The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #65082

Kim Phillips, University of Michigan, 556 2nd St., Apt. 2, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, 202/546-5940, kphillips44@juno.com and Tracey Ford, Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), 410 7th Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Since 1984, the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) has been serving the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) youth aged 13-21 years, living in the Washington, DC area. SMYAL is a strong advocate for all of DC’s LGBTIQ youth by working with community partners to ensure to that every youth-serving institution is a safe place for all youth to be who they are. After nearly two decades of advocacy in the forms of educational and sensitivity trainings within area schools, SMYAL was recently called upon by DC’s public school system (DCPS) to evaluate their curriculum as well as create and implement a district-wide harassment and sexual harassment curriculum. Thus, SMYAL and DCPS are working together to create safer learning environments for all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. To our knowledge, such a relationship between a community-based gay youth program and a school district is unprecedented and one that did not develop automatically. Consistent presence at schools, at school board meetings, at community-planning group meetings and consistent vocalization of LGBTIQ youth concerns has led to increasing invitations to assist the school district with increasingly more influential tasks. SMYAL is in a unique position to discuss the benefits of strategic partnerships with school systems. At this workshop, SMYAL will discuss how their strategic partnership was developed with special focus on how organizations can gain access to their school system and how to leverage this access to create safer school environments for LGBTIQ youth.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will recognize how a community-based non-profit organization established a strategic partnership with a public school system to create and implement an LGBTIQ inclusive curriculum.
• Participants will identify strategies that an LGBTIQ community-based organization used to gain access to public schools.
• Participants will identify how to capitalize on their existing community contacts to leverage greater access for safer school environments for LGBTIQ youth.

Keywords: Gay, Community Collaboration

Related Web page: www.smyal.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL)
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.