On Saturday, July 29th, Whitman-Walker Health’s Youth Leadership Team will be presenting “Building Connections with your LGBTQIA+ Child: A Parent Education Session”, a free and interactive workshop that will help parents examine what their LGBTQAI+ young people need from the adults in their lives, explore affirming language to be more supportive, and provide tips on how to prepare LGBTQIA+ children to advocate for their own needs in medical settings.
“This work grew out of a series of focus group discussions that Whitman-Walker Health held in Fall 2015 with LGBTQAI+ youth and young adults about wellness and what they need from the adults in their lives to support their well-being,” explains Jenn Kwait, LGBT Research Manager for Whitman-Walker Health. “Among the many things we learned during these discussions was how much young people want their parents to be able to build their own skills around communicating with and supporting their LGBTQAI+ children. Even for those young people who felt that their parents were accepting, they still felt that they unintentionally said some hurtful words.”
The Whitman-Walker Youth Leadership Team, which is comprised of eight young adults, is funded by one of George Washington University’s Rodham Institute’s Academic Community Collaboration Awards. Chad Henson, a physician at GW, serves as academic partner, while Timothy Elliott, a therapist at WWH with extensive experience working with LGBTQAI+ young people, also supports and guides this project.
“One of the wonderful benefits of this project is that young people will be leading the workshop and sharing their own voices about what is important to them from both their parents and/or caregivers, and their health care providers,” Kwait explains. The idea of having a team of young folks lead this work also came out of the 2015 Whitman-Walker focus groups. Participants shared that they want to lead their own advocacy and education work around their needs and felt that adults should stop taking over. “We heard repeatedly that young people wanted adults to help build the stage with the resources we more easily have access to, but also wanted for us to hand young people the microphone!” The partnership between Whitman-Walker Health and GWU empowers youth to take action and participate in advocacy, all while building bridges between LGBTQAI+ youth and their parents and their health care providers.
During a series of group working sessions this summer, the youth team is writing two toolkits aimed at providing parents of LGBTQAI+ young people with specific skills and strategies they need to be effective at supporting their young people. “One toolkit focuses on building skills around connecting and communicating, and the other toolkit is centered around supporting the development of advocacy skills of young people in healthcare settings,” Kwait explains. The July 29th parent education session will be based on the content developed for these two toolkits.
Parents can expect to learn about both affirming and hurtful language and actions, as well as the assumptions that affect LGBTQAI+ young people in building connections with parents and health care providers. The workshop will also include information for parents about supporting their young people in accessing and advocating for affirming health care. “We are planning for this to be an interactive workshop where parents can explore their own range of identities as well – as a way to broaden understanding and open dialogue,” adds Kwait. This powerful workshop is breaking barriers and providing immeasurable support to LGBTQAI+ youth, as many studies cite family rejection as a leading cause of LGBTQ youth homelessness.
The workshop will begin at 10 AM and will end at 12 PM. The address is 1525 14thSt NW. Parents and LGBTQIA+ youth caregivers interested in learning more can email Jenn Kwait at JKwait@whitman-walker.org.
