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 excited to announce that we have been selected as a 2016-17 Austin Gives Miles Official Charity.
Austin Gives Miles is the Official Charity Program for the Austin Marathon® presented by NXP.
Out Youth will raise awareness of our life-changing and life-saving work as well as recruit runners to fundraise on our behalf while they train for the Austin Marathon, set to take place on Feb. 19, 2017.
Out Youth was one of 26 nonprofits selected out of numerous applications.
Runners interested in supporting Out Youth’s mission while they train can select Out Youth during their registration process. The runner will be contacted by Kathryn Gonzales, Operations & Programs Director at Out Youth with a welcome email, including more about Out Youth, how Out Youth will support them during their training, and how they can create their Crowdrise fundraising page to begin fundraising.
“Out Youth is ecstatic to be a part of Austin Gives Miles and the 2017 Austin Marathon,” said Aubrey Wilkerson, Executive of Out Youth. “Our goal is to raise $10,000 and continue to raise awareness about Out Youth's mission throughout the running community.”
Entering its fourth year, Austin Give Miles’ fundraising goal for 2017 is $500,000. This year, the Official Charity Program is partnering with CrowdRise as it’s online fundraising platform. CrowdRise is the world’s largest and fastest growing online platform dedicated exclusively to charitable fundraising.
"We’re glad to have Out Youth involved with Austin Gives Miles ,” said Carly Samuelson, Austin Gives Miles Charity Manager. “They do great work in the Central Texas community and we look forward to them reaching their fundraising goal, helping us reach ours, and raising more awareness about their cause.”
About the Austin Marathon®: The Austin Marathon® will celebrate its 26th year running in Austin on Feb. 19, 2017. Austin’s flagship running event annually attracts runners from all 50 states and 20+ countries around the world. With start and finish locations just a few blocks apart, and within walking distance of many downtown hotels and restaurants, the Austin Marathon is the perfect running weekend destination. Participants can register on the website and choose to run for their preferred nonprofit.
About NXP Semiconductors: NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better, and safer. As the world leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, NXP is driving innovation in the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security and privacy, and smart connected solutions markets. Built on more than 60 years of combined experience and expertise, the company has 45,000 employees in more than 35 countries and posted revenue of $6.1 billion in 2015. Find out more at www.nxp.com.
No one should have to deal with discrimination in healthcare settings or anywhere else. We at Out Youth and the Central Texas Transgender Health Coalition (CTTHC) believe that all queer and transgender people of all ages deserve quality, sensitive healthcare that meets their needs, recognizes their agency, and empowers them to be active in their health.
We are proud to announce the availability of two resources designed to support queer and transgender individuals with communication in healthcare settings! These two resources, the Q Card and the TGNC Card, are small but mighty. Designed to fit in a wallet, these cards can help facilitate comfortable, productive conversations with medical providers about personal health and wellness.
First a little backstory – The Q Card was developed by Genya Shimkin in 2012. Genya set out to create a simple communication tool that could improve healthcare, specifically for queer youth. Between 2012 and 2013, she developed a sample version of the Q Card, and brought it to interviews with local healthcare providers, educators, youth advocates, and queer and transgender youth themselves. With this feedback, Genya drafted a new version, this time with the help of professional graphic designer Alice Lee and queer-owned printer, Girlie Press.
Check out this video to learn more!
Learn more at www.qcardproject.com
Videography by Reid Kuennen Funding generously provided by The Pride Foundation
A few years later, in 2015, a research team at The Fenway Institute called The Trans Masculine Sexual Health Collaborative noticed the need for a similar tool to assist transgender and gender non-binary people of all ages during healthcare visits. In collaboration with Genya of the Q Card, designer Alice Lee, and Girlie Press, and with feedback from many community members across the country, the TGNC Card was created.
This card is designed not only to empower people across the spectrum of gender and throughout the entire lifespan, but also to link healthcare providers to educational resources about transgender health. Along with the wallet-sized card, the TGNC Card includes a handout with research-based tips to minimize discomfort during healthcare visits, as well as links to the most affirming and up-to-date resources for providers to educate themselves!
Fast forward to today in Central Texas. Out Youth has been a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth for 26 years. What could be a better place to distribute the Q Card?
The Central Texas Transgender Health Coalition (CTTHC) is a brand new program of Out Youth designed to support the health and wellbeing of the transgender and gender non-binary community by facilitating access to quality healthcare resources, and to educate healthcare, mental health, and social services professionals in Central Texas. What could be a better organization to distribute the TGNC Card?
And so, we proudly announce the availability of these two resources, thanks to our allied organizations across the country! We have 500 Q Cards, all the way from Genya in Seattle, free for any youth who requests it. We have 10,000 TGNC Cards, all the way from Fenway Health in Boston, which we will give out during the CTTHC’s 2017 events: an educational conference for healthcare providers and a community health fair to connect transgender and gender non-binary individuals with quality providers. The TGNC Cards and Handouts are also available upon request before those events.
No matter how much work went into their creation, these resources can only empower people when they’re in the hands of those who need them. No one should have to deal with discrimination in healthcare settings or anywhere else. We invite you to help yourself to these resources and to give them a try next time you visit a healthcare provider.
In November, the St. David’s Foundation awarded Out Youth $100,000 over two years to help us expand counseling services in area Title I schools.
By the end of the two-year grant period, Out Youth will expand services to at least 9 middle and high schools, serving LGBTQ+ youth who may experience barriers to receiving services at our drop-in center. Out Youth is proud to partner with Communities In Schools of Central Texas to offer both psychoeducational support groups and individual counseling services.
Out Youth is also honored to partner with the University of Texas at Austin’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Health and Rights Lab as we develop an evidence-based curriculum to promote the mental health and wellness of LGBTQ+ identified students. Should this research-driven curriculum prove successful, Out Youth will be able to share these best practices with other school districts and community-based organizations throughout Texas.
As a result of this funding, Out Youth has hired a full-time clinician to provide school-based services. Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern, brings extensive experience with the LGBTQ+ population and teens in the school setting. Renée’s prior experience includes work with Fenway Health and Boston GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services), and she has researched and delivered innovative curricula to middle and high school youth on topics related to gender and activism.
As an opportunity grant recipient, Out Youth will strive to find innovative ways to collaborate with our partners to promote the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth in Central Texas.
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.
- - -
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.
