Building Queer-Inclusive Arts Programming With OUT Maine

As a staple resource for queer people in Maine, OUT Maine’s mission is straightforward: to build welcoming and affirming communities where Maine’s LGBTQ+ youth thrive.

Achieving that mission is far more complex, and since 1996, OUT Maine has partnered with youth, families, school systems, medical providers, nonprofits, and businesses in various ways to implement programs that help make the state safer and more inclusive for LGBTQ+ youth.

When a number of our Arts Program grantees expressed interest in learning how to make their activities safer and more validating for queer participants, we were confident that OUT Maine’s training program would help these organizations reach their goals. Just a short time later, a cohort learning program was born, providing more than a dozen arts nonprofits the opportunity to learn alongside one another over the course of six months.

Comprehensive, Ongoing Training

In addition to running events like the annual Rainbow Ball Weekend, the Maine Youth and Families Summit, support groups, and gaming nights, OUT Maine regularly trains educators, families, and service providers on creating safer and more welcoming spaces for LGBTQ+ youth.

“We do training that highlights the foundational information about the state of queer youth in Maine,” says Maggie Hirshland, the organization’s youth engagement coordinator. “We also work with each place individually to support its unique needs, whether that’s creating an anti-bullying policy or making its space more inclusive. We tailor our programs to the needs of the organization itself.”

The arts nonprofit cohort program, however, enabled Hirshland and their team to extend the training beyond an initial session. “This was such an exciting opportunity for us to do a big full-day training, and then consistently meet with the group over six months,” says Hirshland. “We were able to give foundational information, then dig deeper and follow through with intentional action plans.”

With this structure, participants like the Cultural Alliance of Maine, Maine Inside Out, Maine Crafts Association, and others engaged in:

• One full-day training that covered best practices for creating safe environments for young program participants

• Monthly calls with the full group organized by theme, such as handbook policies, inclusive language, intersectionality, and youth-adult partnerships

• Regular conversations with trainers and staff from participating nonprofits on challenges and solutions

Prior to the first session, organizations completed a pre-assessment that Hirshland referred back to throughout the program. “That allowed them to see where they are in meeting their goals, what their current practices are, and what their policies looked at,” says Hirshland. “During the session, they explored their gaps and strengths and established their goals for the future. It was an opportunity that we don’t get to do with one-off training sessions.”

Shifting Mindsets and Filling Gaps

Heading into the program, many of the nonprofits were struggling to forge lasting change in their programming. “A lot of the organizations had great policies in place, but they weren’t necessarily written down,” says Hirshland. “We talked about how important it is to institutionalize policies and be more preventative.”

In addition to creating solidified policies and shifting practices, the group worked on:

• Ensuring their spaces, programming, and marketing materials were welcoming to queer individuals

• Establishing pathways for training staff

• Launching intentional spaces and affinity groups for queer youth and families

• Making their spaces and marketing materials more representative of the queer community

• Instituting anti-bullying policies and inclusive employee handbooks

• Filling knowledge gaps and learning new terminology

• Managing the organizational change that comes with new policies, procedures, or approaches

As the organizations learned from Hirshland and each other, they were able to problem solve together, discuss similar needs, and candidly share what was happening in their programming. These connections enabled the nonprofits to explore various experiences within the arts sector under the guidance of Hirshland’s nonjudgmental expertise.

“It can feel really lonely or isolating doing this work if you’re not getting as much support as you’d like,” Hirshland says. “But knowing that people in other spaces are experiencing similar things creates a sense of solidarity. That was really special with this group.”

Putting Lessons Into Action

Since the cohort program, participating arts organizations have already taken steps to implement what they learned. Many are enhancing their internal policies to make the workplace more inclusive, welcoming, and protective for queer-identified employees; working to provide more visible representation of LGBTQ+ experiences in their spaces; and adjusting the language and images they use in their marketing materials. Some organizations, like the Maine Crafts Association, are developing community guidelines that will inform their strategic planning processes.

What’s perhaps most encouraging, however, is the fact that the participating nonprofits haven’t stopped learning since completing OUT Maine’s program. Rather, they’re holding themselves accountable to ongoing growth by taking other workshops and motivating other staff members to expand their learning.

Hirshland and their team are likewise finding ways to engage with more organizations in Maine. “We’re planning to do three more rounds of the cohort with support from the Onion Foundation this year,” they say. “And we’re trying to reduce barriers across the state to make the cohorting as accessible as possible.”

Supporting organizations to work within their own communities is top of mind for Hirshland: “How do we best equip everyone within their regions to sustain their own programming beyond OUT Maine? How do we empower every community to be able to provide these resources on their own sustainably?”

Moving forward, Hirshland and the OUT Maine team are committed to answering these critical questions and ensuring communities in all corners of the state have what they need to provide safe spaces for all.