“Make a better world for queer youth today.”
on September 29th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Stonewall Youth participants at the QYCBP graduating reception (L-R) Director of Programming Emily Pieper, Board Chair Nathan Brockett and Executive Director Colleen Dixon.
Stonewall Youth has graduated! Over the past 18 months, the Pride Foundation funded the Queer Youth Capacity Building Project in collaboration with the Gates Foundation. Stonewall Youth was one of several organizations that graduated from this organizational capacity building project.
I work with Stonewall Youth, a radical queer youth empowerment organization in Olympia, Washington. I was excited to have participated in this program. Not only did we receive guidance and consulting hours from NAO, a consulting firm based in Portland, but we had in-depth and in-person trainings with the other queer youth organizations. We held each convening at a different organization’s offices and had an opportunity to see queer youth spaces from around the region!
Being able to collaborate with other organizations who share a focus of serving queer youth was moving and empowering. I felt like we were each part of a greater movement, like we were not in this alone, and together we can make a better world for queer youth today. There were many serious moments of information-sharing, collaborating, and problem solving. There were moments of joy, laughter, good humor, and tear-filled gratitude.
Standing together at the last convening of this program and looking around at the faces of these incredible leaders in queer youth service, I was filled with confidence that this was not an ending, but a new beginning. With increased capacity and increased collaboration we will go forth and leave a legacy of empowered, supported queer youth, who will lead this movement after us.
Nathan Brockett
Chair, Board of Directors
Stonewall Youth
