ABOVE: City of Orlando’s Felipe Sousa Matos Rodriguez speaks during the Orlando Youth Empowerment Summit in 2018. (Photo by Melanie Ararat)
ORLANDO | The Orlando Youth Empowerment Summit (OYES) is going virtual this year with a series of online workshops intended to educate and empower the LGBTQ youth of Central Florida.
The goal of the OYES is to provide LGBTQ youth, as well as their allies and community members, with “the resources and education to bring about understanding, acceptance and inclusion.”
The annual event, which was originally launched in 2014, typically occurs in a face-to-face setting. However, this year, participants will be able to access the event via the video conference app Zoom.
This year’s summit is being presented by the City of Orlando and the LGBTQ advocacy group Zebra Coalition, with additional sponsorships from organizations such as 26Health, Valencia College’s Peace and Justice Institute and Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan.
Dee McClendon, a member of the OYES steering committee, was inspired to get involved with OYES 2020 after attending last year’s summit and being introduced to the work of Zebra Coalition. She says that the sense of community she observed through this experience appealed to her.
“I fell in love with the supportive community and I wanted to become a part of it,” McClendon says.
OYES 2020 will feature three youth workshops across the span of a three-month period. The workshops will cover prominent issues for LGBTQ youth living in Central Florida, such as mental health awareness, civic engagement and LGBTQ history. Each workshop will also have a corresponding workshop for parents of LGBTQ youth.
McClendon says that establishing a dialogue on mental health with LGBTQ youth is important because of the way in which this group is often disproportionately affected by mental illness and distress.
“Untreated mental health issues is the leading cause of death among [LGBTQ youth],” McClendon says.
This corresponds with current research on LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project, in its most recent national survey of LGBTQ youth, reported that 46% of respondents indicated that “they wanted psychological or emotional counseling from a mental health professional but were unable to receive it in the past 12 months.”
McClendon believes that teaching LGBTQ youth about civic engagement will empower them to “have full control over their futures,” as well as facilitate broader societal progress.
“The only way to see a change in the government and society is to be that change,” she says.
The summit’s focus on teaching LGBTQ youth about queer history can help compensate for the current lack of LGBTQ representation found within the educational institutions.
“Many LGBTQ students are uneducated in their history,” McClendon says.“This is because it is not integrated into the standard curriculum they receive at school. Having this topic covered at OYES offers LGBTQ students the opportunity to learn and be empowered by their history.”
The parent workshops are designed to provide parents with a forum to communicate their unique experiences and educate them on how to be effective allies to their LGBTQ children.
“The goal for the parent track is to create a safe space for parents of LGBTQ+ [youth] to talk with each other about their personal experiences and for them to learn skills to better support their children,” Felipe Sousa Matos Rodriguez, who serves as the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Senior Specialist for City of Orlando, says.
McClendon says that the OYES steering committee is confident that the virtual setting of this year’s summit won’t hinder its interactivity but will instead “heighten the effects of the event” by widening its outreach.
“Being virtual makes the summit more accessible to more demographics that might not have been reached in prior years,” she says.
McClendon also shared that the virtual nature of OYES 2020 has been an asset when it comes to securing entertainment for the event.
“Due to OYES being online this year, we have been able to obtain not only local performers but also performers from all over the country,” she adds.
Ultimately, with OYES 2020 McClendon wants to create an inclusive environment for LGBTQ youth to be fully recognized and hopes this inclusivity creates a strong feeling of camaraderie among the summit’s attendees.
“I have made it my goal to assure that there is no group left behind,” McClendon says. “I hope that [they] leave … feeling closer to their community and closer to each other.”
OYES 2020 will take place Aug. 29 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. with Back to School: Mental Health & Support, Sept. 26 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. with Civic Engagement: Queer Political Power and Oct. 24 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. with Celebration of Resilience: LGBTQ History & Pride. To attend any of these workshops, fill out the conference registration form available on the OYES official website at ORLYES.org.
