Dear Friend,

I’m writing to let you know about an exciting change happening at Egale Canada.

In response to a growing need in the community, Egale founded Egale Youth Services in 2014, providing direct services to vulnerable LGBTQI2S youth. Egale Youth Services has been a resounding success. It has impacted over 800 vulnerable youth, and now provides 160-200 counselling sessions per month. In the last 5 years, the centre has seen a 400% increase in therapeutic interventions and 127% increase in new intakes.

Due to this growth and maturity of the program, Egale’s direct service initiatives to youth will become an independent charitable organization called Friends of Ruby, effective today - November 18, 2019.

• Friends of Ruby Centre (formerly Egale Youth Services) will continue to provide programs and counselling services to support the needs of vulnerable LGBTQI2S youth at its existing drop-in centre.
• Friends of Ruby Home (formerly Egale Centre) will be the new LGBTQI2S transitional and emergency housing facility exclusively dedicated to serving homeless LGBTQI2S youth, aged 16 to 29, which will open in Spring 2020 at 257 Dundas St. E. as planned.

I wanted to let you know that Egale will continue to provide needed support to all LGBTQI2S communities across the country by informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion nationally, as well as enhancing the global movement. We do this through research, education and awareness initiatives, legal advocacy, and community engagement. 

Moving forward, donors, stakeholders, and community members such as yourself can choose whether to donate to Egale, Friends of Ruby, or both.

Please visit friendsofruby.ca to see the new brand and visit egale.ca for more information on our work. 

We thank you for your continued support of the LGBTQI2S community. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this change, please do not hesitate to contact me at Egale or Friends of Ruby at [email protected].  

Sincerely,

Helen Kennedy
Executive Director at Egale Canada

Egale works to improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and two-spirit (LGBTQI2S) people in Canada and to enhance the global response to LGBTQI2S issues. Egale will achieve this by informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion through research, education, legal advocacy, and community engagement. Join us by supporting our work to improve the lives of all LGBTQI2S people.

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