Pride Foundation

Last summer, our scholarship volunteers and staff met to review goals and future directions for the  program, and the idea of providing our scholars with a paid internship was discussed as a possible new program to implement. The thought was to pair scholars with organizations that have gotten a Pride Foundation grant. We loved the idea and decided then and there to look into the feasibility of introducing this project within the next three to five years.

Well, we were so inspired by the project that we got a little ahead of ourselves; we just completed the inaugural run of the Pride Foundation Fellowship Program!

We were fortunate to have a wonderful Wales Foundation Fellow, Kraig,  who not only researched successful implementation strategies for a fellowship program; he actually implemented it THIS year!    We ended up pairing scholars with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound and Kitsap HIV/AIDS Foundation.

Scholar Lor (r) at Big Brothers Big Sisters Puget Sound

Lor Anderson, a Pride Foundation 2009 scholar, worked with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Puget Sound to improve LGBT “Big” outreach and develop a model that could be implemented nationwide to engage LGBT adults with queer youth. And scholar fKristina Armenakis assisted the Kitsap HIV/AIDS Foundation and was able to improve their volunteer training.

The Kitsap HIV/AIDS Foundation decided Kristina’s impact was so important they hired her on for the remainder of the year to conclude her work! Both fellows said the experience of working with progressive, LGBT-friendly organizations served as a pivotal point in their careers and provided them with skills and knowledge they would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.  I look forward to watching this program expand across our region and developing a network of Pride Foundation Fellowship alumni in the future.

I also would like to extend a sincere “Thank You” to our own Wales Foundation Fellow, Kraig, who was responsible for implementing and running the fellowship program.  The program was a huge success and we were fortunate to work with him!  Kraig arranged the matches, conducted training events for the scholars and host organizations, and completed an incredible final report detailing both the successes and areas for improvement for this program.  Thank you for all you’ve accomplished!

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