More on New Pride

The new pride group is comprised of facilitators (me and 9 other volunteers) and support group members, the people who will be attending the meetings to benefit from them. Like I said in my last post I had my first training session on Tuesday, unfortunately I was half dead with bronchitis and drugged up so I actually didn't get a whole lot out of the meeting :( Generally though it was a basic meet and greet, all the facilitators got together and we went over the very basics of how the group is going to be set up and run. All of the facilitators are "out" gays who have a desire to make a welcome and safe place for individuals who are coming out later in life (21+) we haven't had an official meeting yet so I can't yet tell you who the other members will be!

Like I said this a support group, it is what is called a "peer run" support group, meaning there are no actual counselors present, just the facilitators, which makes for a much more relaxed and open environment. The purpose of this group is just to give support to those who are coming out later in life. We will have a monthly meeting (though if attendance is good it may switch to every other week) there will be 3 facilitators at every meeting to assure things run smoothly. Like I said the facilitators aren’t counselors so they aren’t there to necessarily give advice as they are to run the sessions and keep the conversations on point and intervene if necessary.

Again since we haven’t had an actual meeting yet I can’t describe TOO much of the actual process but I’ll write more next Tuesday after my next training meeting!