What causes are you passionate about? Most people have something they are incredibly passionate about. And there are so many causes these days, so many things to become excited about and interested in.

For the Trans community, there is so much to do, and so many areas where the causes intersect and enter and one of the hardest things I can think of that I do is the damnable pick and choose stuff. No matter how much I want to be able to do something for everyone, I still can only do so much with the resources that I have available to me.

But still, when yu look at this list, you start to see just some of the stuff that This Is HOW, which is not just me, and which is bigger than me and more important than I can possibly be, does, and I sorta really want you to see this, to get a feel for it, to understand the diversity of approaches that go into to all the stuff that TIH does.

I keep trying to come up with an elevator speech, even though I know it is hopeless.

here’s a small list of the things we do:

Homelessness, substance abuse and addiction Recovery, ex-offender re-entry, education opportunity, work opportunity, therapists, work skills, life skills, cultural competence, families, adults, children, significant others, persons of color, stigma and shame mitigation, crisis intervention, domestic violence, rape crisis, suicide prevention, support groups, networking, safe spaces, community events, belonging, veterans, underground economy escape, artistic encouragement, medical access assistance, personal advocacy…

There are 16,000 trans people in the Phoenix metropolitan area. They all have people around them that often need assistance and support as well. You and old, healthy and unwell, pretty and plain — they cover a range of situations that are often bewildering in their variety. So that really means more than 16,000 people.

Those are the people that This Is HOW serves, that TIH helps, that we work for and about to make life better.

And we do it entirely on small dollar donations. From regular people.

Think about that for a bit. Most people have a cause in there. We do all those things. We do them for trans people. Most of them aren’t sexy or glamorous are get great print and press coverage. Especially not for trans people. There are grants for all of those things, but it is only very recently that people are thinking about doing them for trans orgs.

We work to provide the basics, the underlying stuff that allows other people to do the stuff they care about in more detail than we can and with greater focus. We are about the infrastructure that makes all of the above work and more possible, and we always work with organizations, not against them.

If there is something that you care about in there, please consider donating a small amount — we would love to see 10 dollars a month — on a monthly basis for a year to This is HOW. That ten dollars goes towards helping 16,000 people and all the people they interact with.

We stretch it a long way.

Please consider donating today. It really does make a massive difference.

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