ROCKLAND — OUT Maine has received a sizable grant from Jane’s Trust Foundation, which will be used to develop and implement a multi-year approach to address the critical need for affirming mental health resources for LGBTQIA2S+ youth and families in Maine.
The grant itself will fund OUT Maine’s curriculum development, training programs, support groups, and provider networking opportunities, with a strong focus on evaluation to assess effectiveness and impact. The nonprofit will be partnering with local universities to train new mental health professionals in supporting and affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
“Especially in rural parts of the state, queer youth can feel extremely isolated, and experience higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation than their peers,” says OUT Maine’s Executive Director Sue Campbell. “This grant from Jane’s Trust Foundation will help us educate the next generation of therapists and counselors to give these kids and their families the support they need.”
Jane’s Trust Foundation is “a family foundation dedicated to creating a more socially just and environmentally sustainable world in which all people thrive through education and deep connections with family, community, and the natural world.”
LGBTQIA2S+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning, intersex, and two-spirit. Allies are folks who do not identify as LGBTQIA2S+ but have camaraderie with the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Cis or cisgender means a person’s gender identity and sex-assigned-at-birth match. If gender identity and sex-assigned-at-birth do not match, a person may identify as transgender. For more definitions of LGBTQ+ terminology, visit www.outmaine.org/resources/terminology.
OUT Maine has an ambitious goal: to create more welcoming and affirming communities for Maine’s diverse queer youth in all their intersectional identities by changing the very systems that serve them. For more information, please visit www.outmaine.org.
