Resources for Queer Youth and Educators in Santa Cruz County
Join other Santa Cruz County youth and parents to attend the Spring 2019 Queer, Trans and Allied Summit
– Saturday, October 5, 2019, 9:30am – 2:00pm
– Watsonville High School (250 E Beach St, Watsonville, CA 95076)
– All middle and high school youth welcome
– Youth to youth workshops
– Meet other students across Santa Cruz County and beyond
– Parent/Guardian Registration (no cost) for the event – Espanol
All High School & Middle School Students Welcome
It is our pleasure to announce that the Safe Schools Project of Santa Cruz County has been awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. The purpose of the grant is to develop and implement a Safe Schools Index (SSI) for county schools in Santa Cruz County to guide school administrators in providing sustainable policies, practices and strategies that will result in safer and more inclusive school climates for LGBTQ students. We submitted this grant after hearing about this need from many school administrators across the county and we want to create a useable instrument in partnership with elementary, middle and high schools.
The first phase of the grant (Jan-March) is developing the instrument (currently we are calling this a “Safe Schools Index”) with a committee of administrators and convening small focus groups of administrators about the instrument. The second phase of the grant (March-May) is field-testing the instrument.
We hope that all school districts and administrators will participate by convening a focus group and by identifying administrators to be part of the SSI development committee. Please email Rob Darrow of your interest (RobDarrow@Robdarrow.us) by December 19.
Here is the Letter Sent to County Superintendents via email on December 8.
The National Steinbeck Center, California Rural Legal Assistance, Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations and the Monterey County Office of Education are excited to present a FREE screening of The Lavender Scare movie (2017) on Monday, October 8th, 6PM, Salinas Maya Cinemas.
The Lavender Scare (2017) is a documentary focusing the U.S. government’s efforts to identify and fire gay and lesbian employees in the 1950’s.
This screening is part of the NEA Big Read focusing on Tobias Wolff’s memoir This Boy’s Life. The NEA Big Read Film Series is intended to give community members additional perspectives to the themes and topics covered in This Boy’s Life. The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please contact eric@steinbeck.org
The screening is part of Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations’ week long activities leading up to the annual Salinas Valley Pride on Sunday, October 14. The screening is also part of California Rural Legal Assistance and the Monterey County Office of Education’s programming for LGBTQ History Month.
See lesson plans, videos and resources about the movie, The Lavender Scare.
Teachers and others who would like to learn about the LGBT History written in the California History Social Science Framework will benefit from this course. Taught by Dr. Rob Darrow, learn about important people and events in history as well as how to integrate LGBT history into your regular curriculum. The course, taught through CSU Monterey Bay, will be completely online with weekly online meetings during 4 months in June. Students should be able to devote at least 10 hours per week to this course. Course Info. Register by May 1 for 3 Units of credit.
Just published and purchase your copy today!
This guide addresses the mandates of the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) that was passed in 2016 and mandates the teaching of CSE in all middle and high schools. Includes units, lessons and strategies for teachers to use.
The curriculum, based on CHYA, among other topics, must include the following:
Check out the monthly LGBT history snippets that were designed especially for GSA advisors. One interesting LGBT history fact each month that can be shared.
The Safe Schools Project of Santa Cruz County has been awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County for the purpose of creating a professional learning cohort for health and science teachers from Santa Cruz County for the teaching of Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE). The professional learning program will last from February – June 2018 and will include a teachers’ curriculum guide, 2 full days of professional learning, and twice a month after school and online meetings to discuss the various aspects of teaching CSE. See the tentative schedule.
The grant is available for up to 10 teachers, so sign up now. First day of the grant will be in February – with our first online meeting – and the first face-to-face meeting will be on Friday, February 23 from 8:30am-3:00pm. The grant provides funding for one substitute day, materials, and a stipend for each cohort teacher. The school district cost for each cohort teacher is the cost of one substitute day. Read more here.
Join us at the Fall Summit: “Resist Oppressive Forces: Unite and Protect our Diverse Communities.” Saturday, October 7, 2017 Delta Charter School, @Cabrillo College, Aptos. Cost = Free. More Info.
A team of people from Santa Cruz are presenting a session at the annual Creating Change Conference in Philadelphia. The title of the session is “Building a Gender Justice Youth Mindset”. We spent time looking at some of the LGBT history of Santa Cruz County to understand the various people and events that brought us to today. The session discusses outreach to youth in Santa Cruz County that is provided by the Diversity Center, Queer Youth Task Force and Safe Schools Project. See the resources developed for our session.