Funded Projects

LGBTQIA+ High School Health Initiative

Project Year

2022

City & State

Memphis, Tennessee

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

LGBTQ Health

Program Description

This project came about as I was meeting with the school nurse at Soulsville Charter School to establish a longitudinal partnership for residents and the students. As we were talking, he mentioned that a big need in their school is support systems and education for students about LGBTQ+ health topics, gender and sexual identity, as well as providing additional resources. Thus, the focus for this initial partnership was developed. Anecdotally, as I have completed well child checks and acute care visits during my training in residency, many patients that have shared themselves to be members of the LGBTQIA community feel they do not have a safe place to discuss their identity, and health-related topics, within their peer group, school sites or sometimes within their homes. The hope of this project is to help start these conversations about first healthy relationships and consent for all students, then describing gender and sexual identity, discussing what is the LGBTQIA community, and then focusing on ally-hood with bystander intervention training Problem: How do we make our students who identify as LGBTQ+ feel safe and supported?” Primary Setting: Soulsville Charter School Number of Children Affected: We hope to have 10-20 students participate in the project however the number of children affected is greater due to the program's impact. Students in the program will create an initiative focused on supporting the LGBTQ+ community at Soulsville which will be visible, accessible, and impactful to a majority of students at the school (which is approximately 600 from 6-12). Further, we hope students become comfortable having conversations about these topics as part of the project and bring attention to these topics will also have impact on more than just the students directly attending the programming. Project Goal: This program aims to educate and provide school-based support and access to community-based resources for high school students identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Proposed Intervention: Five educational sessions (likely to be held during the school day however possibly after school) partnered with community members that will occur over the 2022-2023 Academy Year. Curriculum will culminate with students creating a school-based resource to promote visibility, active support, and safety of students identifying as LGBTIA within their school. Surveys will be administered at session 1, 3, and 5, to asses changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Sessions will include of the following: 1. Session 1 -What are healthy relationships and how do we build them? -Asking for and respecting consent in relationships 2. Session 2: -Gender and sexual identities -Intro to what is meant by LGBTQIA community, historical implications, and current advocacy work -Guess speaker that is content expert 3. Session 3: -Community Resources, potentially a panel session -Students brainstorm what resources/tools they can implement at Soulsville and we start planning on this 4. Session 4: -Allyhood and bystander intervention training 5. Session 5: -Safe sex and STIs Anticipated Outcomes: Surveys will be administered at sessions 1, 3, and 5 (still being developed for content). We anticipate that students who participate will have more and feel confident in their knowledge as discussed above, have improvements in their feelings of support at Soulsville, be able to identify community resources, identify as an ally (if not identifying as member of the LGBTQ+ community), and be more likely to intervene in moments of sexuality and driven injustice (and hopefully other forms though we are focused on this one aspect). This program aims to empower students to evaluate how they can enhance their community by development of a resource tool/campaign related to awareness and support of LGBTQ+ specific issues.

Project Goal

This program aims to provide school-based support and access to community-based resources for high school students identifying as part of the LGBTQIA community. Aims to educate students about healthy relationships, consent, introduction to what is the LGBTQIA community, and tools to support ally-hood of the LGBTQIA community. Empower students to evaluate how they can enhance their own community by development of a resource tool/campaign related to awareness and support of LGBTQIA specific issues. Develop a longitudinal relationship between Soulsville Charter School and UTHSC.

Project Objective 1

Based upon a questionnaire at sessions 1, 3, and 5, the project participants will demonstrate 75% improvement in mechanisms to identify in-school allies and 100% improvement in awareness of at least 3 community partner support systems.

Project Objective 2

Based upon a questionnaire at sessions 1, 3, and 5, 100% of project participants will demonstrate an increase in confidence to discuss and educate peers on sex identity, gender identity, health relationships, consent, ally-hood, and have increased confidence in participating in bystander intervention

Project Objective 3

Students will create a school-based resource to promote visibility, active support, and safety of students identifying as LGBTIA within their school by June 2023.

AAP District

District IV

Institutional Name

Soulsville Charter School

Contact 1

Anne Laverty