The Gender
Expression Fund

2023-24

The Gender Expression Fund:
A community-led fund that transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming students can use to buy up to £50 of gender-affirming items, such as (but not limited to): new clothes/underwear, chest binders, breast forms, packers, wigs, sports/swimwear, makeup/nail polish, pronoun badges, pride merchandise, and books.This is the information site for Warwick University's 2023-24 Gender Expression Fund, organised by Warwick Pride, the LGBTQUIA+ Association and the SU Trans Students' Officer, and made possible by Warwick SU.

• Central Information Hub for the Fund

❗ APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED ❗

ℹ️ Current Status ℹ️The 2023-24 Fund is now officially closed. Applications will be processed over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for updates! If you have any issues, please contact at [email protected].

About

ℹ️ The Gender Expression Fund: ℹ️
A community-led fund that transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming students can use to buy up to £50 of gender-affirming items, such as (but not limited to): new clothes/underwear, chest binders, breast forms, packers, wigs, sports/swimwear, makeup/nail polish, pronoun badges, pride merchandise, and books.


📄 Rationale: 📄
Going to University is the first time that many will have the opportunity to live away from home. This affords the privacy and security to explore and affirm sexual orientation and gender identity in a welcoming and accepting environment. However, there are still barriers to gender affirmation, especially for students who come from a lower socioeconomic status, who do not have familial monetary support, and/or who struggle to pay their rent and living costs. These people often do not have the funds to spare for what are life-changing gender-affirming items, and may instead choose to go hungry in order to buy them.From student records for the 2020/21 academic year, 1% of students at Warwick explicitly said that they do not identify as the gender they were assigned at birth. The actual number is likely higher, given barriers to disclosure. With a student body of ~29k, there are at least 290 students who fall somewhere under the transgender umbrella - a not-insignificant number, equivalent to the yearly intake of a large undergraduate course.From Student PULSE Survey data in 2020, we know that LGBTQUA+ students are, compared to non-LGBTQUA+ students: 6% less likely to be satisfied with their university experience, 5% more likely to have seriously considered dropping out of university, 7% less likely to feel that the university cares about their wellbeing, and 6% less likely to agree that there is a strong sense of community at the university. It is of great importance to address these disparities to ensure the happiness, health, and subsequent success of LGBTQUA+ students at Warwick. With this project, we aim to make a difference to their University experience.To this end, the Warwick Pride Society applied and won funding for the inaugural year of “The Gender Expression Fund” in 2021/22 from the Warwick Innovation Fund. In 2022/23, the second year of this project was funded by Warwick SU, the Innovation Fund and the Rainbow Taskforce. In this third year, we are delighted to say that the SU has pledged guaranteed funding for this and future years.Applications for items are assessed solely by transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming exec members of Warwick Pride, the LGBTQUIA+ Association, as they have an understanding and appreciation of the needs of the community. This addresses the significant barriers posed when applying for similar funds administered by those outside of the community, e.g. the University hardship fund. LGBTQUIA+ students fear disclosure to and judgement from those outside the community assessing their needs, with whom the knowledge and appreciation of their needs is not guaranteed.


💌 With thanks to: 💌
Warwick SU for seeing the benefits this project had on the lives of trans students at the University in these past few years and for consequently funding it this year and in future years.The Warwick Innovation Fund and its generous donors for providing the funding for the inaugural year of this project.The Warwick Pride Exec and the Warwick SU Trans Students' Officer, Dorian Valentine, for organisation of the fund this year.Dr. Ares Osborn, past exec for Warwick Pride, who founded the fund and ran it during its first two years.

Apply

❗ Please ensure you read all of the text below before applying.👇 The application form can be found at the bottom of the page.


To access this fund, you must:💷 Be a current student at The University of Warwick;
💷 Identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender-diverse (this includes identities under those umbrellas and identities that are equivalent);
💷 Be able to provide links to the item(s) you wish to purchase with the fund that come to a total monetary value (including shipping and any VAT import costs to the UK) of no more than £50;
💷 Be able to collect these item(s) (or nominate someone to collect them on your behalf) from the University of Warwick campus by the end of the 2023-24 academic year;
💷 Agree to your data being used per the "Data Usage" statement later on this page.


Application process:*📋 The first round of applications are open from Mon 15 Jan, 9:00am to Sun 11 Feb, 11:59pm (the end of Term 2 Week 5).
📋 Applications will be assessed solely by transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse members of the Warwick Pride exec team during Week 6-7 Term 2 (12-23 Feb).
📋 Emails will be sent to everyone who applied by the end of Week 7 (Sun 25 Feb), detailing whether or not their application was successful and what items are being purchased for them.
📋 Items will be purchased directly from the fund at the beginning of Term 2 Week 8 (Mon 26 Feb), and delivered to the Students’ Union in the following weeks.
📋 The members of the Warwick Pride exec team who assessed the fund will examine packages as they come in and then arrange pick-up with their recipients via email. We hope to have all items handed off to their owners by the end of Week 1 Term 3 (Sun 28 Apr).
📋 Everyone who applied for the fund will be given a link to a feedback form on The Gender Expression Fund (you will find a leaflet within your package). This will be used in the final report (see Data Usage statement).
📋 If there is money left over in the fund after the first round of applications, this will be dedicated to a gender-affirming initiative of the Gender Expression Fund team's choice based on the budget available. This may include previous initiatives such as the purchasing of pride badges, lanyards and wristbands, or more expensive investments such as voice training sessions. More information on this will be given once the first round of applications has been distributed.*Please note: dates listed are estimations and may be subject to change. For updates, you are encouraged to keep an eye on the email you supply in your application, Warwick Pride's social media, and to contact [email protected] with the subject line "Gender Expression Fund" if you have any queries.

Guidance on choosing items:⭐ Your item(s) must be available in an online store with delivery - we cannot physically go and collect items in-person.
⭐ Please select item(s) from a UK store where possible; stores outside the UK will be subject to additional tax and shipping that must be included within the application maximum of £50.
⭐ You can list multiple items, as long as you do not exceed £50 in total. However, if you do, please make sure you rank items in order of "importance" (i.e. which ones you'd want purchased most to least) in the case that we cannot fund everything you want.
⭐ Please make sure you check sizing guides. It may not be possible for exchanges to be made if the clothing doesn’t fit or the item is not eligible for exchange, but we will work with you to try and do this should it be necessary.
⭐ If the item(s) you want is currently out of stock, you can request a gift card if the store you wish to purchase from sells them. If the item you want goes out of stock between your application and our purchasing, we will contact you to seek an alternative, whether this be a gift card, a different colourway, or another item entirely.
⭐ If the item(s) you want exceeds £50, and the store you are looking to purchase it from sells gift cards, we can part-fund via purchase of a gift card. Please include this in your application if applicable. Please note, there is no other way for us to part-fund for logistical reasons.
⭐ If you're not sure where to begin looking for what you're after, we've collected a brief guide to some of the more popular, well-known and trusted brands in the UK. Head on over to Retailers for all the info!
⭐ If you've never done [insert thing related to your transition] before and don't know where to start learning how to do it (safely), we've made a Guides page to hopefully point you to a little help!

Data usage:The data provided to the application form will be solely accessed by transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse members of the Warwick Pride exec team.The data provided to the application form will be used for 2 purposes:
👉 To assess applications and award money to applicants from the Gender Expression Fund;
👉 To prepare a report at the end of the project that will be shared with stakeholders of the Warwick Students’ Union, and publicly on Warwick Pride’s platforms. No data that allows any individual to be personally identified will be included in this report (including names, student IDs, emails)All data submitted to the application form will be wiped following the publication of the report and by the end of the academic year 2023-24.If you wish to withdraw your application and have your submitted data deleted at any time, you may email [email protected] with the subject line “Gender Expression Fund - Data Withdrawal”

Form details:There are 4 sections in the application form:
🕐 Data usage agreement (compulsory) - so that we can process your application
🕑 Personal details (compulsory) - so we can contact you and so that we can confirm you're eligible to apply to the fund
🕒 Demographic questions (optional) - so that we can get an idea of who is applying to the fund and why
🕓 Purchase request (compulsory) - so that we know what we're purchasing for you!

👇 If you wish to apply for the fund, please click the button below to go to the application form!

• Apply

Retailers

You are not limited to these stores or item categories, but we've provided this list of (mostly) UK-based retailers as a good starting point if you don’t know where to look!➕ If you have any suggestions, please contact Pride in their Discord server if you're a member (see Contact), or email
[email protected]
with the subject line "GEF Retailers" and we'll vet and add them!

Guides

Learning new things during your transition - how to bind, tuck, pack, how to do your makeup and nails, how to get rid of your body hair, how to navigate clothing sizes (the list goes on) - can often be daunting. We've compiled this selection of guides to offer you a starting point (and to encourage you to be safe as well)!➕ If you have any suggestions, please contact Pride in their Discord server if you're a member (see Contact), or email
[email protected]
with the subject line "GEF Guides" and we'll vet and add them!

Contact

The Gender Expression Fund is managed by the exec members of Warwick Pride (the student society focused on socials, campaigning and welfare for LGBTQUIA+ students and their friends at the University of Warwick) and the Warwick SU Trans Students' Officer (the elected representative for trans students within the Students' Union).Any questions regarding the Gender Expression Fund should be sent to
📧 [email protected]
with the subject line "Gender Expression Fund"To learn more about Warwick Pride, you can find information and socials via their linktr.ee
🌳 https://linktr.ee/warwickprideIf you're a University of Warwick student/staff member and wish to advertise this to your friends, student society, colleagues, departments, research groups etc, we'd absolutely love you to - and you can do this by sharing our social media posts!Below are the links to our main advertising posts on our 3 platforms:
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.