Tiffany Sostar's Grad School Fund
Donation protected
Tiffany Sostar is an architect of innovative community support systems for marginalized people. Community support systems hosting feminist powered queer, trans, and disabled-inclusive resources based upon open discussion and education. Tiffany, through skills gained thus far in their Narrative Therapy and Community Work graduate program (University of Melbourne and the Dulwich Centre), crafts innovative resources with non-blaming and respectful methods alongside their prior established support systems. Tiffany’s counselling enables people to feel validated as experts in their narratives by distinguishing people from their problems and nurturing hope and connections—Even heroes like Tiffany need help from time to time.
Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Tiffany designs, facilitates, and supports safer spaces and resources, which enable you to feel validated and find solidarity in like-minded individuals. Spaces such as the monthly meetings of their non-profit “Possibilities Calgary” (est. 2010) enabling an intentionally queer, feminist, anti-oppressive space for open discussions for everyone. Tiffany also creates resources such as their continuing work with collective document projects to aid those marginalized people in gaining tools for coping, recovery, or self-care.
Tiffany responds with action when confronting our struggles with injustice or lack of resources in marginalized communities. They create forums (physical spaces and digital) for those who want to find strength in the stories of others, have their stories heard, or create new stories for themselves—We don’t have to suffer silently or alone. Providing a complete history of Tiffany’s community support activities makes using the word “epic” not an exaggeration. A mere sample of four weeks of Tiffany’s actions gives you an idea of how this architect works:
· Sept 23, 2018: Bi+ Visibility Day! Tiffany provided an all-ages, accessible (wheelchair) and inclusive “snacks-and-panel-and-poetry extravaganza” for those celebrating bi-visibility month.
· Sept 24, 2018: Self-care Survival Group. The Kavanaugh hearings stirred feelings of suffering for many people by revisiting trauma, anger, and pain. Tiffany ran a well-received online group offering hope and support.
· Sept 29, 2018: Very Professional discussion group hosted by Tiffany, allowed a networking space for challenging the definition of “professional” given its ability to exclude people whom identify as “fat, trans, disabled, neurodivergent, queer, BIPOC, or [those] with histories of trauma, homelessness, or (not socially sanctioned addictions)” desiring to network and converse.
· Oct 1, 2018: Self-care Group Part Two: Anger and Hope . Tiffany responded to the online group’s requests to keep up the momentum of conversation by providing education towards transforming their desire for change, hope, and anger into viable action.
· Oct 12, 2018: Witness, Respond, Resist: Supporting survivors and agitators will grant participants, in a supportive environment, tools for outreach and communication to those subjected or influenced by sexual violence. The event’s mission is: “Witness, validate, respond, and continue to resist.”
· Oct 14, 2018: No spoons left, only knives : Honouring our anger reflects the “complex anger” and “revisited trauma” of marginalized communities from the recent US Supreme Court nomination. Using narrative therapy techniques, Tiffany will speak to the anger in these stories and how rage, and our connection to rage, can confront injustice.
· Oct 16, 2018: Possibilities: Surviving the ocean of bad news Promises conversation focusing on how the bi+ community (bisexual, pansexual, asexual, two-spirit, and other non-monosexual ) is experiencing or processing recent toxic events and how it impacts their narratives and choices.
Avatars for change, like Tiffany, provide professional and personal support for the goals and healing of others; they are amazing individuals, however, they can be hindered when needing help themselves—asking for personal support is not one of Tiffany’s strengths.
The Narrative Therapy and Community Work graduate program, which grants training for these innovative counselling techniques, requires Tiffany to participate in rigorous two-week teaching blocks on campus in Adelaide, Australia; the next teaching block is in the last half of October 2018. The financial demands on Tiffany are not subtle: International round-trip flight; room and board; tuition fees; and two weeks of lost income.
Please consider contributing at least 10$, if possible, followed by a share of this post in your social media platforms. Funding Tiffany’s graduate education is not investing in one person; you are investing in an invaluable architect of community health, solidarity, and validation.
All donations go directly to Tiffany Sostar.
More on Tiffany Sostar: Main Website or Facebook Page
Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Tiffany designs, facilitates, and supports safer spaces and resources, which enable you to feel validated and find solidarity in like-minded individuals. Spaces such as the monthly meetings of their non-profit “Possibilities Calgary” (est. 2010) enabling an intentionally queer, feminist, anti-oppressive space for open discussions for everyone. Tiffany also creates resources such as their continuing work with collective document projects to aid those marginalized people in gaining tools for coping, recovery, or self-care.
Tiffany responds with action when confronting our struggles with injustice or lack of resources in marginalized communities. They create forums (physical spaces and digital) for those who want to find strength in the stories of others, have their stories heard, or create new stories for themselves—We don’t have to suffer silently or alone. Providing a complete history of Tiffany’s community support activities makes using the word “epic” not an exaggeration. A mere sample of four weeks of Tiffany’s actions gives you an idea of how this architect works:
· Sept 23, 2018: Bi+ Visibility Day! Tiffany provided an all-ages, accessible (wheelchair) and inclusive “snacks-and-panel-and-poetry extravaganza” for those celebrating bi-visibility month.
· Sept 24, 2018: Self-care Survival Group. The Kavanaugh hearings stirred feelings of suffering for many people by revisiting trauma, anger, and pain. Tiffany ran a well-received online group offering hope and support.
· Sept 29, 2018: Very Professional discussion group hosted by Tiffany, allowed a networking space for challenging the definition of “professional” given its ability to exclude people whom identify as “fat, trans, disabled, neurodivergent, queer, BIPOC, or [those] with histories of trauma, homelessness, or (not socially sanctioned addictions)” desiring to network and converse.
· Oct 1, 2018: Self-care Group Part Two: Anger and Hope . Tiffany responded to the online group’s requests to keep up the momentum of conversation by providing education towards transforming their desire for change, hope, and anger into viable action.
· Oct 12, 2018: Witness, Respond, Resist: Supporting survivors and agitators will grant participants, in a supportive environment, tools for outreach and communication to those subjected or influenced by sexual violence. The event’s mission is: “Witness, validate, respond, and continue to resist.”
· Oct 14, 2018: No spoons left, only knives : Honouring our anger reflects the “complex anger” and “revisited trauma” of marginalized communities from the recent US Supreme Court nomination. Using narrative therapy techniques, Tiffany will speak to the anger in these stories and how rage, and our connection to rage, can confront injustice.
· Oct 16, 2018: Possibilities: Surviving the ocean of bad news Promises conversation focusing on how the bi+ community (bisexual, pansexual, asexual, two-spirit, and other non-monosexual ) is experiencing or processing recent toxic events and how it impacts their narratives and choices.
Avatars for change, like Tiffany, provide professional and personal support for the goals and healing of others; they are amazing individuals, however, they can be hindered when needing help themselves—asking for personal support is not one of Tiffany’s strengths.
The Narrative Therapy and Community Work graduate program, which grants training for these innovative counselling techniques, requires Tiffany to participate in rigorous two-week teaching blocks on campus in Adelaide, Australia; the next teaching block is in the last half of October 2018. The financial demands on Tiffany are not subtle: International round-trip flight; room and board; tuition fees; and two weeks of lost income.
Please consider contributing at least 10$, if possible, followed by a share of this post in your social media platforms. Funding Tiffany’s graduate education is not investing in one person; you are investing in an invaluable architect of community health, solidarity, and validation.
All donations go directly to Tiffany Sostar.
More on Tiffany Sostar: Main Website or Facebook Page
Organizer and beneficiary
Red Davis
Organizer
Calgary, AB
Tiffany Sostar
Beneficiary
