Workshops Tailored for You!

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All trainings and workshops facilitated by PYC are individually designed to fit the needs and interests of your community. Upon completing the online request form, you will be connected with a PYC leader who will work with you to tailor the session to focus on your priorities. Our workshops are best run with 10 - 80 people. Below is a listing of our signature sessions, which can be modified in content or presentation for your audience.


Supporting Transgender Students in Pennsylvania Schools
Providing a safe and affirming school is essential to ensuring positive outcomes for all students. Transgender students attend schools in every community throughout Pennsylvania, but many face barriers to a positive educational experiences. In policy and practice, school communities should be aware of transgender and gender expansive identities in order to meaningfully support them. In this training geared for educators, district and IU administrators, and school staff, we will review transgender youth development and identities, practical ways to support transgender students, discuss policies, and provide a forum for addressing specific questions.

Trans Youth Policy Briefing and Advocacy Training
Young transgender and gender non-conforming Pennsylvanians have unique and often challenging experiences in affirming their gender under the law. Adopting effective policies, as well as ensuring their successful implementation, can be crucial for trans youth to have a positive social development. This session will educate participants on the local, state, and federal laws that have direct impact on trans youth. Participants will gain valuable skills to use in their home communities in the push toward trans justice. We will also examine several case studies of anti-trans discrimination involving youth in Pennsylvania.

Let's Make Our School Affirming for LGBTQ Students!
There are many ways to improve a school climate to be more LGBTQ-friendly. Schools can better support LGBTQ students through strategic efforts for social change and the adoption of specific policies. Uniting students, teachers, administrators, parents, and local stakeholders together in this conversation, the participants will have a forum to better understand LGBTQ experiences in their community and how to best improve it. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and examine tools that can be implemented to make their schools safer and affirming for LGBTQ individuals. Whether a school is known to be either progressive or challenging for LGBTQ people, this workshop is a great opportunity to have critical dialogue on the work ahead to take a step forward in affirming LGBTQ students.

Supporting Safer Schools: Reducing Bullying, Intimidation, and Harassment
This presentation will provide valuable insight on bullying and harassment policies in Pennsylvania schools. Geared toward faculty, school staff, and administrators, the workshop will focus on effective prevention and intervention strategies regarding school violence. Our speakers will provide updates on Pennsylvania's efforts for data tracking, model district policies, and pending legislation regarding bullying and harassment on the state and federal levels. The session will share evidence-based research of bullying intervention processes from local school districts and other states, as well as how updating local and state policies can affect school climate. Participants will be able to more fully understand the latest trends of student harassment, intimidation, and bullying in order to forecast the need for diversified and enhanced approaches toward safer schools in Pennsylvania. 

Safe Schools Advocacy Workshop
Students cannot learn if they do not feel safe in their classrooms. Along with social change, effective protocols to help end school violence are critical. This session will educate students on school nondiscrimination and anti-harassment laws at the local, state, and national levels. Participants will gain effective tools they can return to their communities with in the push for safer schools. We will also examine policies impacting LGBTQ students in several local school districts. Bullying is a form of violence – and being aware of the policies that can help make our communities safer is important for us all.

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We Are Powerful: Igniting Youth-led Activism
Youth-led organizing is increasingly found on the front lines LGBTQ advocacy. This session geared toward students and youth, will work through the opportunities and challenges that young activists encounter in the modern LGBTQ equality movement. After reviewing youth organizing models, participants will work together to design local youth-led LGBTQ community projects. The workshop will help young leaders learn practical tools that support youth-led advocacy by providing modern applications which rely on historical, practical, and intellectual frameworks. Those who attend this session will learn the importance of authentic, sustainable, and effective youth-led advocacy work in the LGBTQ community. 

Youth Are Powerful: Establishing a Youth-led, Adult-supported LGBTQ Community
This engaging workshop will explore how adult allies can help advance an authentic and sustainable youth-led LGBTQ community. The session is geared toward faculty, school staff, and adult service providers. Participants will be guided through the most successful strategies of youth-led, adult-supported organizing – toward young leaders leveraging their own power to create lasting change. The modern application of youth-led, adult-supported LGBTQ efforts will be contextualized with historical, practical, and intellectual frameworks. Participants will have the opportunity to develop ideas for youth-led work in their own organizations to better understand the best practices and importance of meaningfully collaborating with youth leadership.

LGBTQ Safe Zone Training
This workshop provides participants with a strong foundation of understanding LGBTQ identities. In this LGBTQ 101 session, attendees will learn the basics of sexual orientation and gender identity issues through a presentation of factual and anecdotal information. We will discuss critical issues such as the coming out process, expressions of homophobia and transphobia, and how LGBTQ people may navigate a variety of social systems. The goal of this safe zone training is to ensure that the participants will be articulate and knowledgeable about LGBTQ experiences in order to be a resource and support system for anyone they may engage with. Collectively, the more individuals that are known to be supportive and affirming to LGBTQ people, the more improved the school climate is for LGBTQ students.