Queer Youth in Action
Celebrating queer and trans youth through
Education, Community, and Action.
Advocating for queer and trans youth through dynamic, personalized programming for organizations, coaches, caregivers, and young people.
Queer Youth in Action was founded to provide support to pre-existing organizations that want to better serve their queer and trans youth.
We dream of a celebratory world for all young people — but we also acknowledge that immediate small actions can make a monumental difference for the safety and well-being of young people today. Because we understand and value the intersectional identities of young people in sport, our programming is culturally competent, trauma informed, and takes into account data and lived experience from diverse demographics.
QYA seeks to provide a variety of programming to support each organizations’ fluctuating and varied needs to build a culture that ensures that all youth feel celebrated, seen, and heard.
Education
Queer Youth in Action offers a variety of programming to increase knowledge and awareness for all members of an organization — staff, caregivers, and young people. Through our monthly membership providing dynamic, informational webinars, as well as our work in curriculum development and newsletter support, QYA works to build a knowledge base that ensures everyone in confident in their ability to equitably affirm the queer and trans young people in their lives.
QYA offers Education through webinars and Intensive Community Learning Workshops, curriculum development, and long-term project collaboration.
Community
Maybe the most important focus for Queer Youth in Action is community. Queer and trans young people can have difficulty having access to spaces that allow them to feel seen, heard, and celebrated. The difference in the well-being of queer and trans youth who do have access to these spaces — through sport, after school programming, or outside organizations — is remarkable: queer and trans youth who have affirming spaces have lower rates of mental health crises and struggles, and report feeling a sense of belonging at much higher rates than their peers.
QYA seeks to foster Community in a number of ways, and through all members of an organization; for us, community can look like Youth Advisory Council and Youth Community Space, facilitated through the Monthly Membership, as well as a Parent and Caregiver Support Space. It also looks like Staff Community Events and Workshops, Office Hours, inclusive Event planning, and connecting with other local service + support organizations.
Action
We wouldn’t be Queer Youth in Action without the Action piece! At QYA, Action can look like small, immediately implementable next steps (like systems to ensure young people are confident and safe sharing — or not sharing, if they don’t want to — their pronouns and name) while also dreaming of larger actions we can all take to create an equitable, inclusive world for our young people. Action also can look like larger scale projects to overhaul curriculum, host panels, or ensure that events are inclusive and fun for everyone.
Action is our most collaborative value: once we take action together in ways that fit the needs and climate of your organization, your caregivers, and your young people, we have already started to make a better world.
What People Are Saying
Queer Youth in Action’s programming for our staff and students helped everyone in the building understand the importance of celebratory culture — not only for LGBTQ2S+ students, but for every student in our building to be able to learn, grow, and thrive.
— Andrea Klein, Principal - Summit Atlas Middle School (Seattle, WA)
Queer Youth in Action helped us create a more welcoming club for all of our players, and to understand how to best reach coaches and parents so that every player can be supported to be at their best. We have a more inclusive club now and are all better for it.
— West Seattle Soccer Club
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions or to schedule programming.
Email
judemoore@queeryouthinaction.org
Phone
(443) 377 4907