Expanding Intentional Inclusion Professional Development

Community safety

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

77% of LGBTQ+ students reported verbal harassment, physical harassment, and/or physical assault based on sexual orientation, gender, or gender expression. 82% of LGBTQ+ youth reported feeling unsafe in school, and things are only getting worse. GLSEN LA plans to work with the Los Angeles Unified School District, whom we have partnered with in the past, to provide the critical (and in many cases for LGBTQ+ students), and life-saving Intentional Inclusion Professional Development training that will provide educators and administrators the tools and resources needed to make all classrooms and schools in LA County a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ+ students, because we know when we focus on the most marginalized students, ALL students prosper and benefit from the system-wide changes.

Among LGBQT+ students, having caring teachers is associated with lower levels of negative mental health symptoms (Parmar et al., 2022). Further, being able to take the perspective of and empathize with others is a core competency of social skills (Jones & Doolittle, 2017). Thus, by focusing on educators (and expanding our long history of providing base-line curriculum to school),and piloting our Intentional Inclusion Professional Development trainings to an array of school staff, our proposed activities will maximize their impact on promoting more affirming spaces and thus, greater wellbeing and safety for LGBTQ+ students and their peers. GLSEN has a proven track record of success in giving teachers the tools they need to create welcoming safer classrooms. We would like to expand our existing reach and deepen our offerings by providing schools and districts with specialized PD opportunities. GLSEN LA is also seeking to expand for the first time our PD audience to including mental health staff, school nurses, community partners, parents, and administrators. By expanding our offerings and our audience we can ensure that not only are individual classrooms safe and affirming spaces for young people but entire school communities welcome and keep students safe.

The benefit of the IIPD trainings conducted by GLSEN is that the skills learned can have impacts for those trained for years to come. Over the course of two years GLSEN can conduct 8 to 10 professional developments with 50-100 educators/school professionals at each session (total of 800-1,000), and an additional 125-150 community partners and parents. After these training sessions, participants will have tangible tactics for making their schools safer & more inclusive environments for ALL students. More inclusive schools could make the difference in whether young people feel safe attending school and improves attendance rates, and by extension graduation rates. An educator/school administrator trained over the next 2 years could continue improving their school environment for the remainder of their career, sometimes impacting students years after receiving the trainings. When GLSEN’s work is successful, LAUSD will see thriving students and an improved education system for all students.

For IIPD, we customize its implementation at each school or district via self-assessments completed by participants. IIPD staff then review the self-assessments to determine how inclusive a partner is and to design a unique improvement plan composed of PD, coaching, and technical assistance so that the partner can become an empowering place for LGBTQ+ students. We also administer a feedback survey at the end of each PD session. The data is reviewed and discussed with each partner, and updates are made accordingly. We also measure success by the number of referrals and additional requests within a school district. To ensure quality, facilitators are observed and assessed regularly. In the past year, we’ve received glowing testimonials from educators on previous curriculum such as: "Great resources and excellent dialogue. Definitely keeping the participant guides—they're awesome! It will give me a solid framework for supporting staff, students, and families.”

GLSEN’s National office- Education Team for creation of the expanded Intentional Inclusion Professional Development.
GLSEN LA Chapter - Implementation of trainings
LAUSD - referrals and promotion for training offerings and well as providing training spaces.