Rainbow Faith and Freedom started in 2018, but it was in 2019 when the real work began. This past year our team has accomplished so much, and in so little time.
We built our leadership team and saw folks of diverse talents and backgrounds join with Rainbow Faith and Freedom working to make our vision a reality. I went to Ottawa, Washington, and even the United Nations in Geneva to share our vision of how to make the world a better place. The team has built the legal administrative structures that will enable us to grow and manifest our vision into reality.
A sturdy house is built on a sturdy foundation; 2019 was the year of laying the sturdy foundation on which all else will be built. It’s important to invest in this import stage of development and ensure that all the right structures, processes and practices are in place so that we can grow, scale and expand our vision into a self-sustaining organization that can serve as many people as possible.
Here is a list of all that we have accomplished this year:
Attained Not-For-Profit status in June. We are currently working on getting Charitable Status.
We have signed Memoranda of Understanding with Egale in Canada and the Global Justice Institute in the USA, and are working on one with Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.
We now have several teams in place:
Board of Directors (which meets monthly)
Volunteer Team
Communications and Technology Team
Finance Team
Strategic Partnerships Team
We are recruiting for Fundraising and Research Teams
We launched our website in late June: www.rainbowfaithandfreedom.org
We received government funding (through Egale) for eight weeks to hire a summer youth person and extended her contract until the end of 2019.
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes was appointed by the Board as the Executive Director.
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes made some international trips which went really well, including:
Participated in a panel discussion at the UNHRC, and attended meetings with the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland
Attended the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC
Attended the Human Rights Campaign Equality Forum “‘Religious Liberty’ or Discrimination? ‘Unalienable’ Rights and the Fragmentation of Human Rights”, co-hosted by Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Campaign, in Washington, DC
We applied for Charitable Status.
We hosted a team appreciation event on September 12, 2019, and a Holiday Social for team members and donors on December 3, 2019.
I am so grateful for all of the love, support, help, hard work and donations that everyone has made to make this first year so successful. If 2019 was this amazing, I can only imagine how amazing 2020 will be!
Thanks to everyone who has helped move us closer to making the dream of a world in which LGBTI people can be welcomed as full participants in their faith communities and families a reality. We look forward to working with you in 2020 and beyond!
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, C.M.
Founder & Executive Director, Rainbow Faith and Freedom