Creating Protective Environments for LGBTQ+ Youth Within Schools and Communities to Prevent Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence

Research and evidence-based strategies to prevent sexual and intimate partner violence continue to advance every year, but in technical assistance documents and research, LGBTQ+ communities are often left out through a focus on heteronormative relationships and the use of binary gendered language. Prevention practitioners can bridge the gap between research and practice by learning from and creating prevention programs by and for LGBTQ+ communities. Join PreventConnect on this web conference with guests from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, Inside Out Youth Services, and SMYAL to explore how prevention practitioners are going beyond the binary when engaging men and boys and creating protective environments to prevent sexual and intimate partner violence for LGBTQ+ youth. Guests on this web conference will also discuss the intersecting norms that uphold violence as well as homophobia and transphobia, and discuss how the field of sexual and intimate partner violence prevention can work towards LGBTQ+ competency and true allyship in gender transformative ways.

OBJECTIVES

• Describe the opportunities and challenges when adapting and creating sexual and intimate partner violence prevention programs by and for LGBTQ+ youth and adults
• Identify ways sexual and intimate partner violence prevention programming can prioritize the prevention needs of LGBTQ+ youth
• Describe ways adults can be better allies and role models for LGBTQ+ youth to promote social norms that protect against violence
• Engage in a discussion about ways to bridge the gap between gender transformative work, meeting audiences where they’re at, and advancing prevention work that does not reinforce the gender binary

HOSTS/FACILITATORS: Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez & Tori VandeLinde, PreventConnect and ValorUS

MATERIALS:

• Web conference PowerPoint slides [PDF]
• Text chat transcript [PDF]

GUESTS:

• Goddess Tyescha, Amplifier of Health Advocacy, Inside Out Youth Services
• Re Gupta, Sexual Violence Prevention Program Coordinator, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment
• Connor Hegel, LGBTQ+ Services Navigator, SMYAL
• Mariana Velazquez, Youth Housing Case Manager ETH, SMYAL