Out Youth is expanding its reach to youth in Title 1 middle schools and high schools with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). Thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation, Renée was hired in November to facilitate supportive counseling groups in middle schools and high schools in Central Texas, and is charged with the long-term vision of growing the program.
In March, Texas Health Action's KIND Clinic opened a free transgender care clinic, the first of its kind in Central Texas. Through a new program called Transgender Wellness, Out Youth is piloting an array of holistic services in partnership with the KIND Clinic to promote the wellbeing of transgender Texans.
Out Youth is expanding its reach to youth in Title 1 middle schools and high schools with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). Thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation, Renée was hired in November to facilitate supportive counseling groups in middle schools and high schools in Central Texas, and is charged with the long-term vision of growing the program.
About a year ago Out Youth established its very own in-house publishing program at our youth drop-in center called Out Youth Press. Using available resources available -- paper, markers and our youth’s ideas – we have created a number of wonderful small books and magazines.
Some of our recent projects have included:
These books will be featured alongside other resources offered in the drop-in center for anyone to read. This fall we will be anthologizing some of the projects our youth have created. This anthology will feature poetry, photography, illustration, essays, collage, and even some recipes.
This project encourages and nurtures the creativity and insightfulness inherent to our youth. We hope to continue to use this program in order raise the voices of LGBTQ+ youth, emphasize the importance of telling your own story and empower our youth to believe in the strength of their own ideas.
