Grants in Action: Building Community between LGBTQ+ Youth during COVID-19

As a 15 year-old in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the last things I expected to do was helping to run a $20,000 grant! As a member of Oregon’s Multnomah County Youth Action Council (YAC), I applied for the grant with our amazing YAC facilitator, Nicole Mayer. As YAC members, we decided to use the grant funding to create a youth-led podcast, “All in My Head,” dedicated to suicide prevention. Somehow, I found myself podcasting alongside a team of young people who had a shared goal of promoting mental health resources for young LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus other sexual and gender minorities) and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) identifying folks. This was a transformative experience for me. The podcast gave me a platform to share my experiences, find community with other youth, and have honest conversations related to our mental health.

To develop All in My Head, we built a team of over 20 young people who took on various leadership roles in the podcast project. We led outreach and recruitment, performed interviews, did the recording and editing, and shared the podcast on social media and other platforms. Because of the grant funding I helped apply for, we were even able to provide gift cards to support the time and contributions of everyone involved, which further supported our team’s commitment to equity and made me feel even more valued and motivated to continue producing quality content.

In All in My Head, we are talking about complex issues such as the intersection of our queer identities and our religions, the use of acronyms like BIPOC, and our opinions on the importance of behavioral health in our schools.  We intentionally built a diverse youth-led podcast team with varied life experiences. With each episode, my fellow podcasters and I gave voice to what is usually only in our heads. I talked about difficult topics like my coming out story, addiction, and therapy. While these stories were hard to share, my hope is that sharing my experience will help to normalize the discussion of these stigmatized topics. As the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, we, as the podcast team, attended in-person community events to connect with LGBTQ+ youth face-to-face. This facilitated more two-way conversations and was one of my favorite parts of the project.

As I gained experience podcasting and using grant funding, I encountered other opportunities to get involved in suicide prevention work. With Place Matters Oregon, I helped create a video project that looked at mental health among LGBTQ+ youth in rural areas of Oregon. This was highly impactful for me coming from an urban area; I hadn’t understood some of the struggles from lacking support in your community and how crucial social connectedness is. This was a truly moving video project that demonstrated the importance of having a safe place to be yourself.

The $20,000 grant came from funding received by the Oregon Health Authority from CDC National Center of Injury Prevention and Control’s Core State Injury Prevention Program. Oregon Health Authority put out a call for organizations serving the LGBTQ+ community to apply for funding using a low-barrier application process to promote accessibility, inclusion, and equity. In addition to All in My Head, 20 other community-led projects were funded—all using a protective factors approach to injury and violence prevention. We invite you to explore other funded projects like the OUT Dance Project and visit the Oregon LGBTQ Youth & Family Resources.

Core State Injury Prevention Program (Core SIPP) uses evidence-based public health strategies, practices, and policies to support state health departments, like Oregon Health Authority, build their functional capacity to translate injury prevention research into public health actions. Learn more about Core SIPP and what other funded recipients are doing, Core SIPP: States in Action.

Acknowledgements:

Lane grew up in Portland, Oregon and is currently a student majoring in public health at Willamette University. Being a part of these projects led Lane to pursue a degree in public health, seeking to improve the lives of young people. Lane would like to extend a huge thanks to those who made this project possible: the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide in partnership with the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs, the Oregon Health Authority’s Injury & Violence Prevention Program, and the Multnomah County Youth Action Council’s amazing youth group facilitator, Nicole Mayer. Nicole helped guide this project from the beginning and was an invaluable mentor and friend for so many who were part of this podcast.

Also, thank you to Kris Bifulco with the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs; Oregon Health Authority’s Core SIPP Team; Sara Wolicki with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their assistance facilitating the publication of this blog.

This publication was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the non-research cooperative agreements Core State Injury Prevention Program (CDC-RFA-CE21-2101 and CDC-RFA-CE16-1602SUPCOVID2020) through the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC. For more information about CDC National Center of Injury Prevention and Control’s Core State Injury Prevention Program visit Core SIPP or contact coresipp2021@cdc.gov.