Supporting Our Youth (SOY) is an organization based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, 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 ...

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. 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 nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

transsexual A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (incl ...

and

intersex Intersex people are those 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 binar ...

youth."Programs that do help street kids". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', 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". ''

'', June 18, 2001. The program was developed after an extensive series of consultations with

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

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". ''

'', 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 () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

youth; Express, a group for immigrant and refugee youth; Essence, a personal development group; Fluid, a group for youth who are

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

, 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 patronage, 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 perso ...

program; Shift, a

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating 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 empl ...

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; and the Pride Prom, held in conjunction with the Triangle Program as an annual

prom A promenade dance or prom is a formal dance party for graduating high school students at the end of the school year. Students participating in the prom will typically vote for a ''prom king'' and ''prom queen''. Other students may be honored ...

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 service and total institution that provides temporary residence for homelessness, homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather whi ...

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". ''

'', June 22, 2012.

References

External links

Supporting Our Youth

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