Outside In: A safe and judgement free place within Portland for the LGBTQ+ community

                                                       Photo Courtesy of the Outside In organization

    

Outside In is an organization here in Portland that is focused on breaking the cycle of homelessness, poverty, and poor health among Portland’s LGBTQ+ community. They focus on providing a safe space that is judgement free and offers care and support. They offer behavioral health services, health services, meal and housing services, and substance use and recovery support.

A little bit about Outside In from their website:

“Since 1968, Outside In has supported youth experiencing homelessness and other marginalized people as they move toward improved health and self-sufficiency. Driven to meet the changing needs of those it helps, the agency has created an all-inclusive and integrated system of cutting edge and sometimes controversial wraparound services that has transformed and saved thousands of lives over the years.”

 You can find more information at https://outsidein.org/

Where can you find information on homeless youth?

   Teenagers are usually thought of as secretive towards family members. Closed doors and short answers with no indication of what they’re really thinking. If a teenager also identifies as LGBTQ+ and is not out to their family, they could be even more withdrawn than others. While it may seem like many parents probably just want to know what’s going on with them and how they’re feeling, that is not the case with every family.
    It's no secret that recently the theme around here has been about homeless LGBTQ+ youth. While many attempts have been made to compile an archive of all the information out there, the Human Rights Campaign has compiled a helpful, and useful list of resources and information to help people from all sorts of backgrounds! The Human Rights Campaign also has many reports done through 2018 listing the importance and prevalence of homeless LGBTQ+ youth and how it still remains an issue today.

You can find the report and browse all the other information that they have compiled here: https://www.hrc.org/resources/2018-lgbtq-youth-report.

Protests in Portland: How civil unrest affects the unhoused

Photo by Taufiq Klinkenborg from Pexels

Protests in Portland, Oregon, have garnered much media attention, and have been a consistent presence in the city for over two months. Police tactics from the local Bureau as well as Federal agents have sparked both outrage and support, mostly depending on one’s political leanings. People are risking their health and safety to be out in the streets, practicing their First Amendment rights and taking part in civil disobedience in response to police brutality. 

But the people in the streets each night- protestors and police alike- get to go home and wash off the tear gas afterward. What about the people who don’t have a home to go to? 

Education and Success in Homeless and LGBTQ Populations

Time after time, education has proven to be a major factor in life success, both in terms of a person's health, finances, and ability to move upward as well as make independent life choices. While most people in America have similar access to education as young ones, the quality of the education is inconsistent across the nation and some people have more roadblocks to success in education than others. Homeless and LGBTQ+ populations each are at a higher risk than some other children for experiencing some of these roadblocks.

One of the reasons I believe that education can be so powerful is the fact that it is completed on one's own. No matter how much or how little help a person gets, the majority of the work they do throughout the course of their academic career had to have been done on their own. They had to choose to follow through with the effort entirely on their own. Nobody else can take credit for their work (unless they excessively cheated throughout the entire experience). Not only that, but the knowledge gained as well as the confidence in completing such an array of tasks cannot be taken away from the person, even if they are stripped of their credentials for any reason. This can be incredibly empowering, especially to individuals who have faced enormous challenges. 

  I think people both young AND old who may have experienced struggles with success could benefit from being encouraged to purse education, traditional or not. Any path that rewards these individuals with the same or similar gifts that traditional educational paths can could help improve lives. For LGBTQ+ and homeless populations, the more we can do to help them succeed in their pursuits, the more I believe we will see them begin to succeed with their lives.

 To learn more about issues dealing with schools and the LGBTQ+ community, click here: https://www.edweek.org/topics/lgbt/index.html

To learn more about issues with school and homelessness, cluck here: https://nche.ed.gov/