Friends,

These last weeks have been difficult, but the board has been working diligently to manage the current transition. We hope to have more specific developments to announce in the near future. Meanwhile, please know that the board of directors is meeting weekly by conference call, is in contact with our funders, and has ensured that our previous commitments to events are being covered.

We appreciate all the interest expressed by so many of you, in the health and well-being of the Coalition.  If you have specific concerns, please don't hesitate to be in touch.

Kathy Church
Board Moderator

Since 1997, Timothy Brown has been the Youth and Young Adult Coordinator.  A public school teacher since 1987, Tim first began working with LGBT youth at Denver (Colorado) North High School in 1992 as the faculty sponsor for a student support group.  He appears in the book, The Last Closet: The Real Lives of Gay and Lesbian Teachers by Rita Kissen (Heinemann, 1996).  Tim has standing in the Hudson Mohawk Association (with associate standing in the Metropolitan Denver Association) as a Commissioned Minister, commissioned specifically to work with LGBT youth and young adults.  He is a member of the Broome Center Chapel (UCC) in Gilboa, New York, and of Community UCC in Boulder, Colorado.

Tim is engaged quarter-time to coordinate youth and young adult programming nationally for the UCC Coalition. The position was created in 1991, by several forward-thinking leaders, including the Rev. Leanne McCall Tigert, the Rev. Jan Greisinger, Sam Loliger, and Tony Lewis. The Youth and Young Adult Program of the Coalition was established to meet the needs of lesbian and gay (and later bisexual and transgender) young people of faith around issues of sexuality (later including gender identity) and faith.  Until recently, The Coalition was the only welcoming movement organization with a paid staff person specifically charged with YYA ministry. 

Tim comments that there have been many blessings for the Coalition in this unique ministry.  One is the willingness of young people to invest back in the YYA program and give of themselves, whether through service staffing a table of buttons and T-shirts, or being willing to be openly LGBT on a panel to speak in front of peers, or carrying the Coalition banner.

The YYA program offers numerous workshops at a variety of venues, from local congregations to national events.

Some of our most recent workshop offerings bear special mention.  We received three-year grant funding from Plymouth Congregational UCC in Seattle, Washington, to train volunteers, train trainers, and print resources for suicide intervention efforts, with a special emphasis on sexual and genderal minority youth.  LGBTQ youth are at a significantly elevated risk for suicide.  We offer three workshops in this area, in order to save lives. 

LivingWorks is an international suicide-intervention and -prevention organization that has developed community-based training programs.  

• suicideTALK is a 90-minute to half-day session that invites interested community members to become more aware of suicide-prevention opportunities in their community.  Dealing openly with the stigma around suicide, this exploration focuses upon the question, “Should we talk about suicide?”

• safeTALK is a two-and-a-half to three-hour training that prepares anyone over the age of 15 to identify persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide first-aid resources. Most people with thoughts of suicide invite help to stay safe. Alert helpers know how to use these opportunities to support that desire for safety.

• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is a two day, skills-building workshop that prepares caregivers of all kinds to provide suicide first-aid interventions. Professionals, volunteers, and informal helpers all need to know how to help persons with thoughts of suicide in ways that increase their suicide safety.