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FIGURING OUT HOW TO GET AT-RISK LGBT YOUTH INTO THE WORKFORCE

Students at the Milk School, the only LGBT high school in the world.

BY SCOTT STIFFLER
Edge Boston

New York City’s Harvey Milk School has become famous worldwide as the first (and thus far, still-only) school for LGBT at-risk youth. Run by the Hetrick-Martin Institute under contract to the city, the school accepts youth who would have fallen through the cracks in other institutions and gives them the most valuable tool they can have to cope with the future; an education.

But that’s only leaving at the door. Getting inside the door will probably prove at least equally as hard for many, if not most, of them. That’s why a seminar that took place in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 14, was so innovative and powerful.

The Hetrick-Martin Institute, together with the IBM Corporation, jointly sponsored a conference which brought together corporate representatives and those in the areas of social services and education to discuss steps to help break down educational and social barriers faced by LGBTQ and at-risk youth in general, with the goal of helping them enter, then thrive, in the workplace.

“Innovation Education 2009″ was comprised of a 45-minute panel discussion followed by several concurrent workshops. That the free event happened at all amidst the current economic uncertainty, was reason enough for celebration. That the co-sponsors dropped the moniker “second annual” into casual conversation more than once hints at their ambitions for further expanding the concept and the connections it seeks to build between business and education.

The Plenary Panel (”Advancing the Workplace & Educational Experiences of LGBTQ & At-Risk Youth”) was moderated by Thomas Krever, executive director of Hetrick-Martin, which is the country’s oldest and largest organization focusing on at risk lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered and questioning youth.

Directly following the panel, two workshop sessions were held. Topics in the first session were: “Intro to the LGBTQ Youth Community: Being an Ally,” “Developing Safe Spaces for LGBTQ Students in Education” and “Towards a Common Goal: Creating Effective Partnerships Between Corporate Groups & Non-Profits.”

The second session was comprised of “Intro to Working with Transgender & Gender Diverse Youth,” “School to Work: Preparing LGBTQ Youth for College and the Workplace” and “Maximizing Professional Success: Creating Fully Inclusive Workplaces.”

Krever presided over the Plenary Panel with stopwatch close at hand-frequently invoking the catch phrases of game shows in an effort to amiably squeeze as much commentary, strategy and commitment as possible out of the too-brief 45-minute discussion.

The panel consisted of Todd Sears, director, Americas head of diversity & inclusion, Credit Suisse; Alicin Williamson, senior vice president of corporate responsibility & public affairs; MTV Networks; Eliza Byard, executive director, GLSEN), Kevin Jones, deputy director, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates; and Dr. Cheryl Clarke, director, Office of Social Justice at Rutgers University.

Time allowed for three questions. The first: “Within your field, what are the major challenges LGBT youth are facing in being successful?”

Byard’s response took into account a factor echoed frequently by other panelist - that her comments regarding the lack of proper funding apply to heterosexual students as well. She pointed to the need to create strategies addressing “the systemic, bias-based inequities within the school system.”

Sears preemptively outed himself as the “token Wall Street guy.” He noted how his company’s HRC Corporate Equality Index rating impacted a shift at Credit Suisse towards mandating that high level employees go through LGBT Leadership Training over the next 12-18 months. He had suggested the program go company-wide, based on feedback from participants who said that “it’s made them better parents”.

The second question asked how the challenges noted in Question #1 “impact future success of our youth.”

Jones responded by raising the morning’s most provocative notion: He wondered aloud how LGBTQ youth who manage to thrive in school can translate their experience of success into the workplace. The process of seeking employment requires a decision as to “how out” they’ll be on the resume, in the interview and on the job.

Sears underscored the significance of that issue. “The percentage of youth 18-24 in corporate American who are out is five percent,” he pointed out. “Our youth are coming out at 13. Something corporate America is doing is putting them back in the closet.”

Williamson suggested engaging youth in corporate social interaction to imbue them with some much-needed self-confidence long before their first day on the job. To that end, she noted, a newly created MTV mentoring program reaches out to incoming employees.

Question #3, “What can we do about it,” was sweeping in its generality, but desperate in its implications given the grim picture regarding the lack of proper funding to confront-and solve-massive problems in the American educational system.

Clark had earlier invoked a recent study by Caitlin Ryan of the Family Acceptance Project that documented the consequences for LGBTQ youth who face adult rejection. Byard spoke of the need for “supportive faculty members” backed by “inclusive anti-harassment, anti-bullying polices which specifically mention sexual orientation.”

Jones spoke about the need to “coach young people looking for a job. This is what will allow them to bring their full selves to the workplace.”

Sears described Credit Suisse’s piloting of an LGBT recruiting program which addressed “what it’s like to be gay or lesbian on Wall Street” - describing how prospective employees practiced, with recruiters, the skills they’d need to “be out in their resume and on a job interview.” Sears also spoke about the importance of “engaging straight white males” - who, he noted, are still largely the ones who move things forward.

It was an honest, sobering, and accurate reminder that for all the talk of diversity and inclusion, the heterosexual male still rules Wall Street (and most other realms) when it comes to greenlighting and supporting progressive corporate policies.

Questioned nearly a week later as to what impact the conference had, Krever estimated that based on the reach of workshop participants, the event had “on some level impacted about 50,000 New York City young people and their service providers.”

That impact includes linking their website to Informed Decisions NYC, which works with LGBT and gang-involved at risk youth. Dr. Cheryl Clarke has taken initial steps to formally create a partnership between Rutgers University and Hetrick-Martin - a much-needed service, notes Krever. “LGBT young people have a three times greater rate of dropping out of high school” than their heterosexual peers, she said.

In addition to envisioning a commitment from to make the conference an annual event and broaden its scope, Krever hopes the event will lead to more partnerships similar to a current program between Hetrick-Martin and Polo Ralph Lauren. That design firm sponsors an in-school “Fashion School” at which students get semester-long tutorials by Polo Ralph Lauren employees on everything from finance and technology to merchandising.

Krever also confidently predicts their dealings with Credit Suisse will continue to develop. “We have a relationship with then through our Fashion Cares program,” he said. “But you can bet our relationship will be intensifying as a result of the conference.”

He also referred back to panel comments by Jones and Sears which referenced the small number of those in the workforce as out employees. “The sobering reality that only 5 per cent of the LGBT workforce are out stunned me,” he said. “It drives home how much work we have to do in terms of changing the culture.”

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Scott Stiffler is a New York City based writer and comedian who has performed stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy. His show, “Sammy’s at The Palace. . .at Don’t Tell Mama”—a spoof of Liza Minnelli’s 2008 NYC performance at The Palace Theatre, recently had a NYC run. He must eat twice his weight in fish every day, or he becomes radioactive.

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