Inside/Out Youth Services

P/T Admin/Devel Job @ Inside Out

InsideOutYS.org — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:36:01 +0000

Inside Out Youth Services seeks a part-time administrative and development assistant to join our team advocating for LGBTIQ young people.

Please check the full job announcement here, and send resumes to Shawna@insideoutys.org by Feb 20, 2012.

Job Announcement

NO PHONE CALL INQUIRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR RESUME VIA EMAIL. If you do not have email access, please mail a hard copy of your resume to:
Inside Out Youth Services
235 S Nevada Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Attn: Job Announcement

Colorado Queer Youth Summit

InsideOutYS.org — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:39:08 +0000

The 4th annual Colorado Queer Youth Summit (CQYS) will be in Denver on Saturday, March 31st. The QYS brings Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer youth together from across the state and region for a day of innovative, creative and powerful workshops and performances. With the power of a youth-led coalition, this year’s summit will be the largest yet!

The Summit will host over 20 interactive workshops, inspiring and equipping youth with the passion and tools to fight for justice in their lives and communities. We will be celebrating our movements and communities with a showcase of local and national LGBTQ drag performers, poets, hip hop artists, musicians and DJs.

Check out the official website for more information: www.coqueeryouthsummit.org

Saturday, March 31st
9:30 AM – 5:30 PM – Workshops
7 PM – 10 PM – Showcase Party
St. Cajetan at Auraria Campus
1298 Lawrence Way
Denver, CO 80205

The Colorado Queer Youth Summit is also interested in youth to help plan the Summit. The planning coalition is made up of youth from a group of youth organizations throughout Colorado. They meet every other Sunday and rotate their meeting space from Northern, Central and Southern Colorado. They are also accepting workshop proposals.

Have any questions on registration or would like to participate in the planning of the CQYS please contact eric@insideoutys.org

If you are an Inside/Out youth who would like to attend the CQYS please fill out and return a release waiver by March 23rd!
Download the Release Waiver for the Colorado Queer Youth Summit HERE!

GSA Leadership Summit

InsideOutYS.org — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:50:40 +0000

Colorado GSA Network, in collaboration with the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Rainbow Alley, will host a statewide Gay-Straight Alliance Leadership Summit to bring together students, advisors, and other stakeholders committed to making schools safer for LGBTQ youth. At the Summit, we will share best practices for creating active and effective GSA programs and facilitating leadership development for LGBTQ students.

Students (middle school, high school, and college-aged) and adults engaged in creating safe, inclusive learning environments are welcome and encouraged to attend!

Sunday, March 4th
9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Auraria Campus, North Classroom Building
900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO 80204

If you are an Inside/Out youth who would like to attend please fill out and return a release waiver by February 24th!
Download the Release Waiver for the GSA Leadership Summit HERE!

Join Us for Student Day at the Capitol

InsideOutYS.org — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:05:24 +0000

As young people, it’s important that we make our voices heard. Student Day at the Capitol brings together students from all across Colorado to elevate the voices of young people. At Student Day at the Capitol, Gay-Straight Alliance student leaders will participate in workshops, trainings, and role-plays to learn how to tell their story and educate their representatives on the experiences of LGBTQ students in Colorado schools. Then, students will have the opportunity to meet with their elected officials, visit the Colorado State Capitol, and experience the law-making process firsthand.

Registration for Student Day at the Capital is Now Open! Reserve your spot Today!
Monday, February 27
8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Central Presbyterian Church
1660 Sherman Street
Denver, CO 80203

If you are an Inside/Out Youth under the age of 18 please download the release waiver to attend! Please turn it in by February 24th if you are interested in attending!
Download the Release Waiver for Student Day at the Capitol HERE!

Got Resources to Combat Bias-based Bullying?

InsideOutYS.org — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:41:45 +0000

12/9/2011: GREAT resources at the Bullying Prevention Institute December 8 training, so we wanted to share!

Bullying and Harassment Prevention and Education –
Colorado School Resource Guide http://www.safeschools.state.co.us/docs/SCHOOL%20RESOURCE%20GUIDE%20-%20BULLYING%2010.17.pdf

Inside Out Youth Services encourages teachers, school resources officers, administrators and others who work with students to implement ongoing practices that combat bullying and harassment of all students, especially those targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. |

Whether you intend to or not, if you are an educator, you create the climate in your school. Contact Shawna@insideoutys.org to explore support and trainings for your school staff from the Pikes Peak Safe @ School Coalition volunteers.

Ten Best Practices in Bullying Prevention from the
Colorado School Safety Resource Center

1. Make bullying prevention an integral and permanent component of focusing on the overall school climate and culture.

2. Establish support and coordinatino of bullying prevention activities.

3. Regularly assess the bullying and school climate at your school.

4. Establish and consistently enforce school rules and policies related to bullying prevention and intervention.

5. Provide ongoing training for all staff in bullying awareness, prevention, and appropriate interventions.

6. Increase adult supervision in “hot spots” where bullying occurs.

7. Intervene immediately, consistently, equitably and appropriately when bullying occurs.

8. Focus some class time on bullying prevention efforts.

9. Develop cultural competency strategies, skills, and use programs that are inclusive.

10. Continue efforts over time.

We Must Listen Up Now to Ally Up for Youth

InsideOutYS.org — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:24:32 +0000

On the same day someone sent me the story about Jamey Rodemeyer’s suicide, an ally called the Inside Out Youth Services office to help us reach a young person kicked out of his home for being gay. We found him, brought him safe space, connected him to help, made real a new possibility. All because someone made the call and made a difference.
Listen. Act. Ally.
Shawna Rae

New York Times Editorial: Sept 22, 2011
THE suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, the 14-year-old boy from western New York who killed himself last Sunday after being tormented by his classmates for being gay, is appalling. His story is a classic case of bullying: he was aggressively and repeatedly victimized. Horrific episodes like this have sparked conversations about cyberbullying and created immense pressure on regulators and educators to do something, anything, to make it stop. Yet in the rush to find a solution, adults are failing to recognize how their conversations about bullying are often misaligned with youth narratives. Adults need to start paying attention to the language of youth if they want antibullying interventions to succeed.

Jamey recognized that he was being bullied and asked explicitly for help, but this is not always the case. Many teenagers who are bullied can’t emotionally afford to identify as victims, and young people who bully others rarely see themselves as perpetrators. For a teenager to recognize herself or himself in the adult language of bullying carries social and psychological costs. It requires acknowledging oneself as either powerless or abusive.

In our research over a number of years, we have interviewed and observed teenagers across the United States. Given the public interest in cyberbullying, we asked young people about it, only to be continually rebuffed. Teenagers repeatedly told us that bullying was something that happened only in elementary or middle school. “There’s no bullying at this school” was a regular refrain.

This didn’t mesh with our observations, so we struggled to understand the disconnect. While teenagers denounced bullying, they — especially girls — would describe a host of interpersonal conflicts playing out in their lives as “drama.”

At first, we thought drama was simply an umbrella term, referring to varying forms of bullying, joking around, minor skirmishes between friends, breakups and makeups, and gossip. We thought teenagers viewed bullying as a form of drama. But we realized the two are quite distinct. Drama was not a show for us, but rather a protective mechanism for them.

Teenagers say drama when they want to diminish the importance of something. Repeatedly, teenagers would refer to something as “just stupid drama,” “something girls do,” or “so high school.” We learned that drama can be fun and entertaining; it can be serious or totally ridiculous; it can be a way to get attention or feel validated. But mostly we learned that young people use the term drama because it is empowering.

Dismissing a conflict that’s really hurting their feelings as drama lets teenagers demonstrate that they don’t care about such petty concerns. They can save face while feeling superior to those tormenting them by dismissing them as desperate for attention. Or, if they’re the instigators, the word drama lets teenagers feel that they’re participating in something innocuous or even funny, rather than having to admit that they’ve hurt someone’s feelings. Drama allows them to distance themselves from painful situations.

Adults want to help teenagers recognize the hurt that is taking place, which often means owning up to victimhood. But this can have serious consequences. To recognize oneself as a victim — or perpetrator — requires serious emotional, psychological and social support, an infrastructure unavailable to many teenagers. And when teenagers like Jamey do ask for help, they’re often let down. Not only are many adults ill-equipped to help teenagers do the psychological work necessary, but teenagers’ social position often requires them to continue facing the same social scene day after day.

Like Jamey, there are young people who identify as victims of bullying. But many youths engaged in practices that adults label bullying do not name them as such. Teenagers want to see themselves as in control of their own lives; their reputations are important. Admitting that they’re being bullied, or worse, that they are bullies, slots them into a narrative that’s disempowering and makes them feel weak and childish.

Antibullying efforts cannot be successful if they make teenagers feel victimized without providing them the support to go from a position of victimization to one of empowerment. When teenagers acknowledge that they’re being bullied, adults need to provide programs similar to those that help victims of abuse. And they must recognize that emotional recovery is a long and difficult process.

But if the goal is to intervene at the moment of victimization, the focus should be to work within teenagers’ cultural frame, encourage empathy and help young people understand when and where drama has serious consequences. Interventions must focus on positive concepts like healthy relationships and digital citizenship rather than starting with the negative framing of bullying. The key is to help young people feel independently strong, confident and capable without first requiring them to see themselves as either an oppressed person or an oppressor.

Danah Boyd is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and a research assistant professor at New York University. Alice Marwick is a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a research affiliate at Harvard University.

FAQs on New Colorado Anti-bullying Law

InsideOutYS.org — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:44:04 +0000

UPDATE AUGUST 2011–The Colorado Department of Education provides answers to the most frequently asked questions about HB1254, the new Colorado law that requires all state school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies that are inclusive of all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Link here to the FAQ from the Dept. of Education and the read on about how Inside Out Youth Services played a key role in advocating for the bill.

http://www.cde.state.co.us/HealthAndWellness/download/CCHS%20Coalition%20Meetings/8.9.11/FAQ.docx

Governor Hickenlooper signed a statewide anti-bullying bill Friday afternoon at Lakewood High School. The bill will create a school bullying prevention grant program, as well as require districts to adopt strict policies against bullying.

“A group of men threatened to sexually assault me so I wouldn’t be gay anymore, and I was even asked to change in a separate locker room from the other girls, so I wouldn’t be looking at them,” said Jess Stolhman, a Cheyenne Mountain High School graduate. Stolhman shared her emotional testimony with both the House and the Senate Friday. She’s credited with having changed the mind of some Colorado’s representatives.

“This is the first time that I’ve really, really felt like there was policy change in Colorado, and locally that I really impacted,” said Stolhman.

Stolhman now works as an activist for youth in Colorado Springs. She says knowing the bill also specifically protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people helps in her healing process.

Governor Hickenlooper says the bill also works to expand the legal definition of bullying to now include all electronic forms of harassment.

“I was a student who was bullied for five or six years of my life. What we’re doing is really pushing to make sure that schools don’t tolerate bullies, at any level, anywhere in the state,” Governor Hickenlooper said.

Hickenlooper says he also hopes the bill will make bullying less of a distraction from the classroom.

“If you’re worried about getting beat up on the way home, you’re not going to learn what you are supposed to learn that afternoon,” Hickenlooper said.

We also asked Colorado school districts how they believe this will help in terms of enforcement.

Cherry Creek School District says it’s important parents realize their role in stopping bullying. A spokeswoman for the district says she hopes the bill will increase awareness for not only students, but parents as well.

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Economic impact of same-sex partner benefits highlighted in Colorado Springs Business Journal

InsideOutYS.org — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:54:05 +0000

Colorado Springs Business Journal March 11, 2011, focuses on health insurance benefits and the economic impact to families and business in the Pikes Peak Region.
http://csbj.com/2011/03/11/same-sex-partners-struggle-for-health-insurance/

“While an issue like health insurance coverage for same-sex spouses is not typically high on the radar for youth … the underlying message we as a society send them when we make decisions … is very powerful.”

“It ends up, for them, being about whether their country, their city, their state respects them as full human beings. We risk young people saying ‘no’ to their own self worth. We are growing all too familiar with the resulting tragedy of that discrimination: loss of hope and loss of life.” (Shawna Kemppainen, Inside/Out executive director, cited in the story.)

Colo Legislature Hears from Inside/Out Advocate

InsideOutYS.org — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:36:44 +0000

Proposed HB-1254 Would Keep Youth Safer in School

Legislation that would help Colorado curtail bullying in schools passed the House Education Committee in the Colorado General Assembly March 9, 2011. Jessica Stohlmann, Inside/Out Youth Services program manager, offered testimony about her experience of being an out gay youth in Colorado Springs public schools and the importance of clearly defining and adopting anti-bullying policies that are comprehensive, evidence-based and inclusive of all kids, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.

Stay tuned to www.insideoutys.org or www.ONE-Colorado.org for updates on moving equality forward for LGBT – and all — students!

What’s the Big Deal?

InsideOutYS.org — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:11:02 +0000

WHY ARE SCHOOL POLICIES THAT SPECIFICALLY INCLUDE AND WELCOME LGBT YOUTH IMPORTANT? Students who have been harassed or attacked at school because someone perceived them to be gay or lesbian attempt suicide at more than 3 times the rate of their peers (23.2% vs. 7.1%)

THAT’S A BIG DEAL!