Desde un Corazón Trans
T4T Empowerment; Desde un Corazón Trans, was born from a trans woman’s love for her Trans, Gender Expansive (TGE) and migrant communities, who face specific forms of state-sanctioned violences due to these intersectional positionalities. However, through these challenges, our community rises, resists, and innovates new ways of being.
TRANSformative Storytelling
Our TRANSformative Storytelling program stems from our ED’s documentary La Perla Victoria; Desde un Corazón Trans (synopsis below). We are working on growing this offering for the trans movement and trans archives in order to fight against society’s control and erasure of trans and migrant narratives by uplifting self-told stories, instead of stories told by an exploitative third party. We also hope this will break down monolithic trans stories and instead expand people’s conceptions of transness, trans experience, trans liberation, etc, thus strengthening the larger public’s understanding of intersectional movement building.
La Perla Victoria; Desde un Corazón Trans Synopsis
La Perla Victoria: Desde un Corazón Trans is based on an intimate, trauma-informed, and community-rooted documentary approach. The film is guided by Victoria Castro’s own voice and presence, allowing her to narrate her story on her own terms, without anyone speaking for her. Rather than sensationalizing violence or suffering, the documentary focuses on dignity, autonomy, and emotional truth, creating space for complexity, contradiction, and transformation.
Visually and narratively, the film moves between memory and the present, between crossed borders, the ghosts of the past, and the slow process of healing. Through observational moments, personal reflections, and carefully contextualized archival and environmental footage, the film chronicles Victoria’s journey as a trans woman who survived transphobic violence, the criminalization of sex work, domestic abuse, and the particularly dehumanizing conditions faced by trans women in U.S. immigration detention centers. These systems are shown not as abstractions, but as forces that shape the body, the psyche, and relationships.
At its core, the documentary is an act of trans self-representation and trans-affirming care. It highlights Victoria’s resilience, her T4T relationship with her husband AJ, her reunion with her family, and her ever-evolving relationship with her own trans identity. By centering love, survival, and self-knowledge, alongside grief and loss, La Perla Victoria resists narratives that reduce trans migrants to mere victims. Instead, it offers a portrait of trans life that is tender, political, and profoundly human, rooted in the belief that telling our stories is itself a form of liberation.
Trans Leadership Development Cohort
Our T4T Leadership Program consists of multi-day workshops that empowers trans folks to take back their autonomy, heal from learned transphobic conceptions of self doubt, and gain tools to advocate alongside each other to dismantle the transphobic, racist, and xenophobic systems we face. We also aim to increase trans folks’ economic stability, and thus safety, through professional development workshops.
In November 2025, we hosted our first-ever T4T Leadership Cohort, bringing together 12 participants for an intentional space focused on leadership, connection, and collective growth. All participants expressed gratitude for the space and interest in staying connected and supporting future cohorts.
Building on that first experience, in 2026 we welcomed 10 participants to our second T4T Leadership Cohort. The program continued to center intentional, smaller-group spaces where Trans and Gender Expansive participants could develop their leadership, build relationships, and strengthen their collective power.
The 2026 cohort included sessions on:
- Types of Leadership
- Abolitionist Community Building & Power
- Mental Health as an Organizer
- Organizing Strategies from an Abolitionist Trans Sex Worker Perspective
Across both cohorts, we have seen how quickly trust can develop when participants are given space to be vulnerable, lean on one another, share lived experiences, and create room for laughter and connection. These relationships extend beyond the cohort itself, creating networks of mutual support and solidarity.
For T4T Empowerment, these experiences affirm that intentional, smaller-group spaces are essential to building stronger and more sustainable movements. By investing in leadership development and relationships within our Trans and Gender Expansive communities, we are cultivating the collective power needed for the long fight ahead
Trans Sex Worker Group
Our monthly workshops for trans sex workers create a safe, judgment-free, and community-based space where we share tools, knowledge, and strategies to strengthen our safety, well-being, autonomy, and collective organizing. Each month, we explore a different topic shaped by the lived experiences, priorities, and needs of our trans sex-working community.
These workshops go beyond information sharing—they are spaces for skill-building, connection, leadership development, and collective power. Participants learn from one another, exchange resources, build stronger support networks, and develop practical strategies to navigate the systems and barriers that impact our lives. By centering the knowledge and leadership of trans sex workers, the program challenges stigma and isolation while creating opportunities for participants to become leaders, organizers, and advocates within their communities.
Through consistent monthly engagement, we are building a stronger network of trans sex workers who can care for one another, share resources, organize collectively, and advocate for their rights and autonomy. Our goal is not only to respond to immediate needs, but to build the long-term leadership, solidarity, and collective power needed to create lasting change.
Additional T4T Workshops
As an extension of our T4T Leadership programming, we also offer one-time workshops, often requested by partner organizations for themselves and/or their participants. Some examples are:
- Destigmatizing HIV/AIDS
- PrEP/PEP 101
- HIV 101
- Gender and Sexuality Comprehension Trainings
- Domestic Violence Prevention for Trans People
- Unlearning Our Own Internalized Transphobia & Nurturing T4T Solidarity
- Trans Migrant Resiliency
- Violence Prevention for TLGBQI+ Sex Workers
- How to Organize a Successful TLGBQI+ Event
- Name and Gender Marker Change
- Grant Searching & Writing for Small Trans-Led & Serving Organizations
T4T Community Advocacy
T4T Empowerment co-organizes and participates in local and national-level advocacy efforts, particularly focusing on trans liberation, migrant justice, and decriminalizing sex work.
HIV Prevention & Destigmatizing HIV/AIDS
At T4T Empowerment, we are dedicated to providing specialized training and workshops to address the diverse realities of HIV prevention. Through holistic approaches, we utilize a variety of educational methods to empower individuals and communities.
Notably, our ED and Founder, a transgender woman with over a decade of experience in HIV prevention, is a certified HIV rapid testing counselor with the San Francisco, California Department of Public Health. For her, raising awareness about prevention and working directly with communities based on their specific circumstances is paramount.
We also conduct educational workshops to eliminate the stigma surrounding people living with HIV. At T4T, we recognize that prevention methods are diverse and tailored to each individual; therefore, we provide the necessary tools, accurate information, and direct referrals to essential resources, ensuring that everyone can access the medications, education, and services they need.
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