Be YOU Expands to Serve More Schools this Fall
Out Youth is expanding its reach to youth in Title 1 middle schools and high schools with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). Thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation, Renée was hired in November to facilitate supportive counseling groups in middle schools and high schools in Central Texas, and is charged with the long-term vision of growing the program.
OutYouth is expanding its reach to more schools this fall with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). This continues our work providing in-school support to LGBTQ+ students thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation.
This fall, our Be YOU curriculum will be available in 10 local Title 1 middle schools and high schools. Interest was so strong at Manor High School and McCallum High School that two groups will be needed at each in order to meet the demand.
The groups we led this past Spring were vital to students at Travis High School, Eastside Memorial High School, Manor High School, Dobie Middle School, and Bertha Sadler Means Young Women’s Academy. In all, we were able to deliver campus-based supportive counseling to 40 youth, many of whom would not otherwise be able to access OutYouth’s services.
Over the summer, Renée completed our Be YOU curriculum and will be piloting it over the school year 2017-18, collecting data from participants in order to evaluate its effectiveness.
“The Be YOU curriculum has a solid foundation in the most current research on supporting LGBT youth,” Renée explained. “It is also based on Out Youth’s 27 years of experience serving the needs youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities. In many ways, writing this curriculum was like channeling the wisdom of Out Youth and turning that wisdom into a written product.”
With a total of 12 groups planned, the coming school year promises to be a busy and fruitful one. Our goal is to end the school year with double the number of youth served in the program over the previous year, rich data collected from the pilot demonstrating youth’s improved resilience and self-advocacy, and a well-crafted and thoroughly-tested curriculum to share with the world.
(1) Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern is supervised by Sara Weber, LPC-S
Be YOU Curriculum Supports Students in Schools Across Central Texas
Out Youth is expanding its reach to youth in Title 1 middle schools and high schools with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). Thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation, Renée was hired in November to facilitate supportive counseling groups in middle schools and high schools in Central Texas, and is charged with the long-term vision of growing the program.
OutYouth is expanding its reach to youth in Title 1 middle schools and high schools with the help of Lead Clinician for School-based Services, Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern (1). Thanks to a generous Opportunity Grant from the Saint David’s Foundation, Renée was hired in November to facilitate supportive counseling groups in middle schools and high schools in Central Texas, and is charged with the long-term vision of growing the program.
Renée is an LGBTQ-affirming psychotherapist who has experience working with adolescents and teens in school settings. Before arriving in Austin during the summer of 2016, she worked for one of the nation's leading organizations in LGBT healthcare, Fenway Health, as the Transgender Health Patient Advocate and Community Liaison. Renée also worked as a school-based clinician for the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy, conducting individual and group counseling in Boston Public Schools. She completed clinical internships at the MassArt Counseling and Wellness Center and Boston GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services).
At OutYouth, Renée hit the ground running, facilitating existing groups at Travis High School, Eastside Memorial High School, Manor High School, Dobie Middle School, and Bertha Sadler Means Young Women’s Academy. She also brought on a new campus for the spring semester of 2017, Del Valle High School. Alongside Clinical Director Sarah Kapostasy, LPC, and two graduate student interns, Renée delivered campus-based supportive counseling to 40 youth, many of whom would not otherwise be able to access OutYouth’s services.
In addition to providing direct services, Renée has drafted a formal curriculum for supporting the social emotional wellbeing of middle school and high school students who are vulnerable to minority stress. The curriculum is entitled “Be YOU: Young, Outspoken, Unbreakable” and combines best practices in LGBT-affirming counseling with developmentally appropriate techniques to maximize cohesion in youth groups.
“The Be YOU curriculum has a solid foundation in the most current research on supporting LGBT youth,” Renée explained. “It is also based on Out Youth’s 27 years of experience serving the needs youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities. In many ways, writing this curriculum was like channeling the wisdom of Out Youth and turning that wisdom into a written product.”
Pending approval from the Austin, Manor, and Del Valle School Districts, OutYouth plans to pilot the Be YOU curriculum through its school based services program over the school year 2017-18, collecting data from participants in order to evaluate its effectiveness. The reach of the program will expand from six campuses to ten, with the launch of groups at Webb Middle School, Mendez Middle School, McCallum High School, and Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Interest in the Be YOU groups is so strong at Manor High School and McCallum High School that two groups will be needed at each in order to meet the demand.
With a total of 12 groups planned, the coming school year promises to be a busy and fruitful one. Our goal is to end the school year with double the number of youth served in the program over the previous year, rich data collected from the pilot demonstrating youth’s improved resilience and self-advocacy, and a well-crafted and thoroughly-tested curriculum to share with the world.
(1) Renée Randazzo, LPC-Intern is supervised by Sara Weber, LPC-S
Transgender Day of Remembrance 2016
Kathryn Gonzales, our Operations and Programs Director delivered a powerfully emotional speech at tonight's Transgender Day of Remembrance.
A full transcript of her speech is available below.
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Hello, my name is Kathryn Gonzales and I am the Operations & Programs Director at Out Youth.
On behalf of the youth, board of directors, and staff of Out Youth, I want to express how humbled and honored we are to support this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Out Youth was founded in 1990 and has served youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities across Central Texas for 26 years. Out Youth is best known for our free individual and family counseling as well as our free and confidential HIV & STI testing, but what we do best is offer youth a place that they can feel at home, a place of warmth and peace. And, by extension, our youth become part of a family that loves, acknowledges, and accepts them for exactly who they are.
As this night approached again this year, I was reminded yet again of my desperate wish, a hope for a day when there are no names on the list.
Yet each year I arrive and sit here, awash in names and grief.
Certainly, I grieve for the loss of those we honor tonight, taken from us by horrific acts of violence.
But I also find myself grieving for the want of memory.
I grieve because I cannot remember them, for all I have been left with are their names and the reverberating silence of their absence.
I grieve because I will never delight in knowing them, at least in this lifetime. I will never know their kindness, their compassion, the unique and captivating beauty of their souls.
And while I may never meet them, I am certain of my love for them. Each and every one. All of those we have lost in years past, and those we seem all but certain lose in the years to come.
So let this be my vow, that my grief will stand as a testament to their lives, a renewed commitment to end this violence, for as long as I am here I will love them and work in honor of their memory in hopes for a day without names.
Aubrey Wilkerson Accepted for 2017 Leadership Austin Essential Class
Out Youth proudly announces that our Executive Director, Aubrey Wilkerson, has been accepted for the Leadership Austin Essentials Class of 2017.
One of the reasons Aubrey was selected is because of his experience related to issues facing the LGBTQ+ community and our youth. Leadership Austin will help Aubrey evolve his leadership style, and deepen his understanding of the issues that will impact Out Youth’s work now and in the future. Out Youth’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to fund Aubrey’s Leadership Austin class dues because of the opportunity it represents for both Aubrey and our organization.
Leadership Austin was founded in 1979 by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce with a mission to provide leadership training to emerging and established leaders in Austin. Participants develop leadership skills, learn about the issues affecting Austin, and build relationships with others seeking to find creative solutions to the problems facing the Central Texas region.