Lunch & Learn – Connection Drives Healing – LGBTQ+

Lunch & Learn – Connection Drives Healing – Protective Factors of Adult Support, Compassion, and Allyship for LGBTQ + Youth

Linked Mentoring, Inc. presents Connection Drives Healing: Protective Factors of Adult Support, Compassion, and Allyship for LGBTQ+ Youth. Join us for PRIDE month’s Lunch & Learn where we will have guest presenters from Linked Mentoring, Inc. Linked Mentoring, Inc. is a youth mentoring organization which seeks to connect, empower, and inspire LGBTQ+ youth; connecting youth with an LGBTQ+ adult mentor so that the two can develop a trusting, supportive, mutually positive connection.

In this training, we aim to provide a foundational understanding of LGBTQ+ youth’s unique experiences and needs including identity development, representation, and intergenerational mentoring relationships. As we explore both the contemporary and historical disenfranchisement of LGBTQ+ youth, participants will learn key resilience-building practices they can implement in their own work to be affirming and inclusive service providers.

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GSA Link, Inc. brings three facilitators to co-lead the training.

Marlee Goodman (she/her), a Board of Directors member, brings her expertise as a Trauma Specialist, focusing on intersectional identities, disenfranchised youth grief, de-escalation, and mental health advocacy. With a community-centered approach, she centralizes efforts to bring nuance to GSA Link, Inc.’s educational and programmatic offerings by crowdsourcing from the populations we serve.

Joining Marlee are Maxx LaBrie (he/they), Director of Community Engagement, and Jake Sullivan (he/they), Director of Mentorship.

Maxx, an autistic, agender, queer advocate, brings nearly a decade of experience in systems advocacy and peer support. As a Certified Peer Specialist, Maxx is deeply involved in education, public health, fat liberation, anti-capitalism, and disability justice, all aimed at amplifying marginalized voices.

Jake Sullivan, co-founder of our LGBTQ+ mentoring program, brings expertise in stewarding mentoring relationships. Passionate about leadership development, they focus on innovative and accessible knowledge-sharing systems and creating empowering environments for LGBTQ+ youth.

Lunch & Learn Sessions – meet the third Tuesday of each month. The event may take the form of networking, a time to get deeper in conversation with others who value and support mentoring relationships or they may offer short spurts of information on updated research, happenings and/or tools. We welcome you as often as you can join us.