Bringing Down Barriers: 2SLGBTQIA+ Youth

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1153368338461917/

Advance registration required. Register at the Zoom link provided in this event posting. April 2021 is the 20th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to honour the voices and experiences of victims and survivors, and to bring awareness to issues relating to sexualized violence. Everyone has a role to play in ending sexual assault, harassment, and abuse.

This year, Avalon has partnered with other community organizations working to support survivors of sexualized violence, to bring people together for conversation, learning and strategizing on bringing down barriers to service access. “2SLGBTQIA+ Youth” is the third of these conversations.Topics discussed will include ways to offer comprehensive care when youth may not have stable or supportive home/family spaces, the importance of autonomous self-direction and informed consent modalities, up-to-date language, and best practices in supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ community members (Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, plus (+) other ways individuals express their gender and sexuality outside heteronormativity and the gender binary).

The Youth Project’s mission is to make Nova Scotia a safer, healthier, and happier place for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth through support, education, resource expansion and community development. The Youth Project is a multi-service organization hosting an education team, programming team, and support services worker with an aim to further the inclusion and wellness of 2SLGBTQIA+ under the age of 25, foster 2SLGBTQIA+ knowledge exchange and training, increase access to public services, and provide social and cultural programs/services/celebrations for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and their communities.

The webinar will feature Carmel Farahbakhsh, (they/them) who is a community worker/ educator, experimental violinist, and artist. They have collaborated on The Khyber Centre For The Arts board for three years, and are enjoying their new position as co-director of local music festival EVERYSEEKER. They also recently transitioned from a five-year term coordinating South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre to working as the executive director at The Youth Project, seeing a direct link between this community work and access to creative spaces/ arts community. Carmel also actively collaborates with local initiatives with the aim to create wider 2SQTBIPOC support systems locally.

The Avalon Sexual Assault Centre is a feminist organization working to eliminate sexual assault/abuse, and to change the current socio-political culture that fosters sexism, social injustice and other forms of oppression.