Moving together always begins with relationships and trust. We started 2023 by hosting two global town halls with 200 leaders from across 45 countries who registered to discuss candid lessons from our collective journey to date.

We explored what’s working, what’s challenging us, and key questions for our work ahead. Most important of all, we welcomed questions and feedback from our network.

It was the continuation of a global conversation that began at our inception and will continue for many years to come. Because accountability to feminist movements is at the core of how we work.

Social change doesn’t happen in a laboratory. It’s human. And amid a pandemic, overlapping crises, and rising attacks on our rights, it is also exhausting. Caring for ourselves is fundamental to creating change that is meaningful and durable.

Yet too often, grantmakers provide little support or flexibility for the deeper work of nourishing and healing ourselves. We’re proud that our WVL-Caribbean team, working side-by-side with our incredible partner Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, are modeling a better way.

In May 2022, WVL-Caribbean provided all 26 grantee partners with the opportunity to access a special type of responsive grant focused on wellness and collective care. Our team made a concerted effort to reduce burden in the application and reporting processes, while giving partners plenty of space to decide what approach was right for them.

The response was beautifully diverse. Our grantee partners implemented a wide variety of supportive measures, from psychotherapy and art therapy, to coaching, access to health facilities, nutrition, team building, and much more.

The most profound change? Almost every partner told us how important it was to be fully seen and acknowledged. It was the first time a donor had explicitly addressed the burnout they were feeling and cared for their well-being. The grants also boosted organizational resilience by creating space for conversations about work-life balance and the importance of individual and collective care. It was another powerful reminder that thriving and sustainable movements always begin with the well-being of the activists who lead them.

In the words of Toledo Maya Women’s Council in Belize, “This is the first time that we have a grant focused on self-care and wellness. No one ever asks if I am okay. We need time to recover, to renew, to just be ourselves. Mental health is not necessarily seen as a need, but it is.”

The lesson was clear: If we want to move together, we can’t forget to care for ourselves.

We are proud members of Dignity Network Canada, a coalition of civil society organizations across Canada that is involved in supporting the human rights of people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) globally. It’s one more way to affirm—and proactively advance—the inclusive feminisms that are core to who we are.

The network acts as a critical Canadian hub for communication, knowledge-sharing, and convenings on global LGBTQI+ and SOGIESC human rights issues, with a strong emphasis on the perspectives of international partners. Remie Abi-Farrage, a senior program officer at the Equality Fund, co-chairs the network’s Advocacy and Government Relations working group, and led discussions on advocacy and feminist funding at their November 2022 national roundtable.

In May 2022, we were proud to co-sponsor the network’s gathering in Ottawa of activists, government officials, and civil society leaders to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.

Amid a rise of the anti-gender agenda and a backlash against LGBTQI+ rights, the collective power of communities like Dignity Network Canada has never been more necessary, and we could not be more committed to this struggle in our journey ahead.