FUTURE PRISM

Our goal is to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. The Trevor Project, one of the world’s largest non-profit organizations, was founded in the United States with the aim of promoting their acceptance and helping them through crises and with suicide prevention. What is needed now to save the lives of LGBTQ youth is a crisis intervention program that can respond effectively to those at risk.

In terms of specific activities, the Trevor Project consists of five programs. “Crisis Services” provides direct support via phone, text, and chat. “Peer Support” manages the operation of Trevor Space, the world’s largest safe space social network community. “Research” seeks to enhance the influence of the programs by incorporating scientific progress and research protocols. “Public Education” focuses on issues relevant to LGBTQ youth. “Rights & Advocacy” is leading the charge to protect LGBTQ youth against the dangerous practice of conversion therapy, expand the collection of SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) information in death records and government investigations, and implement effective and comprehensive suicide prevention measures in every school district across the United States.

The Trevor Project’s life-saving volunteer crisis counselors have played a significant role, and this free, confidential, and secure service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which has enabled them to conduct more than 2 million chats, phone calls, and written exchanges with young people within the past year. They also monitor, analyze, and evaluate the data they have collected in order to generate innovative research that yields knowledge and clinical significance. Within the next 25 years, their goal as an organization is to respond to 1.8 million crisis contacts annually, continue innovating their core services, and eliminate the scourge of youth suicide.

In 1994, the short film “Trevor” won an Academy Award. It is about a gay 13-year-old boy who attempts to take his own life because his sexual orientation is not understood by those around him. In 1998, when producer Randy Stone secured an airing of the film on HBO, director/producer Peggy Rajsky realized that a portion of their audience may be going through the same kind of ordeal as Trevor. She tried to find a support hotline whose number they could show on-screen during the film but found that there was no real place to turn to when faced with such challenges. She then quickly recruited a team of mental health professionals and devised a way to build the infrastructure needed for a 24-hour life counseling system. Celeste Lecesne, the film’s writer, secured funding from the Colin Higgins Foundation to get the infrastructure up and running. This led to the launch of the Trevor Lifeline, the first national crisis intervention and suicide prevention hotline. *Colin Higgins Foundation: A transgender support foundation founded in 1986. Named after Colin Higgins, a prominent American film director who succumbed to AIDS in 1988.