Here at the Forty to None Project, we’ve been very lucky to have a super cool, dedicated, and smart social work intern working with us for the past eight months.
Emily is finishing up a Master’s degree at the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work, specializing in Community Organizing, Planning and Development (COP&D). The COP&D program at Hunter prepares students for careers in community organizing, policy work, and macro-level social work practice. She came to us with a passion for youth organizing and a desire to contribute to systemic change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth experiencing homelessness.
Over the course of her eight months with us, Emily has worked closely with Forty to None Project Director Jama Shelton and the True Colors Fund team to build our service provider directory and introduce the Inclusion Assessment Tool, which is meant to assist service providers in creating safe and affirming spaces for gay and transgender youth. Emily also helped launch the Forty to None Network, and get our second youth service provider survey, Serving Our Youth, off the ground. She has also been instrumental in developing and maintaining our Raise You Up youth empowerment program in partnership with Kinky Boots.
Emily’s favorite part about the work? The people!
“I love my work at the Forty to None Project! The youth, the service providers, researchers, educators, advocates, and everyone else doing the work to change LGBTQ youth homeless from 40% to NONE is what inspires me, here. I believe that building community and sharing resources and spending time learning from young people about experiences of homelessness is what will continue to reduce that number, and I’m passionate about being a part of this community.”