New space for LGBTQ youth support
‘I felt very welcome when I came here’
Madonna Doucette is tickled pink about the Cape Breton Youth Project’s new space but perhaps saying she’s tickled rainbow would be more accurate.
“I am so pumped to have this kind of official space that is out in the daylight and I can see the sidewalk,” she said, sitting at the desk of the office located on George Street.
“People can find me easily. It’s a very accessible space for different bodies and different types of people.”
Doucette isn’t the only one excited about the new space.
“It’s welcoming, I felt very welcome when I came here, especially when I got a hug,” Letha Shaw, a mother of one of the volunteers with the project, said with a laugh.
The Youth Project, which started in Halifax in 1993, aims to provide LGBTQ people 25 and under with support and services.
Until this summer, Doucette was working with LGBTQ youth as part of a program affiliated with the Ally Center of Cape Breton. Funding ran out and The Youth Project in Halifax jumped at the opportunity to have Doucette start a Cape Breton branch.
This is something that Russell MacKinnon, a transgender male, thinks is needed in Cape Breton.
“If people are comfortable here to be themselves, then they wouldn’t go to Halifax or bigger cities,” MacKinnon, 19, said.
“If we build a good foundation here for our queer community they won’t have to go.”
Doucette agrees and, through her work with LGBTQ youth, she has seen it.
“Similar to the brain drain, there is a queer drain that happens and we lose a lot of LGBTQ people who move off to the city to be their ‘real selves,’” Doucette said.
“If we could keep more of those people here, their energy and their skills, and they feel safe and they could be their real selves here in Cape Breton, we as a community would really be better for it.”
MacKinnon said accessing services and support provided by Doucette while at the other space was helpful to him when he was coming out and he sees it help others.
“I actually started out with the trans support group and at Riverview GSA (Gay Straight Alliance)… we did presentations around the different schools,” he said.
“It’s good to hear from voices of the youth … because if you have a teacher who is telling things to you it’s not the same as hearing it from a youth who’s experienced it.”
Through the Cape Breton Youth Project, Doucette will continue to do school and community presentations, support programs and drop in hours. She is now able to offer new programs like the family support group that will meet the second Thursday of the month.
Friday is the grand opening for the Cape Breton Youth Project. It goes from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and everyone is welcome to drop by and find out more. More information can be found on their Facebook page.
“If people are comfortable here to be themselves, then they wouldn’t go to Halifax or bigger cities.’’
Russell MacKinnon