About Kim Vance, Co-Director

About Us…..Our Staff…..Bio – John Fisher…..Bio – Kim Vance…..Bio – Sheherezade Kara

Before founding ARC International, Kim Vance served as President of Egale Canada, and is a seasoned activist within the LGBT communities at the international, national and local levels.

Kim is an experienced adult educator, and has spent over 10 years working with urban and rural women in Nova Scotia on community economic development initiatives. Her background and research in adult education has guided much of her prior work in traning and community economic development projects, particularly with marginalized women.

She has written and edited guidebooks for mothers in conflict with the law, and rural women seeking to establish home-based child care centres. She also has a background in film and television and has produced and directed projects with the Elizabeth Fry Society, Planned Parenthood, LGBT Youth Project and Vision TV. She has also produced and directed film and video projects with LGBT youth, incarcerated women, and Planned Parenthood, one of which is used in at least two universities as a teacher-training tool.

Kim founded and chaired an International Affairs Committee within Egale, and oversaw the organization’s participation in the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa, including a research project on the intersections of race and sexual orientation. She has attended both the Beijing +5 and Beijing + 10 conferences in New York City, examining advancement and development for women around the world. She also oversaw the development of a conference for activists in the South East Asia region and has planned numerous International Dialogues in locations around the world, including Brazil, South Korea, South Africa, Montreal, Geneva and Argentina.

She served on the editorial board of Atlantic Canada’s LGBT newspaper Wayves, and helped found Nova Scotia’s provincial LGBT organisation, NSRAP. Kim has conducted human rights training with staff and commissioners of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

Kim received the Pride Community Service Award in her province, secured the first Registered Domestic Partnership in Canada, and was a successful litigant in one of the Canadian court challenges to secure equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. She is also the very proud mother of two adopted children, Marcus and Patty.