1. Supporting LGBTQ Youth: What Peer Educators Need to Know
Presented by Fatima Arain and Shannon Perez-Darby
The Northwest Network of Bisexual, Transgender, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse

2. NW Network Mission
The Northwest Network increases our communities’ ability to support the self-determination & safety of lesbian, bisexual and trans survivors of domestic & dating violence through advocacy, organizing and education. We work within a broad liberation movement dedicated to social & economic justice, equality and respect for all people & the creation of loving, inclusive and accountable communities.

3. NW Network Youth Programming
Direct Services for LGBT Youth
Queer Collaborations (Q-lab) full spectrum
support for LGBTQ youth experiencing
domestic, dating and sexual violence
Healthy Relationship Skills
LGBT Youth Crime Victim
Service Center
Elevating Queer and Trans Youth
(Project EQTY)
Building the capacity of our region to support
LGBTQ homeless youth
Community Engagement & Violence Prevention
Love + - supporting LGBTQ youth to build a world
free from sexual violence
Gay Straight Alliance Support
OutSpoken-LGBTQ youth leadership program
National, Regional and Local Training and Technical Assistance

4. Relationship Skills Class Series
Northwest Network
Relationship Skills Class Series
For more information please contact

5. Creating Prevention Programs with/for LGBTQ Youth
Explain Love+ - who is our intended audience, who is it targetted towards, what is the purpose (not just prevention but active building up of positive skills)

6. Our ability to do effective primary prevention work with LGBTQ individuals and communities is directly linked to our knowledge of the strengths, challenges, and barriers faced by these communities, the trust and collaboration we create with LGBTQ community partners, and an active practice of not reinforcing stereotypes or misinformation about LGBTQ relationships and communities.

7. Language & LGBTQ Youth
Almost every word that has been used by us respectfully has also been used against us hatefully.
One’s intent, openness and actions are connected to how a word is experienced by others.
The words reflect a great diversity of identity and experiences.
Youth are on the forefront of evolving language
Insider/Outsider
Cultural characteristic of “camp”
Use the language that people use to describe themselves.

8. LGBTQ Language Resources
GLADD Resource Guide with Glossary
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Glossary
Comprehensive LGBT Glossary

9. Where do LGBTQ youth in your community convene?

10. Making Space
LGBT folks have historically had to make space for ourselves in illegal or hard to find places
Often relies on informal social networks
Can defy physical space
LGBT young people more and more are finding social and romantic connections online via social media and dating websites

11. Love+ DV/SA Primary Prevention Program for LGBTQ Youth

12. What is Love+?
Love+ is a unique teen dating/sexual violence primary prevention program that centers LGBTQ young people’s experiences in dating/sexual relationships.
Explain Love+ - who is our intended audience, who is it targetted towards, what is the purpose (not just prevention but active building up of positive skills)

13. What makes Love+ different ?
Responsive to each unique audience
What makes Love+ different ?
1 – Responsive to each unique audience: modules v curriculum…flexible enough to do what each group needs
2 – Multiple doses: efficacy, gives time to process, come back and ask more questions, also evidence-based best practice in prevention work
3 – Youth generated prevention messages: puts it into their own words, helps them codify their values, shareable
4 – Anti-oppression analysis: integrates systemic oppression and how it impacts interpersonal relationships, eg. Consent
5 – “by and for” – advocacy but also prevention

14. What makes Love+ different ?
Responsive to each unique audience
Multiple doses
What makes Love+ different ?
1 – Responsive to each unique audience: modules v curriculum…flexible enough to do what each group needs
2 – Multiple doses: efficacy, gives time to process, come back and ask more questions, also evidence-based best practice in prevention work
3 – Youth generated prevention messages: puts it into their own words, helps them codify their values, shareable
4 – Anti-oppression analysis: integrates systemic oppression and how it impacts interpersonal relationships, eg. Consent
5 – “by and for” – advocacy but also prevention

15. What makes Love+ different ?
Responsive to each unique audience
Multiple doses
What makes Love+ different ?
1 – Responsive to each unique audience: modules v curriculum…flexible enough to do what each group needs
2 – Multiple doses: efficacy, gives time to process, come back and ask more questions, also evidence-based best practice in prevention work
3 – Youth generated prevention messages: puts it into their own words, helps them codify their values, shareable
4 – Anti-oppression analysis: integrates systemic oppression and how it impacts interpersonal relationships, eg. Consent
5 – “by and for” – advocacy but also prevention
Youth generated prevention messages

16. What makes Love+ different ?
Responsive to each unique audience
Multiple doses
What makes Love+ different ?
1 – Responsive to each unique audience: modules v curriculum…flexible enough to do what each group needs
2 – Multiple doses: efficacy, gives time to process, come back and ask more questions, also evidence-based best practice in prevention work
3 – Youth generated prevention messages: puts it into their own words, helps them codify their values, shareable
4 – Anti-oppression analysis: integrates systemic oppression and how it impacts interpersonal relationships, eg. Consent
5 – “by and for” – advocacy but also prevention
Youth generated prevention messages
Anti-oppression analysis as it relates to relationships

17. What makes Love+ different ?
Responsive to each unique audience
Multiple doses
What makes Love+ different ?
1 – Responsive to each unique audience: modules v curriculum…flexible enough to do what each group needs
2 – Multiple doses: efficacy, gives time to process, come back and ask more questions, also evidence-based best practice in prevention work
3 – Youth generated prevention messages: puts it into their own words, helps them codify their values, shareable
4 – Anti-oppression analysis: integrates systemic oppression and how it impacts interpersonal relationships, eg. Consent
5 – “by and for” – advocacy but also prevention
Youth generated prevention messages
Anti-oppression analysis as it relates to relationships
“by and for” prevention

18. “Relationships are made up of tiny moments of intention and choice”
Love+ Framework
Love+ is built on:
Agency and self-determination of youth
Capacity for youth to build the lives and relationships that are in line with their values
Love+ seeks to:
Provide space for youth to reflect on their own values around sex/dating/relationships and develop their own ideas about what they want their relationships to look like
Build relationship skills, from the ground up, to support young people in living out their values in relationships
-Agency and self-determination is priority
in line with THEIR values, not prescriptive
Builds skills from the ground up…from low-stakes situations to more emotionally charged ones
“Relationships are made up of tiny moments of intention and choice”

19. Love+ Module: Expectations
What thoughts, feelings, reactions come up when you hear the word
EXPECTATIONS?
(respond using the chat function)
Introduce activity
Have them answer in chatbox
Give usual responses from youth (stress, pressure, parents, teachers, disappointment, etc)
How do I respond (based on module on expectations)

20. Love+ Module: Expectations
Scenario: Your friend invited you over to their house after school for the first time. When you arrive at their house, what are your expectations of:
Your friend?
Your friend’s family members/parents?
Yourself?
This is an example of building skills from the ground up…low pressure situation
Give example of how some people take their shoes off, some don’t…what does that mean about expectations? (hint hint: they need to be communicated!)
Where did these expectations come from?
What kinds of problems could come up around these expectations?
What opportunities for building connection could come from these expectations?

21. Love+ Module: Agree/Disagree
Romantic relationships should be the most important relationships in someone’s life.
Introduce activity
“there is no right or wrong answer”
This exercise helps youth examine and define their own values and expectations
Ask “what kinds of problems could come up if these values weren’t discussed”
Explain where I would go next after this activity (eg consent, boundaries, etc)
Oral sex is not real sex. .
Jealousy is a natural part of romantic/sexual relationships.

22. Everyone wants a great relationship. What else do you need? Love+______
- Invite participants to share their own responses

23. What our participants have to say…
What was helpful about the workshop?
“It was really validating to hear that the way I want to have relationships is okay as long as my partners and I agree to it together”
“figuring out what I think about love and something else that important besides love”
“I think the Love+ was pretty helpful. it’s nice to see how everyone views different values as important”
“I know better how to treat my partner, whether boy or girl”
“learning how to realize and define your own boundaries and let people know them”
- Share participant feedback that we usually get (youth always say “more time!”)

24. Thanks for your participation!!
For more information, support, technical assistance or to refer someone to any of our programs please contact:
Fatima Arain
Youth Advocate
Shannon Perez-Darby
Youth Program Manager
- Rep our TA and Love+ in schools