MISSION
GOOD TO BE GOOD is an intersectional, community-wide nonprofit serving and empowering women and gender-diverse people in marginalized communities, with a mission to build a kind, connected, and equal world.
As a grassroots organization, we provide social services, advocacy, and integrated programming to our priority communities, aimed at co-creating meaningful progress toward gender equity.
Our community-driven work centres the issues, rights, and needs of women and gender-diverse people, particularly those from underserved communities, affected by inequities such as violence, poverty, and discrimination.
VISION
Guided by the principles of intersectional feminist and social justice, and the fundamental nature of interconnectedness, we boldly envision a future that is radically equitable, compassionate, and sustainable.
We are dedicated to supporting and liberating women in solidarity. Together, we harness our collective power to address the injustices that harm and marginalize us — expanding a world that truly values all life.
TOWARDS THE HORIZON OF EQUITY
Women have the power to transform the world for good — but the urgency to advance women’s rights and opportunities has never been greater.
Our goal is to empower, restore, and advance women’s rights and well-being, while remaining committed to breaking down the obstacles that hinder gender equity. Through our work, we strive to improve the conditions and realities of the women and gender-diverse individuals we serve, for the benefit of all.
We offer a growing range of accessible community programs, support services, and advocacy that mitigate and address the needs and tackle the barriers and injustices faced by women from historically marginalized and underserved communities. We equip our community members with the tools, resources, and opportunities to connect, heal, grow, and advocate for their rights, fostering progress toward gender equity.
Since 2016, we have served over 1,000 women and gender-diverse individuals across Canada, distributing more than 350,900 essential supports to those impacted by discrimination, violence, poverty, and oppression.
Our work is centred on creating social and economic opportunities and protections, engaging in rights-based advocacy, meeting basic needs, and raising awareness to amplify the rights, voices, and aspirations of the communities we serve.
Through diverse initiatives, programming, and human rights-informed campaigns, we have strengthened our commitment to advancing gender equality by driving grassroots interventions and meaningful solutions tailored and designed for women, by women. We believe women are uniquely positioned to confront the injustice and discrimination that affect their lives. By working directly with those most affected, we centre their experiences and meet them where they are to collectively develop strategies and supports that build power, protect rights, and foster connected, equitable communities.
WE PRIORITIZE WHAT WE WE BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE:
- Women and gender-diverse people deserve to live free from violence and abuse and discrimination of all forms.
- Addressing systemic barriers furthering discrimination against women by building solutions that move toward just, compassionate, and equitable outcomes in communities.
- Women and gender-diverse people with intersecting identities and experiences are invested in and cared for so they can build safe, thriving lives and have access to their rights and equal opportunities.
Why women and gender diverse people?
The fight for women’s rights, equality, and empowerment is universal. The fight for women’s rights, equality, and empowerment is universal. Women and gender-diverse people are disproportionately affected at all societal levels by unjust systems and practices rooted in patriarchal, racist, and oppressive ideologies and norms. Globally, they face significant social, cultural, and economic barriers to equality due to unequal power structures and conditions. These obstacles are particularly severe for women from marginalized groups, who experience heightened oppression, discrimination, and limited agency and choice. Barriers include limited access to legal aid and healthcare, displacement, isolation, crisis, and conflict, a lack of quality employment and education opportunities, and inadequate economic resources—often intersecting and compounding one another.
Women are frequently excluded from decision-making processes that impact their lives in homes, communities, workplaces, and governments. During emergencies and crises, they are among the first to experience disparities in health and safety and are at greater risk of losing income—especially if their mental health, housing, legal, or healthcare needs are unmet or if state institutions exacerbate their vulnerabilities. Violence and displacement intensify these challenges, creating trauma, restricting movement, and hindering access to essential support and services. As caregivers, healthcare providers, and community leaders, women are often on the front lines of crises and conflict, yet they are the least likely to receive adequate support in recovery, funding, and justice.
Ample evidence in the public domain underlines how advancing gender equity is one of the most effective ways to eradicate poverty, promote peaceful communities, reduce violence and exploitation, and bring long-lasting benefits to societies. It also means reducing economic vulnerabilities and mitigating exorbitant human and societal costs.
The vision of gender equity is based on fairness, justice, and having equal access to opportunities and resources according to circumstances and needs. It is the means to identify and remove barriers that compound the disadvantages faced by women and gender-diverse people and dismantle gender and racial discrimination caused by the parameters of patriarchy, racism, class hierarchy, and colonialism. Advancing gender equity is the foundation for healthy and prosperous societies.
We value women and gender-diverse people because centring the marginalized among us creates equity and justice that benefits everyone. The journey is long, but with each step we all take, the horizon of equality draws nearer.
We provide humanitarian services and community programs for women and gender-diverse individuals from marginalized and underserved communities, prioritizing gender equity through advocacy and community-building efforts.
As an organization, we centre the intersecting identities, lived experiences, and needs of women and gender-diverse people.
Guided by solidarity over charity, our approach is rooted in action. For us, these principles are verbs, not nouns. We listen to data, stories, our teams on the ground, and, most importantly, the women themselves to continuously evolve and improve the way we work. We also ask how we can change the systems and conditions that allow oppression to persist. We believe those closest to the issues are best positioned to respond, prevent, and co-create solutions. That’s why we work with community members, using “power-with and for” as a foundational principle for transformative justice, connection, sustainable development, and all that we aim to restore and transform together.
We believe the path to equality starts by centring those closest to the issues and solutions: women and gender-diverse people. Our focus is on organizing and empowering communities to work together toward change.
We recognize and amplify their power—especially their movements and acts of resistance—as a transformative force. Despite structural barriers that limit their freedom and rights, women and gender-diverse people continue to persevere and demonstrate leadership. Women are multi-dimensional beings who enrich communities and positively impact all aspects of life. They make significant contributions at home and in society. They are our neighbors, teachers, colleagues, community organizers, relatives, and friends.
Working in this space requires genuine respect and acknowledgment of grassroots and women’s activism. As long as there have been injustices, women have fought for a better world. We are proud to stand on the shoulders of the pioneers who came before us, and we continue to be inspired by the brave activists, everyday individuals, and dreamers who paved the way.
We are committed to employing both short-term and long-term strategies in our programs and services. Our approach integrates diverse perspectives and focuses on addressing the root causes of issues, using research and real-life experiences to identify and creatively solve the interconnected problems we aim to tackle.
Our practices are trauma-informed, strength-based, gender-responsive, feminist, pro-choice, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and participatory. These principles are woven into every aspect of our work and relationships.
We prioritize community-oriented strategies that focus on the experiences and needs of women and gender-diverse people, particularly those most impacted by the underlying drivers of disparity in all its forms. We collaborate with community members in program development, capacity-building, service design, and implementation, centring their unique needs, agency, priorities, learnings, aspirations, and challenges. We ask, “Whose voices should be heard as we shape our future and share the benefits of our collective efforts?” The solution is both simple and powerful: shift and share power.
At GOOD TO BE GOOD, justice and equity are at the heart of everything we do. Gender discrimination is rooted in broader social injustices that affect everyone, and we believe the only way to end it is by addressing its root causes and fostering social justice within our communities.
We are committed to supporting our team in pursuing equitable outcomes through anti-oppressive, intersectional approaches. We work to reflect the diverse communities we serve, challenging the systemic barriers and power imbalances that impact women.
Our approach goes beyond providing basic survival resources. We empower women and gender-diverse individuals to actualize their rights while ensuring they are treated with dignity, agency, and respect. By addressing gender injustices and considering all contributing factors—such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, poverty, and the stigma surrounding health—we work to dismantle the systems that disproportionately harm women and gender-diverse communities.
Our values define who we are and guide our work. We strive to meet the highest human rights standards in all our operations, from policies to processes, and we are committed to ethical decision-making. With these principles at the core of our mission, we are driven to challenge dominant gender justice paradigms and create meaningful change.
Learn about all of our organizational values here.
The interconnectedness that binds us has the power to build a just, equal, and kind world.
Empowering, protecting, and investing in women leads us to this vision.
WE ARE ALL CONNECTED
A letter from GOOD TO BE GOOD’s Executive Director
How can we envision a place worth going so we may do the work of reimagining equitable connected communities? How can we make hope a constant presence and honour our true nature of interconnectedness to improve conditions for those who have not yet experienced it?
When we cultivate a sense of solidarity, with the hope of building an equal and compassionate world, we inadvertently discover the great paradox that underpins what it means to be human—in our power lies the discovery of inherent togetherness and a way to arrive at our shared humanity. By growing our ‘good’ to others, we not only support them; we also care for ourselves and the future of our place, actively participating in its transformation and dismantling the colonial, patriarchal status quo of zero-sum thinking.
We are all interconnected: our struggles are linked, and our freedom goes without another. Life doesn’t start or end with any one person. Big picture, our lives are circular. By deeply recognizing this truth, we can work to improve our world—one we know and wish to inhabit is within reach.
Shoulder to shoulder, a just and kind world requires us to actively use our collective power through simple yet bold acts: embodying kinship, building in numbers, upholding humanity, and remaining awake to the interdependence of life. We need to find strength and hope in one another, work collaboratively to hold the line in movements, and build meaningful relationships. We must think about everyone involved so no one gets left behind—and do away from systems and social ideologies that hurt us by moving toward spaces that hold us. The very systems we’re fighting against live within us, too. Thus, our humanity insists that we must do this together—to interrupt injustice without mirroring it—because everything worthwhile is done this way.
While we’re here, we got to make it our work!
May you say no more to injustices placed against women and girls. May you find the possibilities to turn to one another, even those who confront these injustices in the raw. May you harness the forces of radical care and love. May you build the expansive communities to belong and be equal.
Let it land in your heart again and again that good, in all of its form, exists—it’s us who makes this possible.
– Char San Pedro
Founder of GOOD TO BE GOOD and Gender Equity Advocate
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