Supporting Our Youth
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Supporting Our Youth (SOY) is an organization based in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Ontario, Canada, which runs programs and events geared to supporting the special needs of
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
,
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
,
transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...
and
intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
youth."Programs that do help street kids". ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', August 17, 1998.
SOY gets support and involvement from local youth and adults that volunteer their time to help improve each other’s lives. SOY’s main focus points are helping the youth create healthy arts, recreational spaces, culture, supportive housing, and employment.


History

In 1991 a network of social professionals, health care providers, educators, youth, parents and activists joined to form the Toronto Coalition for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth. After conducting a six-month study to determine the needs of the queer community, the Supporting Our Youth project was launched in April 1998."Teens may face abuse ; Coming out may open door to a range of emotions from peers and emotions". ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', June 18, 2001.
The program was developed after an extensive series of consultations with
LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
youth in Toronto, which found that while youth felt that they had adequate access to counselling services through their schools and Family Service Toronto, they had a strong desire for more social programming and more activities targeted to youth as an "entry point" to the LGBTQ community. SOY was funded by the Trillium Foundation,"Really OUT ; Community supports help to shelter gay teens from the pain of homophobia and isolation". ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', February 13, 2001.
and was originally meant to serve as a three-year community development project whose purpose was to create opportunities for LGBT youth in the areas of recreational activities, culture and arts, employment, housing and mentoring projects. In September 2004, SOY became a program of the Sherbourne Health Centre.


Programs

The organization runs a variety of programs, including Alphabet Soup, a drop-in for teenagers; the Black Queer Youth Initiative, a group targeted to LGBT
Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though t ...
youth; Express, a group for immigrant and refugee youth; Essence, a personal development group; Fluid, a group for youth who are
pansexual , meaning "all" , definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender , classification = Sexual identity , parent = Bisexuality , synonyms = , associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...
, omnisexual, bisexual and questioning who do not fit into other sexuality categories; Trans_Fusion Crew, a group for transgender youth; and Pink Ink, a creative writing group. As well, SOY offers a Monday Night Drop In for social activities; the Bill 7 Award, an academic scholarship for LGBTQ university students; Click, a
mentoring Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
program; Shift, a
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
project; Fruit Loopz, a youth-oriented arts and music event held at
Buddies in Bad Times Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is a Canadian professional theatre company. Based in Toronto, Ontario and founded in 1978 by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti, and Sky Gilbert, ''Buddies in Bad Times'' is dedicated to "the promotion of queer theatrical ex ...
as part of Toronto's
Pride Week LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sh ...
; and the Pride Prom, held in conjunction with the
Triangle Program The Triangle Program is an alternative education program in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, designed for gay, lesbian, bisexuality, bisexual and transgender students who are at risk of dropping because of homophobia, homophobic and transphobia ...
as an annual
prom A promenade dance, commonly called a prom, is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held near the end of the school yea ...
for LGBT high school students. The group also offers employment assistance programs for youth, as well as assisting in finding emergency housing for homeless LGBTQ youth. The group was consulted in the creation of Sprott House, Toronto's first dedicated
homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously r ...
for LGBTQ youth. In 2012, the group won the City of Toronto Arts for Youth Award to honour its arts-based programming."Surprise! Mayor shows up for his own arts awards: Supporting Our Youth wins a $15,000 prize for work with gays, lesbians". ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', June 22, 2012.


References

{{reflist, 2


External links


Supporting Our Youth

Supporting Our Youth fonds
- Archival records at The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives LGBT youth organizations based in Canada Organizations based in Toronto LGBT culture in Toronto Organizations established in 1998 1998 establishments in Ontario