HOW WE MADE THIS

Resources PDX was created in order to serve the needs of individuals in Portland who have trouble finding medical,and other, professionals who are educated about the unique challenges trans individuals face.

Conceptualization and preparation

In the spring of 2004, Clio and Fureigh, discussed the possibility of creating a health resource guide for gender-variant folks in Portland, something like an updated and expanded version of the HotRods guide that Gender Machine Works (props!) had put out several years before. Clio mentioned it to Fureigh, Fureigh schemed aloud about the potential usefulness of a web component, and a McGill-Lawrence grant proposal was born. The powers that be at Reed College deigned to award us the grant to cover our living expenses for the summer, and the project was born.

Unbeknownst to Clio and Fureigh, plans were being made at the same time by Llewyn at the newly formed Trans/Identity Resource Centre (TiRC) to create a similar directory. When Clio and Fureigh approached Llewyn to oversea the project, the serendipity sparked visions of a resource for both people seeking services and those who provide them. The seed for ResourcesPDX.org had been germinated. Although Resources PDX was originally conceived to be solely a medical resource guide, the concept was expanded to also cover useful non-medical resources as well thanks to the input and initial compiling of the non-medical resources by Christa-Margaret.

Focus groups

We wanted the guide to be as useful as possible, and we figured that the most efficient way to get some direction and input would be to organize focus groups. We designed a short list of questions to ask at the focus groups. We ended up meeting with two youth groups and one additional group whose members were contacted mostly through listservs and announcements on a community radio station.

At the first round of focus groups, we asked:

—What are some ground rules for this meeting?
—What are your criteria for a good medical practitioner?
—What should our criteria for inclusion be?
—What types of "trans"-friendly medical practitioners/healthcare providers have you had trouble finding? (Cardiologists, dentists, etc.)
—What are your concerns about the guide? (What should we be especially careful not to mess up?)
—How can we increase the usefulness of this guide?

At the focus group in the second stage, which was held approximately two months into the project, we provided updates about the state of the project and asked for:

—Additional recommendations (service providers and medical professionals who give good care to trans people, genderqueer people, and people targeted by transphobia)
—Things that seem to be going well with Resources PDX Things that could be improved about Resources PDX.
—Things to think about right now, for this version of the guide For future reference.
—How can we make this a useful guide?
—Additional comments and concerns (possibly regarding what we've asked in the interviews or our criteria for listing service providers)

Additional input

To provide additional ways for people to get in touch with us about the guide, we established a mailing address and an e-mail list. Drop boxes for anonymous submissions and comments were placed in conspicuous locations at SMYRC and TiRC.

Updating contact info

Contact information from submissions and the HotRods guide was updated, primarily with the help of Google and yellow pages.com.

Interviewing prospective listees

Prospective listees were drawn from submissions, the recommendations of Basic Rights Oregons' Trans Advisory Board, and the HotRods guide. Service providers were interviewed in person, over the phone, via e-mail, or via questionnaires sent in the mail (according to expressed preference).

Our questionnaire was largely based upon Transcend's guide, TransForming Community: Resources for Trans People and Their Families www.transgender.org/transcend/guide/appendix3.htm.

For interview questions click here.

Creating the listings of service providers

Service provider listings were generated by condensing interviews. Some information was deemed redundant and was therefore reprinted in an "unless otherwise specified, everyone said…" section. Other information seemed relevant for decisions about whether to include people in the guide, but we eventually decided to spare you the details of every person's intake forms. If you want 'em, we've got 'em; stop by TIRC or e-mail us and ask.

When appropriate we follow the followng template of information:

Name
Address
Phone
e-mail
web

Areas of Focus

Accessibility

Cost/Insurance

Gender Experience

Sexuality Experience

Youth Experience

Other

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Telling people that this exists

We wrote press releases to announce Resources PDX's launch. These releases were submitted to the local queer paper, the state newspaper, Portland's weekly newspapers, and the local community radio station. Notices were also sent to the GSA Network and Portland's colleges' queer alliance organizations.

Updates and offshoots

Please note that this information is quite deliberately not copyrighted. If Resources PDX just isn't doin' it for ya, or if you're trying to create a guide elsewhere, feel free to take the information contained herein and create another guide that suits your fancy and your needs. We'd appreciate it if you could retain the attributional lines (this bit was from HotRods, that bit was ResourcesPDX, etc.). Thanks, and feel free to contact us with any questions!

If you would like to update your listing simply fill send us your info, following the above guide. If you would like to have a listing added and we will follow up with some additonal questions then ask members of the community for references.

Any feedback, criticism, and suggested changes will help make this resource better the next time around.

Feedback, questions, updates, etc can be sent to TiRC

or via:

ATTN: Resources PDX
Outside In's TiRC
1132 SW 13th Ave Portland, OR 97205

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