Northern Colorado Programming
After nearly 30 years as a community resource in Boulder County, OBC is expanding its signature programming and services into Larimer and Weld counties. Programming for LGBTQ+ youth, voter education and engagement for school board races, vaccine equity work and behavioral health services have officially launched. Below you’ll find descriptions of trainings, programming and more currently available.
OBC’s northern Colorado office is located at 525 W. Oak St., Suite 101, Fort Collins, CO, 80521
LGBTQ+ Inclusivity Training Program
Our training program is an important part of realizing our vision of an inclusive, just, and connected world where LGBTQ+ people and communities thrive.
Our base training, Beyond Binary: LGBTQ+ Core Concepts & Etiquette Essentials, covers the concepts of sex assigned at birth, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation basics and essential language and pronoun etiquette. This training is designed to establish a common foundation of understanding for participants in order to enable them to contribute to a more inclusive world. We recommend this as a starting point for LGBTQ+ inclusivity education and building a series of sessions from there.
We also offer targeted and specialized content. Existing training topics are included in the following list. We are happy to create customized content to meet your specific needs and goals (pricing and scheduling may vary). Please reach out to discuss details.
Live, virtual training sessions are readily available and in-person training sessions are available on a limited scale - reach out to see what is possible for your organization.
Learn more about our program, review fees, read testimonies, see what other organizations we’ve trained, and reach out to set up a training for your team by visiting our Training Program webpage.
LGBTQ+ Workgroup
The LGBTQ+ Workgroup comes out of the Colorado National Collaborative (CNC), which works “to create a comprehensive suicide prevention model to reduce suicide statewide.” With this mission, Larimer County was selected as one of 15 counties in Colorado to participate due to its high rates of suicide. The CNC contains six pillars for suicide prevention: Connectedness, Economic Stability and Supports, Education and Awareness, Access to Safer Suicide Care, Lethal Means Safety, and Postvention. This workgroup was developed out of the connectedness pillar.
The LGBTQ+ Workgroup welcomes community members and professionals who serve LGBTQ+ people. These meetings occur monthly over Zoom and give people a chance to network, share organizational updates and calls for collaboration, and contribute to workgroup-specific initiatives.
If interested in participating in the workgroup, please contact Ash Neufeldt (she/they) at aneufeldt@outboulder.org.
Speaking Out Program
Out Boulder County's Speaking Out Program is a volunteer speaker's bureau where members of our community from every part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum share their stories on a panel of 3 or 4 people. These panels mostly occur in middle and high schools, but we occasionally hold panels in churches, other nonprofits, college classes, and healthcare provider trainings. We're open to Speaking Out being a part of any group or event. After each member shares a 5-15 minute story about their life as an LGBTQ+ person or ally, the audience members have 30+ minutes to ask questions to specific members or the whole group.
Speaking Out is our longest running program at Out Boulder County and it provides LGBTQ+ visibility still so desperately needed for our youth, even in a world with marriage equality and increasing LGBTQ+ visibility. We have years of data supporting what we already know in our hearts: Speaking Out changes lives and saves LGBTQ+ people from isolation and fear. We are able to offer young people a safe place to ask questions and also diverse representations of what life can look like as an adult queer person, something youth almost never see in media or in their adult mentorships.
To request a Speaking Out Panel, please fill out this application.
If you have questions about Speaking Out, please contact Chris Castañeda at ccastaneda@outboulder.org.
Announcing the ASTRA Fund: Advancing and Sustaining Trans Rights and Autonomy
We are now accepting applications for the ASTRA Fund!
The Fund for Advancing and Sustaining Trans Rights and Autonomy (ASTRA) aims to help transgender people of color seeking gender-affirming care.
The ASTRA fund recognizes that transgender people of color often face compounded challenges, both socio-economically and in healthcare accessibility. By establishing this initiative, Out Boulder County is not only addressing immediate needs but also championing a broader movement toward equity and justice. This is especially crucial now as transgender rights and autonomy are being undermined and attacked across the country. Supporting the ASTRA fund is not just aiding individuals; it's also fortifying a collective stand for bodily autonomy.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until funding runs out and is limited to residents of the following counties: Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer, and Weld. This is a need-based initiative but we review all applications holistically.