News :: GLBT
New programs for youth of color, trans youth may suffer under budget cuts by Ethan Jacobs
staff reporterWednesday May 27, 2009 Back in 2007 the Department of Public Health (DPH) took its LGBT youth programs in a bold new direction, focusing its resources on segments of the LGBT youth population thought to be at greatest risk for health and safety problems: youth of color, transgender youth and homeless youth. Yet just as the state is working to develop an infrastructure to serve these young people, the money to fund those efforts is in jeopardy. With state revenues plummeting in the current economic crisis state agencies across the board are being hit with substantial budget cuts; in recent months the House and Senate both eliminated earmarks guaranteeing funding for LGBT youth programs as part of a broader effort to remove earmarks from the Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget. Though the FY10 has yet to be finalized, advocates are bracing for the likelihood that the new resources created to serve at-risk LGBT youth will wind up on the chopping block.
"The GLBT youth infrastructure that exists currently in Massachusetts is facing a potentially devastating loss here in the state budget. For some programs that’s all of their funding -- they would go away -- and for others it’s a large part of their budget," said Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth (BAGLY), which receives DPH funding that it distributes to a network of community-based LGBT youth organizations known as the AGLY Network. "This is a challenging time, and this funding, which was never enough ... could potentially go away, and that would be devastating."
Ironically the potential upheaval to the state’s LGBT youth funding comes at a time when the state is making inroads to serve populations of LGBT youth that have historically been underserved. For instance, beginning in FY08, DPH’s Safe Spaces for GLBT Youth program retooled its criteria for organizations seeking funding to put special emphasis on services for LGBT youth of color, trans youth and homeless youth, said Paula Tessier, the program’s director. Since then DPH has been providing funding to programs that specifically target those populations. The shift was prompted in part by recommendations from the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth, which advises state agencies on LGBT policy, based on state survey data and anecdotal evidence suggesting that those populations face disproportionately high risk of health and safety problems. Surveys by the Department of Elementary and Second Education (DESE) have long shown that LGB youth are more likely than their peers to attempt suicide, to be victims of violence and to engage in risky behaviors; the surveys do not track transgender youth.
Tessier worries that cuts to Safe Spaces funding could mean that the efforts to reach out to youth from those populations could face serious setbacks. She said many of the programs funded by DPH have worked to connect LGBT youth in underserved communities to adult role models who can help them develop a sense of belonging and self-confidence.
"We’re finally at a place where we have established GLBTQ role models who are GLBTQ and represent racial and ethnic enclaves. ... Creating meaningful role models is just vital," said Tessier.
Jacob Smith Yang, chair of the Commission on GLBT Youth, said DPH’s efforts to fund programs for youth of color, transgender youth and homeless youth have helped build up the infrastructure of programs supporting LGBT youth, one of the commission’s goals. He said many of the programs that have received the newly targeted funds since FY08 are small organizations, and now that these organizations are state contractors Yang said they are better positioned to apply for other state contracts; the DPH grants also give them more credibility among foundations and other potential funders.
"It can help them afford not only a staff person but make them a lot more fundable, which can build infrastructure, which is what the commission is really calling for," said Yang, who also serves as executive director of Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health, which runs a DPH-funded Safe Spaces program geared towards Asian and Pacific Islander LGBT youth.
Ramani Sripada, deputy director of MAP for Health, said the groundwork for DPH’s new focus was laid in 2004 when staff members of MAP for Health, JRI Health, Boston Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS), and the Latin American Health Institute, among others, formed the Youth of Color Coalition and petitioned DPH for LGBT youth funding targeted at youth of color. The coalition received funding for three years, distributing it to relevant programs, and once DPH began focusing on LGBT youth of color many of those programs were able to receive funding directly from DPH.
Sripada said when MAP’s Safe Spaces program launched it had about four or five high school students attending its weekly Friday night event, but in the past couple years the program has grown, bringing in about 15 youth. Under the program, MAP dedicates two Fridays each month to creating a social space; the alternate two Fridays are for educational events, at which adult role models and other speakers address topics such as safer sex, immigrant rights and anti-LGBT violence. The program brings in high school students from Boston, a contingent of Vietnamese youth from Dorchester, and occasionally a group of youth who make the trip down to Boston from Lowell. Sripada said some of the youth have family support and are active in their school’s gay/straight alliance (GSA) or youth groups like BAGLY. For others, she added, MAP is one of their only sources of support, and outside of the program they "couch-surf" because they are estranged from their families.
MAP’s program also promotes youth leadership development. Staff train peer leaders to organize events for the group and to work for change in their own communities, said Sripada. If the state cuts MAP’s funding, Sripada said she’d work to maintain the Friday night programs, but expects the peer leader programs would be cut back.
"Those things are what build and showcase your skills for the future, and we’re not going to be able to do that level of intensity, which makes for a lesser program," said Sripada.
Holly Richardson, director of Springfield’s Out Now program for LGBT youth, which receives DPH funding to do outreach to Latino LGBT youth, also worries about the impact of cutbacks. Richardson said about 80 percent of the youth Out Now serves identify as Latino. The group holds a Wednesday night social event that draws about 20-25 youth, mostly from the Springfield area; on Friday night the group has an educational event that brings in about 15-17 youth. Out Now also trains youth leaders, who then work with adult staff to help other attendees address problems they are facing and to advocate for social justice in their communities. Richardson said the DPH-funded Latino youth program, which works to connect youth to the adult Latino LGBT community in Springfield, would likely suffer if there were a state funding cut.
"One of the figures tossed out is a 40 percent cut. ... We’ll cut back 40 percent of the DPH grant work for sure, and that will impact staff hours. All of us will take a hit," said Richardson. "I suspect there’ll be a drop in hours, a drop in the programming we’re able to do out in the community. All of this Latino youth project, it will take a hit."
BAGLY receives state funding from DPH to do outreach to the transgender community. Stowell, who also serves as vice-chair of the state youth commission, said the work that DPH began in FY08 was the first time a state agency targeted funds specifically at transgender youth. In the past the state has also funded HIV/AIDS programs targeted to the larger transgender community, but while those programs were inclusive of trans youth, young people were not their primary focus. BAGLY has breakout sessions for trans-identified youth at its weekly meeting, said Stowell, and last year the group organized the state’s first transgender youth summit, bringing trans youth and adults together to help young people build connections in the community. The second summit will be held next month.
"I think we’ve made a good start to focus attention, but it’s a start. We have a long way to go to create an infrastructure to support youth of color, trans youth of all colors, homeless youth. ... The funding is very limited, and so even what became available last year was just a start to some programs in some areas, and we’re facing the devastating loss of most of it. It looks like the commitment is there in many of these venues but the funding is a challenge," said Stowell.
DPH’s Safe Spaces program is one major component of the state’s overall effort to create support systems for LGBT youth. Safe Spaces directly funds 10 programs across the state, and as one of those programs BAGLY distributes funds to the dozen members of the AGLY Network. Tessier said almost all of the programs focus on the youth development model - encouraging young people to develop leadership skills and helping them form connections with their peers.
"With the exception of Healthcare of Southeastern Massachusetts [which provides trainings to schools and community groups and organizes LGBT youth conferences] all of our programs are based on well-evaluated youth development models that focus on building a voice for young people. ... Reducing isolation contributes to their overall health and wellbeing and reduces risk taking," said Tessier. "The programs give them a chance to form really healthy relationships with their peers and adults in the program."
Healthcare of Southeastern Mass’s GLBT Youth Support Project trains youth-oriented social service agencies, such as child welfare agencies, violence prevention programs and after school programs, on issues facing LGBT youth. Marisa Howard-Karp the project’s program director, said often times agencies contact her program to request training to help them make their programs more welcoming for LGBT youth. In the current fiscal year Howard-Karp also received funding to do staff trainings at 16 schools, an area where she said there is high demand
"Being able to offer these trainings for free has removed the barriers at some schools," said Howard-Karp. "We were able to go to places where people have wanted to do this for a long time but haven’t been able to."
The GLBT Youth Support Project also organized five conferences for LGBT youth and their adult supporters in Lowell, Worcester, Holyoke, Westport and Barnstable. Howard-Karp said in areas like Westport, where there are few resources for LGBT youth, the conferences are one of the few ways for them to connect to their peers.
"It’s a place where there’s a real need for one. That’s a conference that was smaller than the one we had in Holyoke, where there are more resources. ... We hear really different things in a place like Westport than we do in a place like Holyoke, where they have some of these resources," said Howard-Karp.
Like Yang and Stowell, Howard-Karp is a member of the youth commission. Yang said the commission is aware of the potential for conflicts of interest in having people working for state contractors serve on a commission that advises the state on how to spend its money. He said all commissioners disclose their organizational affiliations to the commission, which is an independent freestanding body created by the legislature in 2006, during the application process to join the commission, and all commissioners take an online state conflict-of-interest training course each year. Yang said in instances where the commission is discussing an issue that would have a direct impact on a commissioner’s employer, that commissioner abstains from the discussion and the vote. But he said those instances are rare because the commission’s budget recommendations focus on "what populations need the most, what areas of the state need the most, but we don’t get down to the provider level."
Beyond DPH, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) also provides funding for LGBT youth programs. DESE spent nearly $150,000 on grants to GSAs across the state and funding for teacher and staff trainings on LGBT issues. Yang said DESE had planned to hire a Safe Schools coordinator this year, but as revenues plummeted and Gov. Deval Patrick instituted a hiring freeze those plans were shelved. There are no immediate plans to revive them, said Yang.
He said the grants to GSAs, which tend to be about $1500 per group, help GSA advisors pay for educational materials for the group, as well as for transportation and registration fees for conferences and other programs.
"They provide funding for those resources so an advisor doesn’t have to pay out of pocket," said Yang. "It allows them to get LGBT-specific resources [such as] training videos, and allows the program to be more than just a social group, to bring in content [such as] this is a piece on what it’s like to be GLBT and coming out."
Ultimately the decision of how much funding the state’s LGBT youth programs receive rests with DESE and DPH. Jennifer Manley, a spokesperson for DPH, said her agency is strongly committed to LGBT youth programming. DPH estimates that the Safe Spaces programs served about 30,000 people over the past year, including youth accessing state-funded programs, conference attendees, and adults from various agencies who receive Safe Spaces trainings.
"These programs are an important issue for us. We understand the impact they have on these 30,000 people that have been touched by these programs," said Manley.
Tessier said the Safe Spaces program saves lives.
"These programs give GLBT youth a life saving sense of belonging and access to adult role models. ... It all has to do with the environment, and we’ve found we can make such a difference working with schools and communities, and knowing what it takes to move a community to be more supportive and accepting of GLBT youth," said Tessier.
Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com
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