Fifty-five percent of students feel unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and 38 percent feel unsafe because of their gender expression, according to the 2013 National School Climate Survey released by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network ( GLSEN ). This lack of safety in school seems to lead many young people to seek it after they leave.
"With more than half of LGBTQ young people [in the country] saying they feel unsafe in school, this is a place offering that space to relax and be yourself," said Rachel Maley, resource development associate at Youth Outlook. Since 1996, the social service organization has offered drop-in services to LGBTQ+ youth throughout Chicago's western suburbs.
"We are exploding," said Nancy Mullen, MSW, LSW, who has served as Youth Outlook's executive director since 1998. In the 18 years she has worked with the organization, its services have grown substantially. What began as two drop-in centers in Hinsdale and Aurora has expanded to seven drop-in centers across five west suburban Chicago counties, serving LGBTQ+ youth ranging from 12 to 25 years old. Two of these drop-in centers serve transgender and non-binary individuals specifically, and there is another group for parents of LGBTQ+ youth.
Additionally, Youth Outlook offers community presentations and workshops. Representatives visit agencies throughout the Chicagoland area looking to learn more about how they can serve their LGBTQ members.
"There are shifts in people wanting to understand and get education" about serving LGBTQ youth, said Mullen, noting how much more common it is now than in the past for high schools to seek Youth Outlook's services. She has also watched the organization's clientele grow younger as people come out at younger ages. While in its early years it served primarily youth in high school and college, it now serves many middle schoolers. Mullen has heard from people as young as 11 and 12 years old asking to learn more.
Like many of her fellow staff, Maley, who attended Catholic school, didn't have easy access to services like these when she was younger. "It was definitely an option … but not publicized," she said. Due to the safety risks that often face people who identify as LGBTQ, "up until recently, [Youth Outlook] did a lot of work in secret."
Now, though, thanks in large part to the shift in the public mind, Maley is working to make Youth Outlook more visible in the community. Particularly in light of current issues, most notably access to school facilities for transgender students, "we want to be as visible an organization as possible," Maley said.
Transcend
Transcend, Youth Outlook's drop-in center for transgender and non-binary youth, is the organization's largest and fastest-growing group. Since it began a few years ago, it now has locations in Palatine and Naperville, and has become the agency's biggest and busiest group, said Mullen. During the summer, it sometimes brings in more than 40 people in one night.
While most of Youth Outlook's drop-in groups have a consistent base of attendees, Mullen said that it's impossible to predict who will come from week to week. "We specifically do not collect contact information," Maley noted, adding that parental permission is not necessary either: "Some kids' parents don't know that they come."
Maley also emphasized that the drop-in centers are not clinical therapy groups. Rather, "they're social, supportive, welcoming environments," where young people can go without having to worry about issues that might arise at school—for example, what bathroom they can use, or whether they will be able to play on the athletic team that matches their identified gender. In short, they can come to the drop-in center "without having to watch their backs," she said.
For many of Maley's fellow staff, "this [was] the first place they felt they could fully be themselves." Mullen said she sees many such instances of youth who receive services during their formative years and return later as volunteers and staff members.
Another notable—and positive—shift that Mullen has seen during her time at Youth Outlook is that of parents' perspectives. "There is a lot more parent acceptance of gay and lesbian kids, that we didn't see back in the late '90s," she observes. That said, there is a continued need to build acceptance for transgender youth as well, she adds.
It is partly due to this need that Youth Outlook's Thrive drop-in center for parents formed. The group, which meets at the same time and location as Transcend, is attended by many parents of transgender children. Thrive is unique from most other family support groups, said Mullen, in that it is smaller in size and led by a social worker.
"A lot of the parents who come to us are, more than anything, confused," said Maley. "The common response is that they don't know what to do and are afraid of doing the wrong thing. This is a place where they can come and feel relaxed, and ask questions and not be embarrassed."
Spreading the word
With requests for more drop-in centers and community outreach, one of Mullen's biggest hopes is for Youth Outlook to gain more volunteers to offer these services. Of course, for many people—particularly those who can't easily travel to the west suburbs—this presents a challenge.
But Maley and Mullen both stressed that readers can still help further the organization's work, simply by telling other people about it. "Any reader is welcome to reach out to us" to request a workshop at their agency, said Maley: "We are constantly going out to offices, schools, [and] churches, telling them that this is what Youth Outlook is.
"Our number-one need is to let people know that we exist."
