Shannon Perez-Darby

Welcome to the Youth Worker's Spotlight for April 2010!

King County is home to so many amazing organizations and youth workers!  The Youth Worker Spotlight will highlight one of these people each month.  If you would like to nominate someone to be spotlighted please send an email to kcydn@childrenandyouth.org.

View past spotlights here

Shannon Perez-Darby

Youth Program Coordinator at The Northwest Network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse

About The Northwest Network and Shannon's Program

We are a large organization serving LGBT survivors.  Self determination is key to the work we do.  We need to be flexible and able to provide a broad support to the youth we serve.  It is important for us to be creative in how we support youth so we can adjust to meet their needs.  Our youth program addresses issues around violence, crime, and building healthy relationship skills through:

Direct service

o   Group in the community come together to discuss issues of concern.  Two such groups are the Gay/Straight Alliance in West Seattle and the Sex, Dating and Relationship group at Lambert House.

o   Advocacy based counseling that provides support around dealing with the system, safety, goal setting, and anything else the youth wants to talk about.

Training with youth and with youth workers who support queer and transgender youth in the work that they do.

Questions

1)      Why is your program amazing? 

Our primary goal is to support youth in their own self determination.  Building on this empowerment model enables us to help youth make choices that work for them.  We are also the only program in the area that does dating violence prevention work specifically for LGBT youth.

2)      What is your favorite program resource? 

·  I’m really excited about Queer Youth Space which is youth led organization for youth.  They have really strong adult allies, but the power really comes from it being by youth and for youth.

·  Youth Eastside Services is another really great resource.  They provide comprehensive services for LGBT youth including drug and alcohol support, mental health, violence and drop in center support.

3)      Why is connecting with other youth workers important to the work you do? 

Central to our work at The Network is a model to strengthen other youth programs.  We do this by helping with staffing and resources.  Collaboration with other programs is essential.  We provide a specific service, but rarely are the youth we are serving not using other services as well.  Thus it is essential that we are working well with these other services.