Friday Evening Social Event

(Program Currently On Hold)

The Friday evening social/recreational group will be a social/recreational group for lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender youth ages 14-22 years old. The group will provide gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender youth a safe and healthy atmosphere to socialize and meet others in their peer group. The purpose is to provide a safe and supervised environment for lesbian/bi/gay teens and young adults to socialize. While the primary focus will be fostering an atmosphere for healthy peer-to-peer social interactions, this program would permit a larger percentage of the lesbian/bi/gay youth population access to information and resources available from One-In-Teen and the Center for Gay & Lesbian Community Services. The program could provide leadership opportunities to the youth currently involved in other One-In-Teen programs. This program should also serve as a means of increasing the interest and involvement in the Wednesday night comprehensive support group as well as other One-In-Teen programs.

It is expected that the structure will develop and evolve as the program becomes established and the input of participating youth is incorporated. The meeting format will include both directed and undirected group activities as well as free-form social interactions. Activities will include movies, games, quiet conversations, trust and team building activities, and other youth proposed events. All One-In-Teen activities are drug/alcohol-free events.

A barrier to attending the Wednesday night comprehensive support group encountered by many sexual minority youth is that the meetings take place on a school night. Over the years, the support group sponsors have spoken with many teens that are simply not permitted to socialize away from home on school nights or cannot attend because of the demands of school assignments. Since most of these teens are unable or unwilling to tell guardians of their interest in attending the support group, they are unable to provide their guardians with an adequate reason to be out on a school night. Recently, during an Awareness Team activity at a local high school, several students expressed an interest in being involved with One-In-Teen. They cited the fact that the support group was on a week night as the reason they had not been able to participate. They stated that Friday evenings are the time they have the least restrictions on their activities. The group will be staffed by adult volunteers, possibly including support group ‘youth’ members (18-22).