In total we have 20 slots for workshops. There are three workshop types for your better orientation within the council. They are marked with little symbols, which you can find in the program:

• Skill Building Workshops
  These workshops are intended to give and/ or increase your skills in order to help you improve your work for the transgender community.
• Networking & exchange of best-practice
  In these workshops participants talk about best practice examples from their work, present the local conditions they are working under and/ or are especially suitable for networking of transgender activists.
• Future Work of TGEU
  Within these sessions the future of the network Transgender Europe is discussed shaped.
• Trans Specific
  These workshops are trans-specific. You do NOT have to be transgender to be able to attend unless otherwise indicated in the Workhsop description.
• Non-transgender Specific
  These workshops are not directly related to transgender contents.

1. Including Trans* in LGB-organizations
   Anna Kirey, Labrys Kyrgyzstan
   Alex Mamytovich, Labrys Kyrgyzstan
   Plenary Room
   
   The workshop is going to focus on participants’ experiences of being involved with LGBT organizations and at the end should produce a list of tips of how an LGB(T) organization can become inclusive and transgender-friendly. We will have role plays with solutions being played out for some situations that participants share. ‘Labrys’ will talk about their experience of starting to work on transgender issues.
2. Developing Advocacy Strategies Part I
   Cailin Mackenzie, Brussels
   Room 1
   
   This set of workshops provides participants with an understanding of the nature of advocacy and how to engage in it. It provides the foundations upon which to build advocacy strategies; participants will gain an understanding of how to approach advocacy, and develop the necessary thought processes to enable them to build effective strategies.
3. Trans Counselling services
   Ammo Recla, project manager ABqueer
   Es Mosel, counsellor TrIQ, Berlin
   Room 2
4. Future Work of TGEU
   Rosanna Viano
   Room 3
5. Movement in the Academia - Networking for the empowerment of International Transgender Studies
   Carsten Balzer/Carla LaGata, Transgender Network Berlin TGNB
   Room 4
   
   

   Thanks to the efforts of pioneers such as Leslie Feinberg, Sandy Stone, Susan Stryker, Kate Bornstein and Stephen Whittle, to name but a few, the Transgender Liberation Movement of the 1990s has started in recent years to cross the borders between the movement and academia. Transgender activists have become academics, and academics have become transgender activists.

   The medical discourse is still the dominant cultural lens through which transgender people are viewed in our societies. Trans people are pathologized and exoticized in diverse ways as a result, making the articulation of a “discourse interruptus” by living experts an essential step towards emancipation.

   New studies conducted by, or with the contributions of transgender activists – such as the study on the situation of transgender people in Portugal, presented at the 1st. European Trangender Council, and the study on the situation of transgender people in Europe, to be presented at the 2nd European Transgender Council – are important foundations for this counter-discourse.

   There are several other platforms where this liberating counter-discourse is presented, in addition to such events as these Councils. One example among others is the bilingual online publication “Liminalis – A Journal For Sex/Gender Emancipation”, edited by the Scientific Board of the Transgender Network Berlin (TGNB). However, there are also many activists and academics who still lack any platform.

   In this context, the aims of the workshop are to:

   • connect these academics, activists and platforms
   • facilitate the exchange of information and experiences
   • create new platforms and to enhance those which already exist
   • create a supportive activist-academic network
   • enhance the new discipline of Transgender Studies

   Number of participants: No restrictions!

   Biographical Note:
   Carsten Balzer/Carla LaGata: transgender activist and academic, co-founder of the Transgender Network Berlin TGNB, the Scientific Board of the TGNB and Liminalis, Ph.D. on the subject of transgender emancipation in the US, Brasil and Germany.

6. Vision Paper for TGEU
   Julia Ehrt, TGEU, Berlin
   Plenary Room
   
   

   In the workshop we will try to develop a vision for Transgender Europe as an organization. The guiding question will be: Where are we going? It is very important for Transgender Europe to have a clear vision for the organization. A vision that is shared and developed by the members of TGEU.

   The task for the workshop will not only be to discuss and develop vision, but as well to put it into wording that can be presented at the general assambly.

   The Steering Committee has worked on a draft for a vision paper in the last Steering meeting in Berlin in 2007. You can find this draft below and it will be used as a starting point for the discussion.

   Draft for a vision paper of TGEU:

   TransGender Europe will be a vital and stable organisation with sufficient funding to cover the necessary costs of developing and maintaining itself - including a full-time office in Brussels. Members of the association who are elected to office, employees and volunteers will be dedicated to provide the best of services to the membership and others.

   TransGender Europe will represent trans people throughout Europe. We will be a valid source of information and advice on trans issues. To this end, the Transgender Council will come together at least every two years to bring trans people and trans groups together to discuss policy and the further development of TransGender Europe. Through TransGender Europe, national, regional and local groups will receive the most complete and up to date information. TransGender Europe will have a place in European politics -and be recognised by European institutions as well as other international bodies as the leading lobbyist for transgender issues.

   TransGender Europe will help build a strong transgender movement through developing and implementing training for groups at all levels and throughout Europe.

   TransGender Europe will be an expert source of information on transgender issues. We will work with academic researchers to study relevant topics and see that the research is made available to policy makers and all trans people.

7. Developing Advocacy Strategies, Part II
   Cailin Mackenzie
   Room 1
8. Dealing with discrimination, out at the workplace
   Philippa James, TENI, Ireland
   Pia Nielsen, TransDenmark
   Room 2
   
   The workgroup focuses on a description of various kinds of discrimination and gives recommendations on what to do about it.Key words here are: What can the transsexual do at the workplace? Is it possible to take legal action? What implications does the discrimination have? Furthermore some recommendations on applications for a new job are given.
9. How to set up and run a trans youth group
   John Duffy, Ireland
   Adam McBride, Ireland
   Room 3
   
   Over the last number of decades lesbian, gay and bisexual youth have become more visible, vocal and represented at local, national and international level. Although the situation for Trans youth has greatly improved in certain places, this group still remains a largely invisible, voiceless and unrepresented population. A step in addressing this reality is the provision of a space in which trans identified youth are able to simply be themselves in a supportive, friendly and safe space.During the workshop we will impart the knowledge that was gained in the development of IndividualiTy, a Dublin based trans youth group. We will look into a number of different areas, from the media, child protection issues, funding, youth participation, advertising, advocacy, etc. The focus will be on the provision of practical tools in the setting up and running of a trans youth group.
10. How about Trans* and how would you like to talk about this subject
    Dan Ghattas, Berlin
    Room 4
    
    The aim of the workshop will be to develop a questionnaire which can be used to interrogate cis-people as well as trans-people. The purpose of the questionnaire will be to get a record of answers which will help us to improve our knowledge on how to communicate trans* to people who don’t understand what trans* is (e.g. family, friends). At the same time the political purpose is to get information about the best kind of speech dealing with the media and medial representation concerning our issue: Which are the best ways to talk to the media and how can we integrate the experiences of cis-people in the way we talk about trans* and make us therefore more understandable. (This, of course, is not about subduing ourselves to a heteronormative discourse but about finding the best strategies in speaking and writing about trans* which can help to accelerate the public awareness and understanding of trans* )By developing such questions (and then later by getting a record of answers in our different home-countries) we can learn a lot about the different local problems and how to deal with them within our countries as well as on a European or international level.

11. Conflict mediation in volunteer organisations
    Carolien van de Lagemaat, Netherlands
    Plenary Room
    
    

    Volunteer organisations start driven by a united ideal. But the story behind the ideal, how to achieve it, what we are willing to put in and wants in return differs. This is ground to collisions, while driven by the idealism they become ardent. Add to this that volunteer organisations most likely have a different power proportion than the organisation we normally belong to as family and work. In this session Carolien van de Lagemaat, coach and mediator, addresses: what is a conflict; how do they arise and how do I deal with them; is it always negative; respect for the other and still say no.

12. Finding our Transgendered Voice
    Jo Clifford, Scotland
    Room 1
13. Fundraising
    Karin Astrup, TransDenmark
    Anna Kirey, Labrys Kyrgyzstan
    Room 2
    
    This workshop will be about: 1. Public funding 2. Private foundation and private funding 3. Ideas for getting other sources of income. Anna Kirey will talk about grant writing, especially for public funding, and Karin Astrup will talk about private funding, as well as how to generate income for the organization from other activities.
14. Transgender EuroStudy: Legal Survey and Focus on the Transgender Experience of Health Care
    Prof. Stephen Whittle, PFC/MMU, Manchester
    Room 3
15. Trans in Serbia
    Andjela Tomic
    Room 4

16. Transition in Russia: pictures of life
    Kirill, Russia
    Plenary Room
    
    

    I want to make an “interactive journey” through the process of transition in Russia. With my comments on the way how concrete actions correspond with certain legal documents. I’ve walked a nice way myself (Kaluga-Moscow) and also I’ve read and heard in person reports of people from Tula, Kazan’, Toliatti, Usinsk, Novosibirsk and Ulan-Ude, also Saint-Petersburg and Kaliningrad. So now I’m trying to put all I’ve experienced from 1996 to current moment together and make an informative and interesting presentation with interesting questions from the auditorium. :-)

17. Lesbians, Gays and Transgender in Germany and Berlin
    Lela Lähnemann, Berlin
    Room 1
18. Best practices in trans*work
    Richard Köhler, TrIQ, Berlin
    Room 2
    
    

    You live – you learn! Is your Christmas fair THE event of your trans*community or do you successfully lobby for transgender rights at the local administration? Tell us about the flourishing campaign in your neighborhood or how you reach out to other transgender under difficult circumstances. In this workshop we want to share our (success) stories and learn from each other: What is it that you or your organization are doing extremly well? What are the do’s – what are the don’ts? Is there a code of best practice, inherent in all achievements of success? Can you advise someone how to avoid a setback you encountered?

    Even though every “case” is unique, we want to try to find common patterns and/or ideas that might work somewhere else as well. Let us bring together what has already proved to work and let it be inspiration for others. Every participant is encouraged to bring an own „case“, a success-story –might it be small or big- to be shared within the workshop.At the end we will not only have tons of new ideas but also gotten to know each other and each others’ work much better.

    Richard Koehler (*1980), (international) economist by training, has been active in the lgbt scence for 6 years and working with and for non-govermental organizations especially in Esatern Europe for nearly a decade.

19. Dealing with the Media
    Corinna Gekeler
    Room 3
20. Trans Youth Meeting 2009
    Alex Mamytov
    Akram Kubanychbek
    Dan Orsekov, Kyrgyzstan
    Room 4
    
    The workshop is going to be a creative discussion which will lead to forming a steering team for organizing a meeting for transgender youth in 2009.