Childrens Support Group for LGBTQ kids 8-13 starts July 1st!

 

Children are identifying as

LGBTQ as early as age 8.

Pride for Youth now has a social/support group for LGBTQ kids 8-13, but we need YOUR help finding them! 

 

Long Island Crisis Center has a rich history of serving people when there are no services available. From our annual suicide awareness walk in Long Beach on Sept. 21st to our program for LGBTQ youth, Pride for Youth, we support and engage some of the most vulnerable Long Islanders.

We are reaching out to you to ask if you would kindly disseminate information about our new program Rainbow Kids to anyone you know involved with an LGBTQ child age 8-13. As supporters of our agency and youth, YOU are the bridge between children and our services! Together we can reach out to these children and provide them with support, a social outlet and a better understanding of what lies ahead.

Rainbow Kids is a social and support group for children between the ages of 8-13 who identify as Transgender, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian or Questioning. 

 

Facilitated by a licensed social worker, Rainbow Kids is a 10 week program that meets every Tuesday during the summer from 6-8pm beginning Tuesday, July 1st. Attendance can be weekly, or when you are available.

Topics covered include - 'Who Am I?' , Building Friendships, Being a Rainbow Kid, Dealing with School, Getting Out Stress, Talking to Family and more! All activities are age appropriate.

Event information on Facebook here!

We hope you will share this information with anyone caring for an LGBTQ child so they can enjoy the support and fun of Rainbow Kids!

For information please call Erin at 516-679-9000 ext. 17 or email efurey@longislandcrisiscenter.org

*Please note we also offer monthly parent nights to support parents of LGBTQ youth. For information on our next parents night on 7/3 from 6:30-8:30, please email tengel@longislandcrisiscenter.org. All caregivers of LGBTQ youth welcome.

March with Pride for Youth & LGBT Activist Brendan Fay!

March with Pride for Youth & LGBTQ Rights Activist Brendan Fay in the Long Island Pride Parade this Saturday!

This Saturday is the Long Island Pride Parade and Pride for Youth will be there with a bus load of LGBTQ youth to march through the streets of Huntington! We will also be marching with LGBTQ rights activist Brendan Fay! 

Meet us by 11:30 at the Huntington Cinema Arts Centre for the line-up and to score a FREE official Pride for Youth Long Island Pride t-shirt (as well as other awesome rainbow give-a-ways!) Then come check out our table in the park at Pride Fest for more information on our services for LGBTQ youth on Long Island!

Brendan Fay was a co-founder of "The Civil Marriage Trail Project" in 2003, bringing couples across borders for legal marriage. Brendan will also be at Coffeehouse on Friday for our annual Pride Pep Rally to share his experience in activism with us! For more information check our event page on Facebook or follow us on Instagram!

Lady Gaga & her mom celebrate Pride for Youth!

Pride for Youth was recently the recipient of quite a few gifts from Lady Gaga, her mother Cynthia Germanotta and her charitable organization the Born This Way Foundation!

  

 Pride for Youth has been lucky enough to become an official partner organization of Lady Gaga's charity the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) & has received some awesome gifts courtesy of Mother Monster and her mom!

Last month, BTWF gave Pride for Youth a table at Lady Gaga's concert at Madison Square Garden because we've been such a fun partner to them! Our youth Program Leader Myrtle and Social Worker Erin Furey got to set up an amazing table at her concert to give a way tons of Pride for Youth goodies!

 

We also got to go outside and work the crowd - we told thousands of 'little monsters' about Pride for Youth and collected a ton of e-mails so that we can link LGBTQ youth to our services!

The best part of the night (other than Lady Gaga's concert!) was when the BTWF staffers gave Pride for Youth a poster that tons of Gaga's fans signed that was dedicated to Pride for Youth! The idea for this gift came right from Cynthia Germanotta herself! We have the poster hanging up at PFY! We can't thank BTWF and Lady Gaga enough for the amazing opportunity they gave to Pride for Youth! Stay tuned into our services - you never know when another 'Gaga' opportunity may arise!

Saying 'good-bye' to a long time supporter...

It is with a heavy heart that Pride for Youth announces the 'sunset' on an amazing foundation that has supported us for many years. 

 

For more than 25 years, the Paul Rapoport Foundation has played a unique role in New York City’s LGBT movement. Solely dedicated to the rights, health and
well-being of the city’s LGBT communities, the Foundation has both witnessed and
helped catalyze the enormous changes and momentous gains that LGBT New
Yorkers have experienced since the Foundation’s formal establishment in 1987.

Paul Rapoport Foundation has been funding many of the programs at Pride for Youth, including our work in low-income communities on Long Island and our programming for transgender/trans* youth. Many people don't know that Pride for Youth has offered Gay Straight Alliance support to several marginalized school districts on Long Island, as well as placing a Pride for Youth counselor weekly in the same schools, to directly support LGBTQ youth in these areas. (If you'd like to donate to Pride for Youth given this loss of funding, you can do so here.)

Our Executive Director Linda Leonard, Pride for Youth Director Pete Carney and PFY Prevention Specialist Devon Zapposodi all attended the closing celebration to acknowledge the amazing work the foundations support has allowed Pride for Youth to engage in.

Paul Rapoport, an attorney, was a founder of both the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center and the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York. He was deeply committed to supporting the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGTB) communities, with a particular focus on efforts to eliminate homophobia and discrimination against gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons.