Our PFLAG NYC community has risen to the challenge of the past year in such remarkable ways, and you have helped us keep helping LGBTQ+ youth, their families, schools and everyone who aspires to help them find welcome and affirmation. As we come into the final month of the year, we ask you to help once more with a year-end donation.
Social distancing and life lived remotely have brought particular challenges and heightened the risks that LGBTQ+ young people face. Everyone is navigating new pressures, but for young people who are grappling with identity the pressures can be unbearable. Home and family may not be a supportive environment. Going to school is a daily refuge that no longer exists. In an all-digital world, isolation, bullying, and fear of the future can be even more inescapable. On the flip side, parents and families can feel especially lost when a child comes out and they don’t know how to cope.
Faced with new needs, this year PFLAG NYC reworked every one of our programs to serve the needs of our new reality. The result is that we are better, stronger, and more capable for all that the future may bring.
We moved all our support meetings online and increased the number of meetings to more than a dozen a month. With weekday lunchtime sessions, we are making strides to make PFLAG NYC accessible in whatever slot a busy parent has in their schedule.
We created entirely new groups, including Black Family Circle, the Stepping Stones Tweens Group, Pride Story Hour, PFLAG NYC Book Club, and a círculo latino/a/x on WhatsApp for El Amor Hace La Familia, so that we can be wherever there’s a need.
We joined students in their virtual classrooms without missing a beat with the Safe Schools Program, but we also helped schools with new training on affirming LGBTQ students in remote learning and we facilitated student drop-ins at online clubs and through public libraries so that young people could still find safe spaces.
We turned Gender Conference NYC into an all-virtual event so that more than 500 parents, caregivers, trans and gender-expansive young people, and the teachers, counselors, social workers, healthcare providers and other professionals who serve them could still gather to learn and exchange ideas in more than 60 workshops.
None of this could have happened without all the partners who make our programs possible. Facilitators, school presenters, volunteers, panelists, sponsors, and donors. We are thankful for everyone who has risen to the challenge.
Looking forward to 2021, we will continue to push ourselves to do better. Like everyone, we can’t wait till we can safely resume our work in person, but so much of what we have learned and made possible this year will continue. Flexible, adaptable, resourceful, but most of all UNSTOPPABLE — these will be the hallmarks of PFLAG NYC going forward.
Help us now and show your support by donating to PFLAG NYC before the end of the year.