Keeping It Real By Tamika Gonzales, TG Health Educator from the October 2000 issue. As a health educator and an outreach worker, there are a number of issues and challenges that I face every time I do outreach with the transgender community. Whenever I go to clubs, walk the streets, or go to hotels or apartments to do outreach work, I always have to keep in mind that there's a tremendous diversity in the transgender community. Therefore, I try to treat every single person I come into contact with in a non-judgmental way and as people with important knowledge rather than students to be educated. Although I am equipped with harm reduction plans and health information, the real challenge is translating all the information into the language of the community and providing it in that particular cultural context. One thing I have learned from doing outreach over the past six years is that being culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate is one of the keys in doing effective outreach. The information is useless unless it is accessible to the people I am trying to reach. I always try to make the information relevant. Doing outreach in the transgender community has its own specific challenges. As a transgender person myself, it is not uncommon that I get stopped by the police and interrogated whenever I do outreach on the streets. The stigma and stereotyping that "every transgender person standing on the corner or walking on the streets is a working girl" is still one of the biggest challenges that, in my opinion, every transgender outreach worker has to tackle. In addition, the people I outreach to all have very busy schedules of their own. Most of the girls simply do not have the time. Therefore, I have to go out to these people on their own turf rather than recruit them to come into A&PIWC;'s offices. Meeting the basic standards and ethics of an outreach worker is another challenge. Having good street reputation, being consistent, dependable, responsible, trustworthy, respectful and respectable, honest, responsive to the community, and able to provide the highest quality of service provisions possible are qualities that I strive to possess whenever I do outreach. In my experience as a transgender and an outreach worker, I have learned one very valuable lesson which is responsible for making my outreach work such a success and making my community very appreciative and receptive to the work that I do: being real! This means blending in with the community, being a part of it rather than someone outside of it who thinks she is above everyone else. In other words, being a friend, a confidant, and most of all, a sister who cares.