Using Creativity to Promote Inclusivity

June is a month of being unapologetically yourself! Not just accepting yourself but celebrating the very essence of your identity and existence. What started with the Stonewall riot, half a century ago, has transformed into a saga of inclusion, acceptance and PRIDE!

Every year, the world celebrates Pride Month in June dedicating it to LGBTQIA+ community and re-asserting their rights to a dignified life. Pride Month is just not about pomp and show or taking it to the streets with banners and flags unfurling overhead, it is about initiating the much-needed dialogue around inclusivity and acknowledgement of diversity in all spheres.

The PRIDE flag, wherein red stands for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, indigo for harmony, violet for spirit, black for diversity, and brown for inclusivity, is a symbol of the struggle that the community has endured since the time immemorial as well as oneness that the community enjoys internally.

Connecting Dreams Foundation stands big for striving to create socially-inclusive spaces. The Transformation Program is the living testimony of the ideals that it stands for. Transformation is an initiative taken towards providing career advancement and empowering Transpersons, starting from building of knowledge in IT, skill building, and moving towards mainstream employment or entrepreneurial opportunities.

This Pride Month, CDF joined hands with Goodera to celebrate the diversity and understand the importance of inclusivity in corporate spaces with the employees of Tesco and AXA XL. The sessions were facilitated by Dr. Simi Mishra, Director, Communication and Advocacy at CDF and Goodera, with logistics support from Arshveer Kaur, Associate Program Manager, CDF. 

The sessions were kick-started  with the ice-breaker that made the participants ponder over the history of LGBTQ+ activism. One of the major undertones of the sessions was to familiarize the participants about the terminology used in the context of trans-community. This was put into action through a wonderful activity of creating posters wherein each participant had to create a poster that inhibited a value one stands for, including a terminology that he/she learned about and an image that brought home an idea about having the sessions in the first place. All in all, the sessions turned out to be a huge success. Piya Kapoor, Founder at Satrangi Samaj and a member of trans-community, also witnessed the efforts made by the participants. In her address, she expressed her gratitude to Dr. Simi and CDF for initiating and helping them through the Transformation Program.

Regarding the sessions, she stated, “I really enjoyed the session. I was amazed to see the engagement of the participants. The session made me realize that still there is hope and if such initiatives continue, soon we can achieve our goal of having inclusive spaces around us. I am really glad that participants had put such efforts in creating the posters and understanding the

terminology. All in all, it was a great event. Thank you for inviting me to be part of it.”

Here are the glimpses from the session!

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