EDGY Conference

Vanessa Garcia
Vanessa Garcia
Stars Behavioral Health Group
Vanessa Garcia
Vanessa Garcia (They/Them)(She/Her) Vanessa a trainer and educational designer at Stars Behavioral Health Group. They have over 15 years of educational design and talent development experience. Vanessa’s professional passion resides in designing and facilitating educational experiences that provide welcoming and authentic opportunities for clinicians, peers, and advocates to explore interpersonal connections with the LGBTQ+ community, CSEC survivors, and individuals in recovery. Vanessa’s personal passion resides in directly advocating for their genderfluid family, community, and creating a brave space for their peers. Educational Background: Associates in Chemistry Bachelors of Science (Microbiology) Certified Pharmacy Technician (2014-2018)

SESSION OVERVIEW

Unlocking Potential: Building Alliances Inside and Outside of the Community
An experiential workshop that provides a space for participants to increase personal and communal safety through responsible consideration, sharing, and leveraging of power and privilege. This exploratory activity encourages participants to contemplate and dialogue about the connection between structural privilege and personal/community safety with a focus on increasing intentionality in approaches towards LGBTQ+ allyship, activism, and camaraderie. Each participant will be provided with an opportunity to create a keepsake that serves as mindful evidence of our individual commitments to nurturing safety and acceptance for ourselves and others in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities. During this workshop Facilitators will also provide a background on: -Viewpoints that impact safety of members and allies in LGBTQ+ communities -Leveraging privilege where possible to call-in and increase zones of safety and allyship - Recognizing the difference between a call-in, call-out, and get-out situation -How to adapt this activity for use with clients, families, fellow allies, and our communities to support the growth of safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community and our communities at large