queer and trans seniors
Registration will take approximately 4-minutes to complete, and includes a pre-workshop survey. There will also be a post-workshop survey.
In 2024, the JQT Seniors Initiative conducted an Outreach Survey to find out who is, and who is not, currently providing care, support, and services for Jewish queer and trans seniors in BC. It is JQT's intention to offer support, education, and training to any care providers who express an interest and willingness to learn more about the needs of our community. The data received revealed critical gaps, not only in available services but also in awareness and understanding of many issues confronting Jewish queer and trans seniors.
Although the overall responses showed numerous gaps in service delivery, it was also evident that there exists a willingness to learn. It is JQT’s intention to build upon identified and potential allies within different types of healthcare services for seniors, and to develop and offer a training workshop, specifically with a Jewish queer and trans lens, that can help to ensure Jewish queer and trans seniors receive the care they want and need. We intend to offer this training workshop in February 2025.
More details to follow. If you are interested in participating in this workshop and would like to be kept informed, please email info@jqtvancouver.ca
Please check out our report. Click here for a PDF version.
This is a recording from JQT Dying & Death, which took place on February 25, 2024 at the Celebration Hall in Mountain View Cemetery. Closed Captioning available.
The goal of this community gathering was to provide a platform for the JQT community to find out what is and is not yet possible in BC in 2024, and to build bridges between various groups that are working towards making dying and death more inclusive for our community at large.
“Amazing and transformative JQT event… that brought together so many important voices to talk about the dying and death needs of Jewish LGBTQ+ community”
Thanks to a BC Community Response Network project grant, the financial support of the Province of British Columbia, and the private donation made by Jeff Kushner of Victoria, BC, we have developed THE BC JEWISH QUEER & TRANS SENIORS RESOURCE GUIDE to address knowledge gaps regarding Jewish, LGBTQ and healthcare concerns for older Jewish queer and/or trans people across BC.
In April 2023, we released a series of eight (8) videos (scroll down for video links, covering the main points in each chapter of this resource guide. Thank you to all those who contributed their time and knowledge so that our community members can make more informed decisions in light of what they can and cannot get access to or plan for as Jewish queer and/or trans people living in BC in 2023.
Please note that this is a living document based on info collected in 2023. If there is info that requires updating, please send us an email at info@jqtvancouver.ca
Past Programming
On Friday, April 16, 2021, JQT Vancouver presented at Capital Pride • Fierté dans la Capitale's EDUCATE series. In this 45-min educational video, JQT Founder and Executive Director Carmel Tanaka talks about JQT's partnership with the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC on Phase I of The BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project, how it all got started, and shares preliminary stats, as well as a few teasers of what to expect from their upcoming exhibit. She also announced the launch of the JQT Seniors Initiative, a working group of Jewish, LGBTQ+ and senior healthcare organizations bringing awareness to important issues affecting LGBTQ+ Jewish elders in our community today.
On February 2, 2022, researcher Claire Robson presented "Indigo Survivors Project" on LGBTQ2SIA+ elder abuse to members of the JQT Seniors Initiative. "LGBTQ2SIA+ individuals are more likely to experience elder abuse, but hardly any research has been conducted, no actions are being taken to reduce harm, and no-one has listened to the voices of survivors." Learn more about the "Indigo Survivors Projects" by contacting Claire Robson at clairerobson@shaw.ca
On July 6, 2022, Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow joined the JQT Seniors Initiative as a guest speaker. Rabbi Sara Passche-Orlow has integrated LGBTQ2SIA+-focused programs into her work as former director of religious and chaplaincy services at Hebrew Senior Life, a Harvard-affiliated organization that provides health care to more than 3K Boston-area elders. Read more here: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/lgbt-seniors/497324/