Centro de Apoyo a Identidades Trans (CAIT)

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Mexico

Number of survivors served in a year

Less than 20

Languages

Spanish

Groups most commonly served

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Sex workers Women

Type of organization

Grassroots/community-based organization Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO)

Program model(s)

Holistic crisis response Rights-based economic justice Survivor-centered income generation Systemic change through strategic partnerships Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

centro.apoyo.identidades.trans@gmail.com

Service Area(s)

Mexico City, Mexico

Successes and Impact

“We are trans people for trans people, who can understand without judging, without violence, and above all, who can accompany and empathize.”¹

CAIT has transformed the lives of trans women in Mexico through an innovative peer-to-peer support model that recognizes trans women’s shared experiences and harnesses their ability to support each other to build economic and emotional security.

Responding to immediate needs with a trans women-centered approach

CAIT’s Emergency Fund gives trans women access to essential resources in critical moments, especially when they decide to leave situations of violence and have nowhere else to go. “We decided to create this emergency support fund for trans people because we realized that there were urgent situations [and] that there was no fund . . . to cover expenses. I’ll give you an example: A peer [compañera] who is ill and doesn’t have the money to pay for medication, who doesn’t have the resources to go to the hospital, or who faces violence and suddenly decides to leave their home and has nowhere else to go. . . . That’s why we created this trans fund.”

Participants determine their own needs and receive flexible support for temporary housing, food, medication, or other urgent expenses. Women typically receive a one-time grant of around 500 Mexican pesos (about $27 USD) through the fund. Responsive emergency funding also proved crucial during unforeseen crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, when many women lost all income. The fund’s flexibility allows the organization to respond quickly to any crisis. CAIT complements the fund’s financial support with additional non-financial assistance tailored to each participant’s specific needs, including housing, healthcare, or other immediate concerns.

Strengthening community solidarity networks

Trans women have created communication and mutual support networks that facilitate the exchange of resources, information, and economic opportunities. These safe spaces let women share their experiences, find emotional support, and develop leadership skills.

These networks not only offer emotional support but also strengthen community ties, enabling the development of collective strategies to address everyday challenges. Through these shared experiences, CAIT fosters the creation of safer spaces and promotes meaningful changes within their communities. As one team member expressed, “I believe that through accompaniment . . . drawn on our own lived experiences, we can make a significant contribution to the women who turn to the organization.”

Transforming systems through survivor-led advocacy

CAIT has made significant progress in changing public policies that directly impact women’s economic autonomy and security. One notable achievement was contributing to the repeal of the classification of sex work as a civic offense. “Two years ago, we succeeded in repealing the classification of sex work as a civil offense from the [law]. Of course, we accomplished this hand-in-hand with other organizations; we did not do it on our own.”

This legal amendment takes an important step toward reducing the criminalization that many trans women face when seeking avenues to earn income, expanding their options for building economic security without facing legal persecution.

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“Often, what we need most is to be listened to and to receive guidance so that we know how to act or react in the face of all kinds of violence.”

About the Program

CAIT’s comprehensive approach responds to both the immediate needs and the structural barriers facing trans women survivors. Their initiatives arise directly from program participants’ lived experiences, who identify the most effective interventions in their specific contexts. CAIT continues to adapt its initiatives to survivors’ emerging needs.

The program combines three key elements: the Emergency Fund, which provides direct and flexible financial assistance; the Labor Inclusion Program, which creates pathways toward sustainable economic independence; and the Community Support Networks, which strengthen solidarity among survivors.

This model recognizes that economic violence often manifests in specific ways for the women that CAIT supports. As the organization explains, “Economic violence by intimate partners toward us, trans women, is a highly systemic form of violence that has received very little attention.”

Program Development and Key Strategies

The success of CAIT’s programs is grounded in three key strategies that respond to the specific challenges that trans women face when trying to establish economic security:

Continuous adaptation based on listening, guidance, and peer support
Community collaboration and digital connections to overcome geographic and mobility barriers
Strategic partnerships to expand opportunities

Continuous adaptation based on listening, guidance, and peer support

CAIT knows that survivors’ needs are constantly changing. The organization’s approach focuses on listening, guiding, and supporting survivors at every stage of their engagement with CAIT: “We have a methodology for this and other cases, which is listening, guiding, and accompanying, because we have seen in this and other cases that there are people who need to talk, who want to share their feelings, their emotions.”

This emotional support is inseparable from financial support. Together, women explore how relationship dynamics affect their financial autonomy, uncovering patterns that went unnoticed precisely because safe spaces to share these experiences didn’t exist.

Community collaboration and digital connections to overcome geographic and mobility barriers

CAIT works closely with community leaders and trusted local figures to create safe environments where women can participate without restrictions. Recognizing the various mobility barriers many survivors face—whether due to partner control, family responsibilities, or financial constraints—the organization has developed strategies to bring its services directly to communities. “We have several WhatsApp groups with peers [compañeras] from different municipalities . . . We work in a more structured way in some areas to make it easier for everyone to participate.”

These WhatsApp groups provide regular communication channels among women in different geographic areas, allowing them to share information about training, resources, and job opportunities. In some cases, CAIT brings training directly to the communities where survivors live, ensuring that no one is excluded due to time or transportation constraints.

Through this community-based digital approach, CAIT creates spaces where trans women can speak openly about their experiences while accessing concrete tools to build economic autonomy, breaking the isolation survivors often experience in situations of violence.

Strategic partnerships to expand opportunities

CAIT develops partnerships with government and private sector entities to create pathways toward economic autonomy. Their Labor Inclusion Program collaborates with companies and intermediary organizations to connect trans women with formal employment opportunities.

One of the organization’s key initiatives involves working with local government agencies to ensure that employment programs are accessible to trans women. A distinctive element of these partnerships is CAIT’s preventive approach: “We believe that it is important [with government social programs], as with companies, to first raise awareness and train people in these spaces before referring [trans women] [to those programs].”

The program also includes training in entrepreneurship and business development, and offers workshops on the use of technology for those needing additional experience, enabling them to explore new opportunities in the job market.

Survivor Leadership

“They must be led by trans women for trans women, because we are the ones who truly know what we go through in the face of this violence. I believe that’s the starting point for doing good work.”

CAIT was created by and for trans women, a principle they consider fundamental to the organization’s effectiveness. Survivors lead every aspect of the organization, from program design to policy advocacy, bringing their lived experience to create truly relevant solutions: “I think being in [the organization] and doing this type of work makes me proud, because few organizations have this capacity to support and guide peers.”

This leadership shapes both internal management and external advocacy work. CAIT participates in working groups with government institutions to improve the response to cases of violence against women, noting, “We are planning for these lawyers to be trained to respond when trans women come to report cases of institutional violence, but also domestic or intimate partner violence.”

These initiatives demonstrate how survivors’ knowledge can drive systemic changes that benefit the entire community.

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

Trans women in Mexico navigate complex intersections of economic, social, and political discrimination that shape their experiences of violence and their options for building security. CAIT has identified several key contextual factors that shape how survivors experience economic violence and their options for building economic autonomy:

Economic and social discrimination that limits options for building economic autonomy
Dynamics of economic control in intimate relationships
Institutional gaps in specialized resources

Economic and social discrimination that limits options for building economic autonomy

Discrimination in the labor market

In Mexico, trans women face various forms of economic violence, in addition to social discrimination and exclusion from the labor market. According to INEGI data, 27.4% of women aged fifteen and older have suffered economic or patrimonial violence at some point in their lives, including denial of financial resources, prohibition from working, imposition of exploitative working conditions, or damage to personal property.² For trans women, CAIT notes that discrimination in the formal labor market severely limits their economic options, creating circumstances where achieving financial security becomes significantly more difficult.

The intersection of discrimination and migration results in limited support networks

In addition to economic exclusion, CAIT explains that many trans women have few support networks due to discrimination from their families and communities, which often leads them to seek safer environments in other parts of the country. “These are people who have made their transitions outside their family circles and who have few social support networks. . . Some are even internal migrants, coming from other states, other cities, to the big cities . . . where they feel they enjoy a greater so-called ‘freedom’,” CAIT remarks.

In 2022, according to the IDMC, there were 386,000 internally displaced people in Mexico.³ CAIT adds that trans women who are migrants or come from rural communities face multiple forms of discrimination and often suffer economic violence, including from their families. With few support networks, achieving economic security is a huge challenge.

CAIT emphasizes, “There are women who come from other states and migrate to Mexico City, who are partly indigenous, and sometimes have not even completed primary school. . . . People who are darker-skinned, who are Indigenous, who are of African descent, who come from an Indigenous community or contexts like that, . . . I believe we are a demographic that suffers greater economic violence, even from our own families.”

Dynamics of economic control in intimate relationships

The broader socioeconomic context is reflected in the dynamics many women experience in their intimate relationships, where they often shoulder disproportionate financial burdens. “We bear the brunt of the housing costs, paying the rent, the electricity bill, the phone bill, sometimes even our own food, and this violence gradually builds up day after day.”

These dynamics are also influenced by age-related social norms and expectations for intimate relationships. “I say that after the age of 40, this violence weighs most heavily: if you want someone by your side, you have to pay them or give them money so they’ll stay.”

The combination of limited economic options and economic pressures within relationships creates complex situations where survivors must navigate multiple forms of economic violence simultaneously, requiring flexible responses that recognize the diverse paths to safety and well-being.

Institutional gaps in specialized resources

A critical contextual factor is the absence of institutional infrastructure designed specifically for trans women who experience intimate partner violence and economic violence. CAIT explains, “Shelters for trans women in Mexico do not exist—especially shelters for trans women experiencing violence.”⁴

This gap reflects a broader pattern of exclusion from public policies and social services: “Perhaps many of these scarce support services . . . are made available primarily with cisgender women in mind. Many of the existing regulations [and] support or referral programs on the issue of violence against women also exclude trans women.”

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía [National Institute of Statistics and Geography] (INEGI), Violence Against Women in Mexico: National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships ENDIREH 2021, Aguascalientes: INEGI, 2022, https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/programas/endireh/2021/doc/national_results.pdf.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 2023 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID), Geneva: IDMC, 2023, https://www.internal-displacement.org/publications/2023-global-report-on-internal-displacement-grid/.
To date, there are only three well-known shelters in Mexico that specifically serve trans women. A handful of other shelters serve the LGBTQ+ community more broadly, although most are geared toward migrant and refugee communities. Edgar Ulises, “Directorio de refugios LGBT+ en México a los que puedes acercarte,” Homosensual (blog), January 31, 2024, https://www.homosensual.com/lgbt/activismo/directorio-de-refugios-lgbt-en-mexico-a-los-que-puedes-acercarte/.