As a result of the Coronavirus Stay At Home Order, we will now be holding virtual PFLAG meetings supported by an easy-to-use online meeting tool called Zoom. CLICK HERE to get set-up with Zoom.
Join us for our regular monthly meeting welcoming the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community, friends, families and allies for support and education. Our regular support group will follow the education portion.
EDUCATION PORTION:
This Evening's Topic: Camp Brave Trails: Summer Camp for LGBTQ Youth
Camp Brave Trails is a leadership camp for LGBTQ+ youth and allies, located in California and Maryland. Brave Trails is so excited to share information about their upcoming summer programming and ways that your family can get involved. Come learn more from Brave Trails Programs Manager, Sophia Hastings!
About Our Speaker:
Sophia Hastings (she/her/hers) has been going to and working at camps since she was nine years old. She has seen firsthand how much camp can impact a person because of how all of her summer camp experience made such a positive difference in her life. It was able to teach her the importance of leadership, friendship, and confidence in herself. Summer camp actually inspired Sophia to pursue her undergraduate degree in social work from Widener University, where she also graduated with a degree in gender and women’s studies in 2018. In 2019, Sophia graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with her master’s degree in social work. She focused most of her studies on queer and women’s issues, especially focusing on disenfranchised populations within those areas. Sophia has also had the opportunity to work in elementary school settings both as a social worker and in after school programs. During her time in graduate school, Sophia was able to work at the Chicago Juvenile Temporary Detention Center teaching health and leadership to girls in the center. Sophia strives to create fun, educational, and inclusive programming for youth in her work.
A Note about Virtual meetings:
We will be utilizing Zoom features that provide the highest level of safety and confidentiality possible. Zoom is free to you and you need not have an account to join us. If you are new to Zoom, you can follow the links [here] for brief tutorials on all you need to know to sign on to a Zoom meeting with us. We ask that each of you that would like to participate in the on-line support, contact us in advance by email at info@pflagmanhattanbeach.org to RSVP for the meeting. We will cut off RSVPs at 5 p.m. on the day of the meeting. All participants will receive a follow-up email with the link to the Zoom call and a password. For confidentiality’s sake, please do not forward these to another participant — they are welcome to contact us directly to receive the link.
We recognize that youth may be interested in the educational part of this meeting and they are welcome to join us. As usual, we ask that youth who may want to stick around for our support groups be joined by a parent. Some heavy emotions can emerge in the course of our sessions and having a parent on-hand helps to ensure that the needs of any youth on the call are met.
There are some benefits to utilizing new tools like Zoom. We recognize that our typical evening support group meetings are not feasible for everyone due to work, family or other demands. If there is a need, we would like to offer an additional support group Zoom conference call sometime during the daytime hours. If you are interested in a daytime support group, email us at info@pflagmanhattanbeach.org and let us know what times might be more workable for you.
If you need more personalized assistance and support, we remain here for you. Email us confidentially and we will work with you to identify the best member of our team to assist with your individual needs.