We Played, We Laughed, We WERKED
This summer, in the face of an onslaught of interpersonal, cultural, institutional, and state attacks on our community we chose to prioritize our own organizational infrastructure and systems of care. In a three-day retreat in Maggie Valley, we played, we laughed, we ate, and we WERKED, honey.
It was a joy to bring our team together this summer to launch a strategic planning initiative, an important time for us to envision moving out of survival and into THRIVING as an organization. Moving from reactionary to PROACTIVE. As a primarily remote, virtual team it was a rare treat to share physical space together in such a beautiful part of our region! We took some time to splash around at Soco Falls and encourage y’all to check it out when you get a chance.
Through play, thoughtful discussion and a little bit of generative conflict, we deepened our relationships with each other. We named organizational gaps and support needs and many of our instincts were validated by reflections from community member feedback. We were able to explore how our values intersect with our programs, fundraising, communications, and administrative practices.
In our practice of storytelling and listening we shared our personal histories and narratives with the organization. We unearthed stories of survival, resilience, conflict, healing and came into deeper alignment with each other. We reflected to each other how we’ve grown: the NC GSA Network continues to grow; the number of paid leadership opportunities for youth within the organization have increased; our organizational framework is more expansive; the scope and impact of our organizing has deepened; and we are more financially stable.
This particular team of queers has stewarded the organization over the last few years to realign with our community, deepen our internal and external relationships, and increase the engagement and visibility of our programs. It’s easy to get lost in the work, so we took some time to reflect on our history and celebrate our growth over the years, here are some of those highlights:
Our new Mission and Values Statements ground our work in intersectionality and abolition.
Programs are reaching more youth than ever before. In 2022…
495 visits to virtual programs and 247 visits to in-person programs
For 2022, our youth participant demographics are:
72.4% White, 15.3% Black, 5.1% Multi-Racial, 1.0% Latine, 1% Asian, 5.1% Unknown
71% trans, 1% 2S, 7.2% Questioning, 20.6% Cis
81 GSA Summit Participants
218 Prom Attendees
In 2019 our expense budget was roughly 90K, our 2023 expense budget approaches 300K
The growth in support has directly influenced the human resources available to Youth OUTright. Now a team of 3 full time Directors and 2 part time Youth Fellows with plans to grow the youth team!
Our relationships with trans youth organizers have positioned us to support a number of youth-led direct actions in response to transphobic state violence. We’re proud to stand in support of fierce self-advocacy and to resource young leaders in our community.
We’ve committed ourselves to breaking the Asheville bubble! With regular rural meet-ups we’re invested in creating more access points to our programs for young people, regardless of their county.
Youth OUTright will always be evolving. In this chapter of our story we are in a metamorphosis. Our core structures have been under intense transformation and growth over the past two years. We’re dissecting, redesigning, rebuilding organizational infrastructure, stewarding our culture, and designing more sustainable workflows. Last year, we revised our Mission and crafted our first Racial and Gender Justice statements. This year, we began the process of operationalizing those values and ideas into intentional practice. We acknowledge we have some growth areas, particularly around disability justice and language justice and are working towards a deeper understanding and practice in both fields.
Our intergenerational team is most excited to continue leading with the youth’s self-determination and autonomy. This practice is core to the way we do the work. We are committed to honing our youth justice lens and challenging adultism throughout our organization and community. In collaboration with youth leadership we’ve identified some focus areas for our work in the near and aspirational timelines. Divining our futures we see: continued rural outreach that builds capacity of youth communities to self-organize; richer organizational storytelling that communicates what we do more clearly and consistently; deeper connection with our people through intentional relationship stewardship and community partnership.
We dream of a physical resource center to ground our work and the youth community in a space for us, by us. We seek to mobilize critical social, cultural, and material resources to trans and queer youth. We welcome allies and accomplices in resisting systems of harm and false moral panic. We invite the curious, the questioning, and the uncertain to question cultural norms and legal structures that deny human rights.
Youth OUTright’s strategic planning process is a months-long process of collecting stories and data, analyzing and synthesizing that information alongside named organizational goals, and collaborating with our team to create an actionable plan for the next several years. With the support of Colibri Consulting Group we aim to codify and operationalize the important values alignment work we’ve done in the recent years.
We are grateful for the network of support that exists around Youth OUTright that makes this all possible. Big shout outs to Bre Powers, Biscuit Head, Colibri, all of our donors, and volunteers that make this all possible. We are building trans and queer youth power in an intergenerational community!
While trans and queer folks are existing in a state of uncertainty in relation to North Carolina legislature one thing remains certain: Youth OUTright will continue to hold space, build power with and advocate for trans and queer youth. Our transcestry is rich and abundant. We will continue a legacy of community care, collective power, and mutual support.