The VTL cares about our community!!
In an effort to be COVID-19 aware and proactive, we are doing the following:
- Members are encouraged to contact us via phone or email to extend tools at no extra charge if you are feeling unwell, and/or are opting for social distancing measures.
- The BC CDC will be our guide and if closures are recommended, we will follow suit. Keep an eye on our social media and website for further information and updates on this.
- Volunteers are being encouraged to stay home if they need to for any reason.
- Extra cleaning efforts including wiping down tools, shared surfaces, and doorknobs are in effect.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please get in touch with us!! We can be reached at (604) 568 8071, and manager@vancouvertoollibrary.com
Take care everyone!!!
We are very excited to announce that we have partnered up with the Wood Shop Worker’s Co-op to improve our workshop space, and offer our members work space for larger scale project builds!!
Starting in February, the VTL will offer work space hours at the Wood Shop Worker’s Co-op every second Tuesday from 6 – 10pm. The Co-op is located at 1245 Glen Drive.
At the Tool Library, members can purchase punch cards for hourly increments that will grant access to the work space. After a short orientation with our work space supervisor, members can work on their projects on site. There are some tools available on site including two cabinet saws, two sliding compound mitre saws, a drill press, a planer, and various hand held power tools. Members are also encouraged to borrow VTL tools to bring to the work space for project execution.
For more information about this call the shop ((604) 568-8071), email the shop manager (Laine – manager@vancouvertoollibrary.com) or come on down in person and talk to one of our awesome volunteers who will be happy to fill you in.
VTL Workshop Facilitator and Work Space Supervisor Craig delivering an excellent box building workshop at the Wood Shop Worker’s Co-op space we’ll be using:
VTL Spoon Workshop Facilitator Devon delivering her popular spoon carving workshop at the Wood Shop:
Chris, Evan, and Jessica, the dream team driving the Wood Shop Workers Co-op:
We organize on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɁɬ nations in so-called Vancouver, Canada. The Organizing Committee stands in solidarity with Indigenous peoples in their struggle for autonomy and self-determination. We understand that the gender binary is a colonial construct, and affirm the diversity of gender identity and gender expression of people around the world, especially those who are reclaiming identities and roles lost, erased, and vilified due to colonization.
Trans Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-trans hatred and violence. The event is observed internationally, and held every year on November 20th, to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “
Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-trans murder cases — has yet to be solved.
Trans Week of Resilience was created by trans people in the United States to widen the focus of Trans Day of Remembrance and honour and celebrate the living trans community, especially trans people of colour, alongside memorializing those murdered and killed by anti-trans violence.
Our mission is to gather resources and support for Two Spirit, trans, and gender nonconforming communities to organize and participate in a variety of events and opportunities for ourselves and each other.
We envision the creation of safer spaces to learn, grow, heal, and build individual and community capacity to navigate day-to-day struggles and to resist hatred and violence.
Basis of Unity
- We assert that transmiosgyny and sex worker antagonism are the direct causes of violence faced by trans women and transfeminine people.
- We recognize that the majority of trans women murdered each year are Black women, Indigenous women, and women of colour from the Global South, many of whom are sex workers, and commit to leveraging our privilege, power, and social agency as trans people presiding in Western, Global North countries like so-called Canada.
- We acknowledge that there are many deaths of trans people that are unaccounted for including unreported / under-reported / misreported murders, suicides, as well as institutional violence, and work to highlight these realities.
- We understand that the gender binary is a colonial construct, and affirm the diversity of gender identity and gender expression of people around the world, especially those who are reclaiming identities and roles lost, erased, and vilified due to colonization.
- We work using anti-oppression, intersectionality, and decolonization as our framework to ground ourselves in the complex realities of oppression and violence, and seek to address issues that continue to affect trans communities local to our region, particularly those who are multiply-marginalized.
- We believe that the work is up to us to build community capacity and resilience to meaningfully challenge, resist, and fight the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist, cisheteropatriarchy, and push for stronger, more meaningful alliances among all marginalized communities.
For more information:
In honour of this amazing event, the Vancouver Tool Library and the Wood Shop Co-op are teaming up to bring Trans, Non-Binary, and 2-Spirit folks a free introductory woodworking workshop. This workshop will be facilitated by trans people, and is for self-identified trans people to attend.
Allies are encouraged to show support by making a donation to this event, 100% of which will go to the Trans Resiliency Fund – an initiative to support urgent and emergency needs of our local trans communities. Donations can be made on this page, or through: https://vancouvertdor.com/donate/
Location: The Wood Shop Co-op, 1245 Glen Drive, East Vancouver.
Date/Time: Saturday Nov. 23 @ 11:00AM – 2:00PM
Facilitators: Craig Orrett and Laine Hughes
Tickets: Available on Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/trans-week-of-resilience-intro-to-tools-build-a-stash-box-tickets-82290484053
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
The intention of this workshop is to give participants the knowledge and confidence to use some of the more common tools involved in woodworking, in a trans affirming environment. By the end of the workshop participants will have applied their newfound knowledge and skills towards creating a small wooden box that they will be able to take home with them.
So many thanks to Kyle and Sandra from Tradeworks/The Open Door Group for the big tool donation!! We are extremely sorry to see Tradeworks shut up shop, but we know the spirit of the organization will continue on, and we will do all we can to support women and underrepresented people interested in getting into the trades!!!
