Kind and Planned Parenthood Ottawa have joined forces and moved into a central location to create a new community centre dedicated to gender, sexual orientation, sexuality and reproductive health.
Combining the two groups’ 84 years of experience serving the Ottawa community, the new centre, located at Suite 404, 222 Somerset St. West, near Elgin, opened on April 1 and promises to unite the respective counselling, education and volunteer programs of both organizations.
“It was a combination of compatibility, philosophy, and timing,” says Carling Miller, executive director of Kind. “Both organizations are going through a period of growth and change and our leases for our previous spaces were ending at the same time and we thought – why not explore this and see where our needs and wants overlap and differ?”
Kind, formerly Pink Triangle Services, is committed to providing “a diverse, protective, and nonjudgmental environment for individuals to explore and understand their gender and sexuality through their intersecting identities and experiences,” according to Kind’s website.
“All of our programs are volunteer-led, from our sliding-scale/free appointment-based counselling program to our peer groups to the cat café and outreach,” says Miller, referring to a popular pet-adoption program run by Kind. The organization has made a wide range of resources available to the local LGBTQ communities for more than 32 years.
PPO is Ottawa’s only pro-choice organization that offers free, anonymous and non-judgmental pregnancy and contraception counseling. The organization has been advocating sexual and reproductive health and rights for more than 50 years. Additionally, it provides referrals and an education program that covers the entire provincial sexual health curriculum.
With its lease ending in March, the idea of a shared space arose when Kind started looking for a new location at the end of summer 2015. “We were looking to find a smaller location because the space we were in was way too big and not utilized as best as it could have been,” says Miller.
She adds that part of the reason why Kind approached PPO was due to scheduling. Since most of PPO’s work takes place in the morning to mid-afternoon, and a lot of Kind’s activities happen mid-afternoon into the evening, this would allow both groups to maximize the use of their space.
“They have moved into a shared space and I think it’s fabulous,” says Laurie Rektor, the community programs director at Family Services Ottawa. “Our organization is also a shared space with two other not-for-profit organizations and it works beautifully. We have been sharing the same space for at least 15 years.”
Rektor says shared space is a trend in the not-for-profit sector. “I think it works so well because people have common interests and they know the value of being physically close to each other — and because it is financially prudent as well and financially responsible.”
Although both organizations insist they will continue to provide their own unique services, Catherine Macnab, executive director at PPO, says the collaboration will allow them to create new joint programming.
“Last year, PPO delivered a weekend workshop on LGBTQ Family Planning to help queer and trans folks navigate the legal, medical and social issues involved in planning a family,” says Macnab. “A program like this would obviously be strengthened through partnership with Kind.”
The new office is also intended to offer Ottawa’s LGBTQ community a more inclusive and comprehensive range of sexual health and gender support services.
“When people talk about LGBTQ issues or intersecting issues, reproductive health and rights don’t get a lot of acknowledgement or are even seen as being something related,” says Miller.
She adds that this partnership will help people realize that reproductive issues mean more than just pregnancy and affect more individuals than just women who were born and identify themselves as female.
“I think what is important for people to know is this space is user-driven and the programs and services that we offer come from the feedback of our communities,” says Miller. “This is your space as much as it is our space, and we want it to be the best it can be and for us to do it together.”