This training with QPlus will cover some basic identity vocabulary, including the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. We will explore why these identities are so important, how and why youth in this community are at higher risk than cisgender heterosexual peers, and best practices for including and honoring those identities when working with youth. There will be space for questions throughout the event and at the end.

This virtual program is for adults.

Registration is required and will close 1 hour before the event begins.

If you have any questions, please contact us at kidsdept@russelllibrary.org 

This program is produced in partnership with Middletown Pride!
 

Mel Cordner (they/them) is the founding leader of Q+, a Connecticut queer youth organization dedicated to uplifting and empowering queer youth through programs like open mics, “adulting crash course” workshops, weekly game nights and support groups, and GSA support. Mel has years of experience running programs and events for youth, and facilitating trainings for adults and youth alike on topics like gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, consent, college activism, and youth culture and leadership development. They work to support young folks within and ‘around’ the ‘system.’ They are an educator, advocate, writer, and all-around loudmouth genderqueer whose mission is to shake things up and leave a place more colorful than they found it.

Q Plus is grassroots, community-based, youth-led, and (at least for now) volunteer-run. We are a group of teens, young adults, and older adult supporters. We work to create more youth accessible spaces, uplift youth voices, and empower youth, through programs like open mics, “adulting crash course” workshops, game nights, support groups, and GSA meetups. Our overall goal is to create space for queer youth to be authentically and entirely themselves. Every event and program we create is born of a need identified by queer young people, rather than suggested by adults. Our plan is to continue changing and evolving as the needs of queer youth continue to change and evolve. For more information on QPlus, please check out their website: https://qplusct.wixsite.com/qplusct