About Supporting Our Youth
Based in downtown Toronto, Supporting Our Youth (SOY) is a set of community programs and services centered on supporting and promoting the health and wellbeing goals set out by multiply-marginalized LGBT2SQ+ youth. This includes SOY’s CONNECT Mentorship Program.
The goals of SOY’s CONNECT Mentorship Program is to empower marginalized queer and trans youth through:
• Identifying youths’ personal goals
• building meaningful connections with experienced and affirming volunteer Mentors to help achieve those goals
We do this through building relationships with Mentors who:
• Support youth in finding a sense of belonging within LGBT2SQ and other communities important to the youth, such as racialized/cultural communities.
• Provide acceptance, guidance, encouragement, and a non-judgmental listening ear in a consistent and intentional way.
• Help youth gain an understanding, comfortability and pride in themselves, including in their sexual, gender and racialized identities.
• Share skills, experience and networks to help youth achieve their goals.
• Foster youth’s self-esteem, autonomy and resilience to support their growth and success in achieving their goals.
The Melanin Linx Project is a stream of SOY Connect.
SOY Melanin Linx Project
The SOY Melanin Linx Project is a new initiative to SOY and was created out of the specific needs of our Black Queer and Trans youth. This project seeks to match LGBTQ+ youth with a Black, LGBTQ+ mentor to support youth with developing life skills, building resiliency and strengthening connection to their various communities.
We hope that mutually beneficial relationships will emerge from this program, where Black mentees can also support the learnings of their mentors and where the agency of Black mentees is upheld.
We are seeking Black LGBTQ+ Mentees (ages 24 and under) to be a part of the Black Queer Mentorship Project.
This project includes:
• Personal Mentorship
• Group Mentorship
• Melanin Talx-Black Queer Community Conversations
SOY Personal Mentorship
Personal mentorship involves matching a Mentee with a Personal Mentor to support the Mentee in a regular and intentional way. Mentorship arrangements are tailored to meet mentee’s specific goals and needs.
Personal Mentorship may include:
• Meeting a mentee for coffee on a regular basis to discuss a range of topics including: life goals, personal stories about coming out or transitioning, histories of LGBT2SQ+ communities; community resources, human rights and political issues, housing and homelessness, connecting with local services and groups, developing skills, exploring identity, coming out to friends and family, dealing with bullying and abuse, help with school, exploring careers, succeeding at work, improving health and emotional wellbeing, and more…
• Helping a Mentee connect to communities, activities and events they are interested in by providing information and taking them on outings.
• For Mentees who are disconnected or alienated from their families, taking on some of the roles that are typically part of family life such as celebrating religious/cultural holidays, the youth’s birthday and other significant life events.
SOY Group Mentorship
SOY runs weekly youth community groups where mentors are part of the team supporting youth with their goals during program time. For the Black Queer Youth Mentorship Project, mentors will support the Black Queer Youth group and the Express Newcomer group.
Group Mentorship was developed to meet the goals of LGBT2SQ+ youth who come to community groups for different reasons and who may not necessarily want ongoing Personal mentorship.
Youth and group mentors come together to prepare and share a meal, participate in workshops, crafts or games, celebrate relevant religious/cultural holidays and other significant life events, and have meaningful discussions and informal conversations.
Mentees can benefit from group mentors sharing their identities and life experiences; mentors have skills, talents and experiences to share; are leaders in our communities; and are trained in anti-racism/anti-oppression practices. Mentors support group meals, provide a listening ear, and offer personal and professional knowledge and experience.
Group Mentorship is a great opportunity for youth who are looking for support in areas such as: budget and meal planning, shopping for groceries, meal preparation, career exploration and networking, career shadowing, job search support, lived experiences of being a newcomer, challenges about connections with family/friends/community back home, homelessness, poverty, sex work, medical transitioning, and more.
Other topics that may arise in group mentorship may include: life goals, personal stories about coming out or transitioning, histories of LGBT2SQ+ communities; rebuilding your life in a new country, community resources, human rights and political issues, housing and homelessness, connecting with local services and groups, developing skills, exploring your identity, coming out to friends and family, dealing with bullying and abuse, help with school, exploring careers, succeeding at work, improving your health and emotional wellbeing, and more.
Melanin Talx
This is unique to the Black Queer Youth Mentorship Project, and seeks to provide a supportive and affirming space to have tender and difficult conversations about various topics that affects Black Queer and Trans persons. These will take place at various agencies in Toronto such as Black Creek Community Health Centre in the Jane & Finch/ Downsview Community and at the Taibu Community Health Centre in the Malvern Neighbourhood and will take place monthly. They will be loosely facilitated around the central themes that have been coming up in personal mentorship or in BQY Group Membership and will also be open to folks from the wider Black LGBTQ Community.