Sherbourne Health’s “Supporting Our Youth” (SOY) program is a set of health promotion services and programming centered on supporting the health and well-being goals established by LGBT2SQ youth and young adults, many of whom are homeless, racialized and newcomers to Canada. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Sherbourne made the difficult but necessary decision to put our SOY programs (and many of our other social groups and drop-in programs) on hold until we could find a safe and effective way to serve our group participants.
SOY halted programming in mid-March and staff began to work from home and support participants remotely with one-on-one sessions by phone. We also began to provide an online weekly “Staying Connected” video series covering mindfulness activities, stories, and other fun activities to help participants stay connected with their community.
Sherbourne has now grown these forms of virtual support by expanding our online programming and creating “Community Check-Ins” through platforms like Zoom and by taking our annual Pride Prom online as well to, again, ensure that participants stay connected and supported. Even with these successes, Sherbourne knows that we have more work to do in order to engage all of our clients virtually, especially those who have difficulties accessing online services.
Sherbourne would like assistance from PrideHacks to advise us in further developing online platforms for SOY programs and in the creation of a project plan that will allow us to better engage all of our clients including those who face technological barriers. PrideHacks’ expertise will also prove invaluable when researching the types of technology and security measures Sherbourne needs to invest in to run SOY programs effectively online.
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