Today is the first day of Camp Pride, a program that brings together more than 75 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally students along with 25 advisors from colleges and universities across the entire country with a camp mission of building leadership capacity among LGBT and ally undergraduate college student leaders and to create safer and more inclusive campus communities in the United States.
This year's Camp Pride is taking place in Nashville, TN at Vanderbilt University. The camp is a leadership program through which participants will be given the opportunity to grow in a space inclusive of gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. During the next five days participants will learn key leadership concepts to becoming a stronger LGBT or ally leader, effective strategies and skill training for grassroots coalition building how to create personal action plans to make their individual campuses more LGBT-friendly.
Participants will also have the opportunity to connect and work with peer student leaders from across the country. As well as have access to premiere faculty and national leaders in social justice, human rights and civil rights advocacy.
The program will feature many nationally recognized leaders and figures including trans advocate and athlete Kye Allums and singer-songwriter Randi Driscoll.
Camp Pride is a program of Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization based in Charlotte, NC for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBT students. The primary objective of Campus Pride is to develop necessary resources, programs and services to support LGBT and ally students on college campuses across the United States.
Some of the great work that Campus Pride does includes an LGBT-Friendly College Fair Program which has the purpose of allowing prospective students to meet with college representatives. They also established the Voice & Action National Leadership Award, America's only national award for the work of undergraduate college students who are creating positive change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally issues.
Their website also has an array of resources available to the public focusing on organizing, activism, event planning, hate crime prevention, and other topics relevant to LGBT college students and their allies. These resources includes actions guides, do's and don'ts lists, podcasts and other mediums of support and information.
Keep your eyes open for the leaders to come out of Camp Pride. They will be defining the LGBT movement even faster than you think!