Connie Barden and Martha Fugate

Making the World Safe for All Youth: Communication and education curriculum for youth service providers

The YES Institute began as “Project YES” out of a declaration made by Connie Barden and Martha Fugate during a Landmark Communication Course. Initially, the project was focused around one alarming statistic: that 33% of teen suicides are attempted and completed by gay youth. Not knowing where to begin to make a difference, Connie and Martha convened meetings of all the stakeholders and community leaders responsible for the well-being of Miami’s youth.

When the meetings took place they began to discover the impediments to finding solutions for gay youth. All of the leaders admitted they were not doing an adequate job of nurturing and protecting gay youth, but they also revealed why: They didn’t know how to talk about these topics. They feared controversy or disagreement, and had no training for responding in appropriate ways. This information guided Connie and Martha to develop the essential service of YES, providing communication and education to the people responsible for the care of young people. At the core of the YES curriculum is training that lets people disagree and still be true to the purpose of protecting youth.

Begun in a modest Florida church, the YES Institute now widely disseminates its educational curriculum throughout the U.S. and Canada via an interactive broadcast studio, distance learning, seminars, and graduate courses. The Institute was recently awarded $150,000 from the Jonathan Lewis Foundation.

The success of Connie and Martha’s organization is a rapidly expanding testament to their commitment to making a difference: “There is nothing more enlivening than knowing that due to your efforts, another person’s life will be better.”

http://www.yesinstitute.org/