LGBTQ Youth will be WORKING IT OUT @ the Center
The Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center recently launched a joint program with the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Columbia University to bring the Working It Out Project for LGBTQ youth to the Hudson Valley.
Working It Out is a facilitated skills-building group that meets weekly for 10 to 14 weeks, and is intended to assist LBGTQ youth in dealing with stressful life events during the coming-out process. It has already been adopted and adapted by agencies in New York City, Westchester County, and Long Island, as well as in other states. The first step in implementing the local program took place on April 5. Social service professionals interested in becoming facilitators for the Center’s program at its Uptown Kingston building, or in increasing their skills in working with LGBTQ youth at their own agencies, attended an orientation session with Dr. Joyce Hunter, DSW, an Olivebridge resident who is Principal Investigator and cocreator of the Working It Out Project.
“This program is designed to help youth develop skills to manage their developing social and sexual roles, and to cope with the stress of stigma, discrimination, and heterosexism,” Hunter explained. “These stressful experiences put many of our young people at high risk for a variety of negative outcomes, including HIV transmission, drug use, and suicide.”
Working It Out groups are currently conducted by social workers, health educators, psychologists, student interns, and paraprofessionals. Facilitators for the upcoming youth sessions attended a 2 1/2 day training in late April where they learned methods for using the video “Working It Out: Scenes from the Lives of Lesbian and Gay Youth” and the manual created specifically for the sessions with the young people. Hunter said Working It Out was originally designed by members from six different agencies in downstate New York, and has been adapted as far afield as Utah.
“The Center is very excited about this joint project, the first of its kind for rural youth,” said Center president Ginny Apuzzo. “As I continue to say, we are working to build tomorrows infinitely safer, saner, and healthier than our yesterdays, and the Working It Out Project is a key component in the Center’s programming for LGBTQ youth in the Hudson Valley. Δ
- Lance Ringel