Inside Out Youth Services

Our School Advocate Jaxon (he/him) led an OARS presentation for our youth leadership program this month! "OARS" stands for Open-ended questions, Affirming, Reflective listening, and Summarizing and is a technique that IOYS encourages practicing and using when conversing with young people (and people of all ages) ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

Y'all have to check out our veggies from the IOYS community garden! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

This month our amazing Communications and Advocacy Director Ollie (they/them) ran a workshop around flash fiction, which teaches character development and how to identify and manage emotions ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

🎉 Congratulations 🎉 to IOYS Board Member Alana Lipscomb (she/they) for being recognized this month as the Southern Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce Young Professional of the Year! Alana does so much for our community and we are thrilled to see her recognized for all her hard work, passion, and impact. Congrats, Alana ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

August 26th is Women's Equality Day and celebrates the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. However, the Nineteenth Amendment did not grant all women the right to vote, as there were many barriers for Women of Color such as poll taxes, literary tests, voter ID requirements, language barriers, and race-based fear. It wasn't until forty-five years later when the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 that many Women of Color finally had the right to vote.

IOYS is closed this week for our annual staff retreat. We will reopen next week! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍 If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, please use the following resources: · Call or text: 988 · Text "home" to: 741-741 · For LGBTQIA+ youth 13-24, call: 1 (866) 488-7386 · For Trans/Nonbinary folx, call: 1 (877) 565-8860 · Veterans can call 988 and press 1

Happy Birthday, Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson! Marsha is widely considered one of the pioneers of the modern LGBTQIA2+ movement. She advocated for displaced LGBTQIA2+ youth, folx with HIV/AIDS, and her Trans Community, even when the movement refused to recognize the Trans Community. Marsha did so much for the modern LGBTQIA2+ movement; we will always be indebted to her activism. Rest in Pride, Marsha ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

Thank you so much to Cindy and Leslie for facilitating a fun sewing class last week! IOYS young folx learned how to make bags, bandanas, and hearts ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

We need snacks for our community center! If you'd like to donate, please check out our Amazon wish list here: https://a.co/hNYhF8C ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍

Our 3rd annual Gay-la was a huge success! With the support of our amazing donors and sponsors, CLUE: Find the Funds raised over $105,000 to build access, equity, and power with LGBTQIA2+ young people in our community. Thank you so much to everyone who attended, donated, and supported the event in any capacity. It takes an entire community to make significant change, and we're not going to stop doing this work until the day comes when we're no longer needed. Until then, let's keep it up because these amazing young people deserve an entire community that is safe, welcoming, and affirming to who they are as they are. ❤️🧡💛💚💜💙🖤🤎🤍