AIR Is Represented at U.S. Education Department’s First LGBT Youth Summit
Jeffrey Poirier, a senior research analyst, represented AIR at the first Federal lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Youth Summit held June 6-7, 2011 in Washington, D.C. The two-day summit, “Creating and Maintaining Safe and Supportive Environments for LGBT Youth,” was hosted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
The summit brought together students, educators, administrators, federal officials and nonprofit leaders to provide information and seek solutions that will help create and maintain safe school and supportive environments for all LGBT students so that they can be more focused on learning and experience more positive outcomes.
Poirier has expertise in research and technical assistance needs related to LGBT children and youth in his role with AIR’s Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health and as a coordinator on the National Workgroup to Address the Needs of Children and Youth Who Are LGBTQI2-S and Their Families. He is also co-editor of and authoring a chapter on education in a forthcoming volume, Addressing the Needs of Youth Who Are LGBT and Their Families: A System of Care Approach.
The summit included such speakers as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, as well as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administrator Pam Hyde and Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
Participating organizations included the National Coalition for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Health, the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, the National Education Association, Advocates for Youth, American Federation of Teachers, the Human Rights Campaign, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies.