Prism continue’s to blaze ahead! Our summer at a glance:
- We developed and led a Virtual Gatherings Training for our facilitators. In the training, we aimed to bring more structure to our virtual gatherings and to empower our facilitators with specialized roles.
- We completed our biannual staff & volunteer evaluations. In the interest of cultivating a cooperative governing ethos, Prism employs a 360-degree evaluation process. We believe evals should come from youth and volunteers—not just the board & leadership team.
- We crafted and emailed surveys to our youth participants to gather data about the effectiveness of our virtual programs. These program surveys have allowed us to make data-driven tweaks to our virtual programs in the direction of the youths’ desires.
- We presented to a class of prospective school counselors at the University of South Alabama about LGBTQ+ teens in the school space.
- We provided Safe Zone Training to 120 student leaders at Spring Hill College.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In July, Prism hosted a virtual Meet the Author event with Lexie Bean whose novel The Ship We Built was recently published by Penguin Random House. It’s one of the first middle grade novels centering a transgender boy written by one. Prism circulated copies of the book between teens & preteens prior to the event. The youth were stoked (and a little star-struck) by Lexie, who read passages of his novel and participated in a follow up Q&A. Thanks, Lexie!
A HUGE thank you to Mission Fitness who raised $3200 for Prism United over Pride Month. Mission Fitness just won Nappie Awards for Best Yoga Studio and Best Personal Trainer in Mobile. If you’re looking for an opportunity to jumpstart your fitness goals, we hope you’ll give Mission Fitness a try.
FROM THE YOUTH
“When you’re born, you’re given a name. Then you go by that name until… it doesn’t fit anymore. Until it feels wrong to be called that. Maybe it’s just a phase, so you go by your middle name for a while. But that’s almost worse somehow. You don’t like how it sounds coming out of others’ mouths, knowing you’re expected to respond. So you pick your own. And after years and years of going by your parents’ choice… you finally feel like yourself for the first time in your life. My name is Adrian. It’s nice to meet you.” – A
LET’S MAKE PRISM LAST
It takes a lot to run Prism. We’ve got three robust programs. We’re operating in Mobile and Fairhope. Our team consists of a board, four directors, twenty facilitators, and number of other volunteers. We’ve led Safe Zone Trainings for students and mental health workers. We’re on a committee exploring solutions for housing-insecure LGBTQ+ youth.
We’ve got vision, and we’ve got the talent and determination to back it up. But the sobering reality is that our work won’t be sustainable without substantially more funding. There’s a long distance between where we are and where we need to be. But you can help us close the gap. We hope you’ll consider supporting our work with a contribution. Thank you.