Testimonials

This is a portrait of how my involvement with Diverse and Resilient has been for me. It's been over a year since I have been a member of the Diverse and Resilient Youth Advisory Committee. I was asked to be a part of Diverse & Resilient through a friend named Kelly. She felt that I could be an asset to the group, and I feel that I have been.

I find myself learning so much information from my co-members in the youth advisory, learning things that could have been helpful while I was attending school. Being the oldest member of the group at 22, I initially felt it would be hard to relate to the younger members. However I was completely wrong. I found out that they appreciate me, just as much as I appreciate them. We are a family of sorts, and when we fall, there is always another committee member there to pick us up.

In our Youth Advisory Committee meetings we say how we feel and each of us is equal in the eyes of each other. We believe in being fair and respectful to each other at all times. We also have done really great activities together .We have gone out of town together, and we also done experiential activities to see how much we trust each other. We've even painted really nice pottery which was both fun, and a way to all be on equal footing in terms of experience.

Through all of this, Diverse and Resilient gave us all the chance to learn and understand each other. We believe that learning and understanding is necessary to change your own life and the lives of other young people.

The Youth Advisory Committee members appreciate the input of others because these may be just the ideas to improve and enlarge the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

- Gerald, Milwaukee, 22 yrs old

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I have been involved with Diverse and Resilient Programs for some time, first as a Youth Development Specialist, now as a member of LYDAC. My organization, Harmony Café, in Appleton, gets some funding from Diverse and Resilient to assist in our efforts to make a safe space for LGBT youth and young adults and loads of other allies to get together for fun and relaxation. During my involvement with Diverse and Resilient, I have stretched and grown.

For those who have ever heard of Myers Briggs, my personality type is Introvert, Insightful, Thinking and Judgmental (INTJ) - big time. One weakness with this personality type is the tendency to think and over-analyze way too much, often at the expense of awareness of the present moment. Another weakness is lack of good social skills, and sometimes a mistrust of other people (particularly those in authority) and their motivations.

At one Youth Development Specialist training, we did an activity that involved two teams trying to work their way through a maze with ambiguous guidance from the facilitators. As an INTJ-kind-of person, I immediately started thinking about what the inventors of this activity were likely trying to teach us and assuming there was some trick that we needed to figure out to solve the maze. I assumed that we were working "against" the facilitators, that they had the answer and were unfairly tricking us, and that we would not be able to get through the maze by ordinary means. I started thinking of alternative and creative ways that maybe we'd be able to get through - to beat the facilitators. In the meantime, the maze was solved by people who were just enjoying the activity and being aware of the present moment and what was happening to their team and the other team. No deep thinking or distrust was needed - in fact, mistrust was a hindrance.

Of course, such activities are useless unless you can learn from them. Back in the "real world", I've been working with numerous governmental and community people trying to get a building for use by the program I direct, Harmony Café. It is easy for me to think that all the building and health inspectors and city planning department people are enemies, who enjoy nothing more than to put up roadblocks and bureaucracies to prevent a valuable program from succeeding. Instead, I've tried to think about the maze activity - that there is a path of success despite all the seeming obstacles, and that working with others, not against them, is the best way to get through the maze. Instead of being a hindrance, our "real world" maze and its challenges has strengthened us.

- Shannon Kenevan, Director, Harmony Café, Appleton, WI

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As I look back over the last decade of my life, the single greatest positive influence on my development as a human being has clearly been my involvement with the Diverse and Resilient Program and with Gary Hollander, its Executive Director. My experiences with Diverse & Resilient have helped me to better understand myself and others, challenged me to grow, sustained my motivation to make the world a better place, enriched my skills in many areas and provided perspectives that have led to attitude changes that make me a better person in my work and personal life.

- Marilyn Levin, MSW, Social Justice Coalition, La Crosse, WI

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Diverse and Resilient has encouraged me to continue thinking outside the box that society deems as acceptable behavior for people who work with youth. Gary Hollander demonstrates a high level of understanding and sympathy with youth and his resourcefulness in bringing together great minds in Wisconsin is readily replicable elsewhere. This resourcefulness highlights his ability to lead thoughtfully and take responsible risks. In my work with youth, I have found the 7 Pillars of Successful Youth Development Programs useful in determining the workability and sustainability of all projects and project functions.

The group of youth advisors that work with Diverse and Resilient are phenomenal. They offer insight and guidance to youth development specialists throughout Wisconsin, and I feel lucky to have their thoughts and direction while I work on further developing various youth-centered activities for LGBT people.

The Rainbow Alliance (RAY) Youth Development Specialist workshops are phenomenal learning experiences. The longer Project Q has been around, the more needs we seem to identify that go unmet. For example, we are experiencing needs among young people currently living in more rural settings, like West Bend. I have been able to gather resources and get input on how Project Q can grow. Additionally, being a part of the RAY network and attending these sessions have enabled me to look more deeply into the development and protocols of youth programming.

I have grown, personally, in a direction I never thought I would be growing. The affirmation I receive from Gary, the Diverse and Resilient youth advisors, and RAY youth development specialists is phenomenal. I am confident in my service delivery. I am competent in my pool of skills. However, the most important thing that has happened, in terms of my growth and development, I have found out that I don't have to take care of EVERYONE! In order to do my job the most successfully, I actually get to take care of myself! It sounds simple, but I believe it's revolutionary.

In fact, that's a good descriptor for Gary's work in the LGBT youth community. REVOLUTIONARY!

- Ita Meno, Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

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