POOLaide Webinar: Safety in the Pool Beyond the Head Count: Creating Safer Spaces in the Water for Trans Communities

Kaeden Seburn, Ten Oaks Project
March 1, 2021

In 2016, the Ten Oaks Project started a monthly swim night for trans and gender diverse children and youth, many of whom had stopped spending time in the water because of the transphobia they experienced. The Trans Children and Youth Swim Night became a place to reclaim space in pools, rediscover a love of swimming, and create community.

In this presentation, Kaeden will share what they have learned about assessing and meeting community needs around recreation, working alongside city officials and pool staff, tackling barriers and challenges of all kinds, funding models, and creating policy, protocols, infrastructure, and safer space guidelines for trans swim nights. They will walk you through actions you can take to create pool programming specifically for trans communities, as well as how you can shift your current programming to be more inclusive for folks of all genders.

Kaeden Seburn (they / he) is a nonbinary, transmasculine, white settler, a bachelor of social work student at Carleton University, and a trans community organizer, activist, and educator from unceded Algonquin territory. In addition to their role at the Ten Oaks Project, Kaeden is a co-founder and facilitator of Support and Education for Trans Youth (SAEFTY) Ottawa, and is the Trans Gender Diverse Student Support Coordinator for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Their work focuses primarily on depathologizing trans identities and ensuring that trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse youth have access to affirming health care, schools, and social services. Kaeden is passionate about camp, longboarding, and being outside, and can often be found at the top of the nearest good climbing tree.