The Trevor Project was founded in 1988 by the creators of the Academy-Award winning short film, TREVOR. It is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people under 25 years old. The work they are doing is imperative for their community, because research shows that LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. Their research has shown that over 1.8 million LGBTQ youth consider suicide each year.

I think of my sister, Emma. She was 13-years old in January 2018 when she died by suicide. Before her death, she shared with our parents that she had feelings towards girls. After my sister's death and learning these alarming statistics, I felt it was time for me to confront my own feelings and sexuality. Although I felt tremendous pressure about coming out, in December of 2018 I let my family know that I am bisexual, and I no longer wanted to pretend otherwise. Even for someone like me, who comes from a supportive and open-minded family, it was still a struggle for me to accept that I am different and share that with my family and friends. It's difficult to imagine the thousands of children suffering in silence who feel they won't be accepted. The Trevor Project is doing their part to ensure LGBTQ children have a safe space to express themselves.

The Trevor Project offers 24/7 support and crisis intervention through their text/call line, where they reach several thousand children per year. They also created TrevorSpace, the largest and safest social media space for LGBTQ youth in over 100 countries. Their ultimate goal is to end the LGBTQ+ suicide crisis. They've developed a 3-year plan from 2020-2023 that is available to view here. If you are interested in volunteering with The Trevor Project, you can submit an application here.

The Pure Game is an after-school soccer program designed to mentor children through social-emotional learning and development of self-esteem.

I had the chance to speak to Cristina Velasquez, the Director of Development for The Pure Game. She tells me the program sparked her interest because she grew up with mentors herself.

She reflects on her time on the field with The Pure Game, “The coach interacted with the kids that weren’t touching the soccer ball, and he was telling the other kids, if you were your friend, what would you do to include them in the game? It was always about being inclusive and life lessons.”

Below is a 2:00 minute story I produced from my interview with Cristina.

The Pure Game is based in Orange County, California. They serve children from 2nd to 12th grade, and target children who may be at risk or underserved. I asked Cristina about this demographic, and she explained to me that “any child can be at risk, it doesn’t matter where they live.”

For children from high-income and low-income backgrounds, it’s possible they may not have a parent, guardian or caretaker after school because they may be at work. The Pure Game guides children through mentorship, sport and curriculum.

What separates The Pure Game from other soccer or sport programs, is their social-emotional and mental health lessons built into every game. Program leaders will teach new concepts like respect, responsibility, compassion, and more. They ask students to reflect on these lessons and provide examples of how they integrate compassion into the game, and in their personal and school lives.

Above all, they want children to have fun, try new things and develop healthy self-esteem and relationships. Coaches are not worried about competition or performance, but rather everyone gets a chance to play and learn something new.

The Pure Game provides surveys for the students to reflect on their experience, and after soccer camps they feel like they’ve gained social-emotional skills from their time at camp.

Remote Recess Zoom screenshot provided by The Pure Game

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted students across the world, but The Pure Game was determined to reach children during a time they needed activity, mentors and social-emotional learning the most. They created “Remote Recess” and have maintained an immersive program through distance learning.

I asked Cristina if their goals as an organization have changed since COVID-19, and she said, “I think what COVID taught us is now we have an extra tool of online: zoom and videos. Our program will continue to be the same and the goal would be to impact more students. Students are eager to be on the field and playing, honestly.”

They’ve worked hard to establish their online presence since school closures, below is a video montage they created to show what virtual programs look like.

Below is an example of an activity, Basket Toss Game from their Youtube channel. In this game, they teach reflection on responsibility and relationship skills. They pose the questions,

“Are you bringing your friends down or are you helping each other be better?”
“How can I improve my relationship with my friends and family members?”
“Think of things that make you happy and try and do them.”

For more information on volunteer opportunities, donations and more, please visit their website Pure Game (thepuregame.org)