By Francesca Lewis and Emelina Minero
HOW many of us would love to see an end to LGBTQ-focused bullying in schools? Despite the great strides in equality happening worldwide, homophobic insults, aimed at LGBTQ youth, or youth who are perceived to be LGBTQ, are not going away.
Ohio based non-profit organisation, Dare2Care, is dedicated to uniting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight youth to increase unity, empowerment, and leadership.
They provide sponsored teens and teachers leadership development opportunities through scholarships in order to increase education and awareness about queer identities, and host annual workshops and events to help educate and give a voice to tomorrow’s leaders.
To help support their goal in putting a stop to LGBTQ bullying, Dare2Care has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for their youth scholarships to empower youth to speak their voices, to educate their peers, and to open dialogue about queer identities.
They have reached close to $1,000 of their $50,000 goal.
To make a contribution to their GoFundMe campaign, click here:
http://www.gofundme.com/sb3a8a8z
We spoke with Dare2Care Vice President and Co-Founder Liz O’Donnell about the organisation’s goals, their philosophy, and the impact of the scholarships.
What is Dare2Care’s ultimate vision? “Our ultimate aim is to support our students and the people with whom they make contact to have courageous conversations. We want to take the struggle of LGBT bullying, and its pernicious and pervasive social and cultural history, out of the school closets, cloakrooms, and playgrounds. These conversations are critical to a shared understanding of how we emerge as confident, loving, and most important, loved human beings.”
Dare2Care is focused on LGBT youth. What unique challenges do LGBT kids face in schools? “We like to say that we focus on LGBT targeted bullying rather than LGBT youth. The distinction we are making is that it is never OK to use any community, and for us in particular, the LGBT community, as a reference point for ugliness. Therefore, everyone should care about LGBT targeted bullying because as a culture it appears as though we have accepted that to denigrate someone because they are perceived to be or are actually LGBT is an acceptable act of human destruction.”
How does Dare2Care impact the student scholars who go through your leadership program? What excitements and concerns do they share with you about the work they do with Dare2Care? “Dare2Care has an enormous impact on our student scholars. First and foremost, we are saying to them, “You count. Your ideas count. Your story counts, and your passion will be supported.” Their participation in the leadership training at the Global Youth Leadership Institute is such a mind expander. Their excitement in learning about the complex and multifaceted aspects of identity is infectious. We wanted to focus on all aspects of identity and give them a language to speak for their generation and to their experience. It has been a joy to watch the changes in them.”
“The biggest challenge they have shared is in their fear of failing to implement a big idea. We have to continually remind them that we don’t expect big ideas from them. We expect challenging conversations. These are things we all have everyday. We believe it is at this level that we have had an enormous impact.”
Your personal motto is “incremental is monumental. “Can you explain what you mean by that? “Yes, incremental is monumental was my personal motto, and I have taken it to Dare2Care and Dare2Care has embraced it. Simply, it means that small sustainable changes have the potential to make an enormous difference. We are willing to be patient and are here for the long-term. We might not be a large, heavily endowed organisation yet, but we are committed to making that difference, one student, one family, one school community at a time.”
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