Love to All Project

I'm applying for the Elevate Prize because it will equip Love to All Project with the necessary tools and resources to realize our mission: to guide LGBTQ+ adolescents to overcome discrimination, marginalization, and ensuing barriers to success. Our organization is completely dependent on our grassroots members; our team of 60+ young people from across the world have chosen to volunteer with us because we share the common goal of creating an inclusive world. The Elevate Prize will enable us to expand and scale our advocacy. Financial support will allow us to increase content production, mitigate the financial constraints experienced by queer youth within and beyond our organization, and provide tools such as inclusive textbooks to schools across the U.S. Other goals include developing a grant for queer students, increasing diversity through recruitment efforts, expanding our team of educators, and hiring animators to produce a series of video workshops. Amplification will help us broaden the reach of our work, allowing us to support LGBTQ+ youth living in underserved and low-income communities. Increasing marketing will improve such targeting efforts. Mentorship, connections, and general support will elevate our organization by providing professional insight on how we can continue expanding and scaling our activism.

Three years ago, I founded Love to All Project after identifying the obstacles that me and my fellow queer friends faced: we lacked personal and professional mentorship, didn't see our successes, stories, and struggles represented in academia, and couldn't find platforms to bond and build with our LGBTQ peers. I knew that if I wanted to see a generation of queer youth that did not have to contend with these issues, I needed to take initiative and develop a grassroots movement to address these obstacles. Through fanatical community outreach, long nights in front of my computer, and what seemed like endless negotiations with local leaders, I built Love to All Project into the world's largest LGBTQ+ youth-led non-profit organization. Seeing people of all ages engage with our initiatives like our interview series means everything to me – I feel so much gratitude empowering young queer people and helping them feel seen and supported. Outside of my organization, I'm a student and artist at Brown University and RISD eager to combine social research and design to tackle issues such as redlining. My purpose is to break down sociocultural barriers and create a world where people can live and love freely.

Love to All Project guides LGBTQ+ adolescents to overcome discrimination, marginalization, and ensuing barriers to success. These issues are pervasive  across the world, resulting from sociocultural teachings, exclusionary education, and negative portrayals of LGBTQ+ communities. The ramifications of these obstacles are severe; according to a study from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, LGBTQ young people are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than non-LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project also found that LGBTQ youth are almost 5x as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth.

Our organization tackles these problems through comprehensive programming developed by LGBTQ youth and innovative educators. After researchers at UCLA found that fewer than 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ youths have had a mentor, we created mentorship initiatives like our fellowship program and interview series, partnering with leading LGBTQ+ figures. Our programming features global leaders that provide professional and personal guidance for queer adolescents. To tackle the lack of positive LGBTQ+ representation in educational institutions, we developed a Resource Library and Inclusivity Workshops to address overlooked topics like queer sex education. By providing LGBTQ+ adolescents with mentorship, inclusive education, and community bonding, we are building a world where queer youth feel seen and supported.

Our programs supporting LGBTQ+ adolescents are effective and innovative because they are developed from a youth perspective. Love to All Project's diverse team of educators work with our youth leaders to create initiatives that tackle issues like mentorship and inclusivity in ways that can efficiently target and reach young queer people. We have taken advantage of technological trends and uses social media channels to engage with our tech savvy audience. Given that our organization is completely youth-led, we have developed a strong understanding of our audience and continue to innovative in response to changing environments – for example, we have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic by making our resources and workshops accessible online. Our first-hand experiences with the issues we hope to solve make our work unique and disruptive. Love to All Project also acts as a community organizer, uniting various companies and organizations to best support the needs of queer adolescents. Our mentors and collaborators, such as Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Project, and Mugler, hail from a broad range of industries and provide us with a diverse set of tools and resources to empower LGBTQ+ youth of all backgrounds.

Love to All Project addresses and tackles issues pertaining to LGBTQ+ adolescents from an organic and comprehensive angle, supporting the nuanced needs of queer youth. Our high-profile and accomplished mentors such as Amit Paley and Peter Arvai provide youth with access to exceptional mentorship free of charge. A unique combination of events, digital interviews, and bespoke programs allow us to empower LGBTQ+ adolescents worldwide while also supporting individuals discretely. Our youth-developed educational initiatives are accessible and comprehensible, enabling us to reach and engage with a broad range of communities. The youth-led nature of our organization has also helped amplify young voices.

Love to All Project has developed into the world's largest LGBTQ-youth-led non-profit organization, with over 60 staff members worldwide. We have raised over $10,000 for LGBTQ+ charities such as BAGLY and The Trevor Project and have fostered a network of 30 mentors and 20 educational institutions spanning 10 countries. We have collaborated with leading LGBTQ+ figures such as Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David and and work with innovative educators to produce a free and adaptable library of resources. These aspects of our organization have allowed us to successfully support and empower queer youth globally.