The Safe Space program sought to teach students and faculty methods of supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at Northwestern at its second training session Tuesday.
Safe Space is a component of NU’s LGBT Support Network, which was created Fall Quarter by the Office of Student Affairs. Safe Space trains faculty and students to listen and provide support for LGBT individuals on campus.
Tracie Thomas, a Safe Space trainer and NU career counselor, said about 25 people attended the training session, which ran from 4 to 7 p.m. About 30 people attended the first session during Winter Quarter.
“The training went incredibly smoothly Tuesday, ” Thomas said.
She said the LGBT committee members who planned the session asked winter session trainees for feedback, which they tried to incorporate into Tuesday’s training.
Thomas said trainers tried to address a variety of topics related to supporting LGBT individuals.
“We talked about the components of creating a safe space, which included attitudes toward homophobia, statistics on violence against LGBT individuals, teaching people good listening skills and the stages of development in coming out,” Thomas said.
She said an important aspect of the training was having a panel of speakers sharing their experiences of coming out.
Some students said they felt the panel was the most beneficial aspect of the training.
“I thought that people’s personal stories really helped to give a perspective to the types of situations people go through in their personal lives,” said Conci Nelson, BGALA co-president and Safe Space trainee.
Attendees of the two training sessions said they had many reasons for participating. Some said they wanted to help friends or neighbors in their residence halls.
“At the time I was BGALA social chair, and I thought it was important because, being straight, I hadn’t dealt with issues that LGBT people have,” said Nelson, a Speech freshman.
Some students said they thought the training would be helpful in the future, but that the session was too short.
“I thought it was pretty effective, but I almost would have been willing to go to another couple of training sessions,” said Tony Rella, a Weinberg freshman. “We kind of skipped over transgender issues, but they said there was so much around that issue they couldn’t fit it in.”
Safe Space trainees said their experiences will be helpful in supporting LGBT individuals in the future.
“I will try and use it to explain what BGALA is about and use it to give me perspective,” Nelson said.
Kiersten Elliott, the program’s founder and area coordinator for the Foster-Walker Complex, said Safe Space gets some sense of its success by using anonymous contact sheets, where trainees can list encounters they have with students.
Elliott said the LGBT committee will hold another training session Spring Quarter and train employees at Searle Student Health Service sometime during the quarter.
