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.
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.
Kathryn Gonzales, our Operations and Programs Director delivered a powerfully emotional speech at tonight's Transgender Day of Remembrance.
A full transcript of her speech is available below.
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Hello, my name is Kathryn Gonzales and I am the Operations & Programs Director at Out Youth.
On behalf of the youth, board of directors, and staff of Out Youth, I want to express how humbled and honored we are to support this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Out Youth was founded in 1990 and has served youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities across Central Texas for 26 years. Out Youth is best known for our free individual and family counseling as well as our free and confidential HIV & STI testing, but what we do best is offer youth a place that they can feel at home, a place of warmth and peace. And, by extension, our youth become part of a family that loves, acknowledges, and accepts them for exactly who they are.
As this night approached again this year, I was reminded yet again of my desperate wish, a hope for a day when there are no names on the list.
Yet each year I arrive and sit here, awash in names and grief.
Certainly, I grieve for the loss of those we honor tonight, taken from us by horrific acts of violence.
But I also find myself grieving for the want of memory.
I grieve because I cannot remember them, for all I have been left with are their names and the reverberating silence of their absence.
I grieve because I will never delight in knowing them, at least in this lifetime. I will never know their kindness, their compassion, the unique and captivating beauty of their souls.
And while I may never meet them, I am certain of my love for them. Each and every one. All of those we have lost in years past, and those we seem all but certain lose in the years to come.
So let this be my vow, that my grief will stand as a testament to their lives, a renewed commitment to end this violence, for as long as I am here I will love them and work in honor of their memory in hopes for a day without names.
Out Youth proudly announces that our Executive Director, Aubrey Wilkerson, has been accepted for the Leadership Austin Essentials Class of 2017.
One of the reasons Aubrey was selected is because of his experience related to issues facing the LGBTQ+ community and our youth. Leadership Austin will help Aubrey evolve his leadership style, and deepen his understanding of the issues that will impact Out Youth’s work now and in the future. Out Youth’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to fund Aubrey’s Leadership Austin class dues because of the opportunity it represents for both Aubrey and our organization.
Leadership Austin was founded in 1979 by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce with a mission to provide leadership training to emerging and established leaders in Austin. Participants develop leadership skills, learn about the issues affecting Austin, and build relationships with others seeking to find creative solutions to the problems facing the Central Texas region.
