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Safe Schools North Carolina (SSNC) is a state-wide partnership of organizations and individuals dedicated to eliminating bullying, harassment and discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity in NC schools. It works to create a movement built and led by the people most effected by systemic homophobia and transphobia in schools: students, parents, and educators; and to recognize the diversity of issues that exist within the LGBT community such as sexism, racism, able-ism, classism, and other formes of oppression. SSNC's student organizing program strengthens and expands Gay Straight Alliances in schools across the state. In the past two years it has grown the number of GSA's from 4 to 20 and conducted the first regional training with students from six cities. SSNC youth have mobilized to educate and lobby elected representatives, succeeding in winning the Superintendent of NC schools endorsement of a statewide bulling, discrimination and harassment policy that specifically includes sexual orientation and gender identity. SSNC also develops the leadership and speaking skills of LGBT students to better enable them to serve as public speakers at conferences and events.
Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network (JASMYN) works with a base of 360 LGBTQ youth ages 13-23 in northeastern Florida to build a safe space through peer support, adult mentorship, education, advocacy and direct challenges to the institutions that impact their lives. Its Youth Leadership and Activism Project supports 12 LGBT youth to receive leadership and organizing training, monthly opportunities to organize rallies and actions, and technical assistance for youth-led campaigns. Campaign issues include efforts to win anti-discimination policies in schools and to protect LGBT youth within the foster system.
The Baltimore Prevention Coalition's Life Walk program serves African American transgender youth living and working in Mt. Vernon, a district of Baltimore City that is the hub of the transgender commercial sex trade. Its constituency is one that has been largely ignored by local LGBT health and community organzations and by HIV prevention funding streams. Life Walk works to reduce HIV/AIDS and to improve the quality of life among African American trangendered youth by offering alternatives to high risk behavior. It does this through training youth in peer counseling, providing bi-weekly transgender support groups, as well as HIV and STD testing, substance abuse treatment, and a victim protection program. Life Walk was the only African American trangender group represented in the coalition that won the passage of City Council Bill #20-0857, to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing and public accommodations.
The
Trevor Project
Thanks to a startup grant from the Colin Higgins Foundation in 1998,
The Trevor Project was able to commence operation of The Trevor
Helpline, a 24-hour tollfree suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth, the
only one of its kind in the country. Callers to the hotline speak
to trained counselors who help guide them through their immediate
crisis and, if desired, make recommendations and referrals for ongoing
support. The Colin Higgins Foundation was instrumental in helping
the Trevor Project not only achieve its goal of launching the operation
of the hotline, but its support also helped us upgrade our website
and expand our base of donor support. The Trevor Project is a is a former recipient who Colin Higgins is partnering with around the Youth Courage Awards since one of our common goals is to honor the courage and leadership of youth and to create a world in which LGBTQ youth are safe to thrive and to step into leadership roles in the community.
Quite simply, we could not have accomplished the important work we set out to do without the foundation's support, and we will always be immensely grateful for its timeliness and generosity. The Trevor Helpline number is 1-800-850-8078.
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