Postpone & Build

ITL has to postpone the fall launch of Train the Trainer (TtT).  TtT, as an idea, has been in the pipeline for about a year and a half.  And, for 6 years, we've launched new programs for the Fall.  But, last Fall, we started to strip down our organizational structure for a re-build.  When one of our co-founders received a terminal cancer diagnosis, that re-build didn't happen.

We have Peer Mentors with enthusiasm; we have excited new youth who have registered for TtT; but we are short of enough staff time and energy to carry the program right now.

It is a radical and powerful idea to give youth the tools to re-write Trans Cultural Competency training.  That training is presented in hospitals, corporations, and non-profits every day all over North America.  It teaches service-providers who we are and what we need as trans people.  But trans lives have changed so much in the last ten years, the training must also change.  I want to put that in your hands.  I will put my 20 years of training experience behind your new presentations of what people need to know.  Together, we will be a powerful agent of change.

In order to provide a better program for you, ITL will: 

1. postpone the program launch;
2. recruit more adults and youth to staff ITL; then
3. emerge with a powerful, well-aligned team.

Please accept our apology for this change in timing. 

Sincerely,

Bobby Peck

ITL Financial Coordinator

transleadership@gmail.com

Train the Trainer by the Initiative for Transgender Leadership is a hands-on program where trans youth (16-26) are teamed with experienced professional trainers so they can build the skills to provide Trans Cultural Competency trainings to the greater community. Trans youth will be paid for their time while they create new training models/content and develop the confidence to provide trainings to nonprofits, healthcare offices, and businesses. 

• Adult mentors will work as volunteers
• Youth will be paid $15/hr while learning and creating content
• While providing community trainings youth will be paid $20/hr
• The program will start on October 17th and end on May 31st
• It will take 32 hours to complete
    • 20 hours of learning and creating content
    • 12 hours of providing community trainings

Those interested are encouraged to text TtT to (412)-848-4054 or to email transleadership@gmail.com with TtT in the subject line for more information. 

Re-emergence

Hello youth, donors, transgender individuals, care providers, teachers, mentors, and generally interested readers,

Please allow me to explain why it has been a year since we have engaged with you here.  In June of last year, Madeleine Hershey, our Instigator and co-founder, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  I am saying it to you plainly because Mad's death may stop you from smoking cigarettes, stop you from starting again, or help you support someone else as they quit. Mad was remarkable and committed to you knowing how remarkable you are.

When last we posted, ITL had just completed a 10 month Peer Mentor skill and knowledge training followed by a celebratory commencement.  We then collaborated an Internship with Garden of Peace Project and allowed ourselves some rest while caring for Madeleine.

Madeleine Hershey, our magnificent friend, Instigator, co-founder, and skilled mentor died January 2015.

Now ITL re-emerges.

There are many exciting directions for our fresh work to take.  Our line-up of possible projects includes the opportunity to create an internship in collaboration with New Voices Pittsburgh, initiate Phase II of our Peer Mentor Program, offer more Transgender Cultural Competency Training via a Train the Trainer methodology, and provide small grants to transgender youth for professional and leadership development.

I, Bobby Peck, ITL co-founder and financial coordinator, request you consider how you will participate in this next chapter of empowering transgender youth (gender independent, gender queer, gender pioneering, and other descriptors I do not yet know).