Scholarship Fund for Gender-Affirming Items

The Juneau Community Foundation will be matching every dollar donated up to $3,500 for our scholarship fund to provide gender-affirming items to Juneau youth- thank you to the Juneau Community Foundation for this generous matching donation!

Help us raise $3,500 so we can continue to provide this fund to the trans and gender-diverse youth in our community, who we care about so much.

Being able to provide tangible support to local youth supports their mental health and is a part of suicide prevention. As The Trevor Project reports, LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the last year. Thank you for joining us in being one of those accepting adults!

What is my donation for?

All donations will go directly to purchasing gender-affirming items for local trans & gender diverse youth. These items allow trans youth to explore and affirm their identity in ways that positively impact their mental health and wellbeing. (To access this scholarship fund, talk with a staff person at Zach Gordon Youth Center or Teen Health.)

Some background info:

In June of this year NAMI Juneau, in partnership with the Zach Gordon Youth Center, decided to start a low-barrier, easy-to-access scholarship fund to purchase gender-affirming items for Juneau transgender & gender-diverse youth. During our annual pride celebration in June we raised over $600 and we opened the scholarship fund. In this short time, we have spent over $300 on providing four scholarships through the Zach Gordon Youth Center. This is so exciting- and the money goes fast!

To ensure we are able to provide this scholarship fund throughout the year, we are reaching out to the community to ask for your help. We expect to reach many more youth, and soon, with this scholarship fund, as our efforts to better serve transgender young people expand. For a few examples- we recently held a Trans Student Self-Advocacy Workshop on August 6th and Koru Counseling began a Trans Youth Support Group, happening monthly at ZGYC. These efforts are so needed- and we know that the more youth we come in contact with, the more this scholarship fund will be utilized!

How does the scholarship fund work?

We recognize there are many reasons why a young person might not be able to access these items on their own, including financial restraints and not having family support to purchase items, which was the driving force to starting this scholarship fund. In order to keep things as simple and low-barrier as possible, accessing the scholarship fund is easy. Trans & gender-diverse youth simply let a staff person at ZGYC or the Teen Health Center know they are in need of an item, and those staff people contact NAMI Juneau to request either that the item be purchased or a gift card for the item be provided. Youth deserve the dignity and self-determination to choose their own items, with support if they want it. We trust to know what they need to affirm their gender, and supportive staff at ZGYC, the Teen Health Center, and NAMI Juneau are here to help along the way.

Thank you for donating to this important cause!

Gunalchéesh,

NAMI Juneau