TMU’s new online hub makes it easier for 2SLGBTQ+ students to find support
To help strengthen connection, belonging and access to support, TMU has launched a new online resource hub for 2SLGBTQ+ students, and it puts everything in one place.
The hub went live in time for Pride Month. It brings together well-being support, crisis resources, mental health care, gender-affirming resources, academic opportunities and community connections, all on a single website.
The goal is simple: make it easier for queer and trans students to find help and feel like they belong at TMU.
Why it was needed
Support for 2SLGBTQ+ students already existed across TMU, but students said finding it was hard. Navigating different websites, offices and systems could make it difficult to know where to start.
“We wanted to make it as simple and straightforward as possible for our Two Spirit, queer and trans students to connect with each other and to connect with resources,” says Director of Community Wellbeing, Lee Hodge, who helped lead development of the project through TMU’s Community Wellbeing team. “2SLGBTQ+ students make up a significant part of our community and they can face additional stress and stigma, along with structural barriers to equitable health and wellbeing outcomes.”
The Community Wellbeing and Student Communications teams in the Office of the Vice Provost, Students collaborated to build the site.
Students also played an important role in the development of the site from the beginning, with faculty, staff, and campus partners providing feedback and content from their areas. Student feedback, annual campus well-being surveys and conversations with trans and non-binary students all helped shape the platform’s direction and priorities.
More than a website
The resource hub is intended to welcome and support 2SLGBTQ+ students, reinforcing TMU’s commitment to equity , inclusion and accessible support while also strengthening belonging on campus.
Hodge says the resource hub is about more than organizing links. It is about helping students access the resources they need to be successful during a formative stage of their lives.
“We’re hoping 2SLGBTQ+ students feel less lonely and feel a higher sense of belonging within the TMU community,” he says. “We want students to know that many people at TMU care about them and their well-being.”
In conversations that helped shape the site, students consistently said vibrant community connection and culturally relevant support mattered most to them.
“There’s a lot of support available, including peer groups, counselling and community connections,” he says. “We hope students walk away feeling like, ‘This is where I belong.’”
The site reflects TMU’s broader commitment to equity, inclusion and student well-being, while recognizing the importance of creating spaces where queer, trans and Two Spirit students can more easily find support and build community.
What’s on the hub
The site is organized into four key areas:
Community connection and belonging:
campus groups, events and organizations at TMU and across downtown Toronto, plus stories from 2SLGBTQ+ students, faculty and alumni.
Gender-affirming support:
guidance on navigating transition-related processes, including updating names on university records and accessing gender-affirming resources and services.
Well-being and crisis support:
counselling, mental health resources and crisis services that are culturally relevant and affirming.
Academics, careers and financial resources:
information on academic opportunities such as TMU’s LGBTQ2S+ Studies minor, as well as career development supports, scholarships, bursaries and financial resources available to students.
Built with students in mind
Hodge says the collaborative process reflected a broader effort across TMU to strengthen well-being supports for equity-deserving communities and make resources more accessible.
“Support for 2SLGBTQ+ students exists in almost every corner of TMU,” he says. “This site helps bring those supports together so students can more easily find the tools, resources and community connections they need to flourish here.”
The 2SLGBTQ+ student resource hub is now live.