To begin day 2 of Building Change Together, the Partnership’s Prevention Core Competencies Training, Sarah Diamond with Center for Community Solutions developed the curriculum for LGBITQ + Inclusive Prevention. Through this session, participants were provided materials to establish a common language, and understand the impact of  intimate partner violence and sexual violence in the queer and trans community. As prevention should not happen in a silo, we further discussed strategies to incorporate LGBITQ+ inclusivity into an organization’s culture to provide access for everyone. 

While prevention educators are familiar with discussing the impact of gender myths and norms for cisgender and/or heterosexual audiences, we discussed the specific impacts of those same gender and orientation norms on queer and trans youth. Participants were able to explore the intersecting oppression queer and trans survivors experience, including but not limited to racism, heterosexism, homo/bi/transphobia and cissexism. Participants walked away with an understanding that simply using gender neutral language is not enough, our language must be intentional, inclusive, and aware. This can include normalizing queer and trans relationships, and calling in those who make disparaging comments. 

Below are some resources we identified for LGBITQ+ Inclusivity:

• LGBTIQ Inclusive Scenarios
• LGBTIQ Community Fact Sheet 
• GLSEN (pronounced “glisten”) – https://www.glsen.org
• Forge – http://forge-forward.org
• True Colors Fund – https://truecolorsfund.org/our-work/training-education/network
• The Northwest Network – http:// www.nwnetwork.org 
• The Network/La Red – http://www.tnlr.org  
• The Anti-Violence Project – http://www.avp.org
• CUAV (Communities United Against Violence) – http://www.cuav.org

Stay tuned for next week’s installment as we share resources and strategies on Youth Leadership!

Is your organization looking to deepen how cultural responsiveness is practiced?

• The countdown to the Cultural Responsiveness Organizational Self-Assessment (CROS) tool re-launch is on! Soon, we’ll be offering a variety of customized support options for domestic violence agencies.