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About Us
Co-op members live, work, and play on the unceded territories of many First Nations.
As Tau, we are guests everywhere, forever, and we thank our many hosts.
Many co-op events and activities are in the Territories of, but not limited to,
BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat), P’a:chi:da?aht (Pacheedaht), Spune’luxutth’ (Penelekut), Sc’ianew (Beecher Bay), Songhees, SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout), T’Sou-ke, W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), W̱SIKEM (Tseycum), and xʷsepsəm (Esquimalt), all of whom have a long-standing relationship with the land and waters from time immemorial that continues to this day.
Who we are and how we got here
Our co-op has been in service to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community since 2013
When Rainbow Health arose out of a community initiative, and we began training facilitators and hosting peer groups.
Rainbow Health was retired from service at the end of 2023 and replaced with two cooperatives that together model a new kind of community services organization to address the loss of personnel across the entire healthcare sector.
The two coops are:
TAU Wellness Cooperative is a cross-generational nonprofit workers co-op
that welcomes all genders and generations.
We provide livelihood for today’s community healers and training for tomorrow’s.
Our_Community Health Initiative Cooperative (O_CHI) is a cross-community collective action incubator and our (pending) charity for funding applications.
As an evidence-based community services developer, we use quantitative and qualitative data to design our programs.
From 2018-2023, with our partners the University of Victoria and the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, we completed the O_CHI research project investigating systemic change for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. A milestone of the project was anchoring BC’s participation in the 2019 TransPulse Canada survey.
We transform our theories of systemic change into community improvements through reciprocal, reiterative, pilot programs that strive to be present more than perfect.
These pilot programs create living wage livelihood for equity deserving community members through development and delivery of:
- Trauma-mitigating community wellness services
- Community knowledge exchanges and information resources
- Training in trauma-mitigation for community wellness workers
Our current projects include:
3 Mothers Medicine Camps: A new type of cross-generational community wellness service that addresses the root causes of disorders related to trauma.
Spectrum Quarterly—The Western Canada Community Services Directory: A directory of community services published since 2015 to provide the answers to “The Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Where They Live.”
The Community Wellness Worker training program: A three-year, self-directed, program that combines training in therapeutic touch, therapeutic trance, and therapeutic arts into one integrated approach.
We believe our programs will result in statistically evident improvements in social outcomes in our regions of practice within a decade.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like to know more about co-ops and our cooperative.