As young queer people we have noticed that many of our health needs are not met by the current healthcare system. As young queer activists, we have realized that our stories are not unique to us but that they concern the whole queer community.

Unfortunately, there is generally low awareness about issues and little knowledge in the medical field to meet queer health needs. Healthcare systems are largely unequipped to provide adequate care and queer people are often skeptical about reaching out for professional help because of fear of discrimination, stigma or simply ignorance.

But, young people are more and more vocal about queer issues. They have questions, they want answers, many have insights, knowledge, lived experience.

Through this Youth Exchange, we want to bring together a larger intercultural community of young people to discuss how to improve the wellbeing and health of queer youth. We want this Youth Exchange to be a step toward queer equality by supporting queer youth in their health needs and promoting their rights to health.

The Treat it Queer Foundation is an international non-profit foundation dedicated to health justice, with a particular focus on the LGBT+ community. The foundation seeks to cultivate a growing awareness and understanding of the existing health inequities affecting gender and sexually diverse people worldwide, as well as bring greater visibility to the real, lived experiences of queer people in clinical practice, policy, and research. The youth-led board aims to do so using an intersectional approach, examining the ways in which different axes of privilege and oppression simultaneously contribute to health inequities. The dismantlement of power dynamics related - and not limited - to gender, race, age and class is central in their work.

Fuori Orario Femminista is an informal youth-led and youth-centred group of people that met each others online to discuss and debate feminist and LGBT+ topics since the first pandemic wave in 2020. It is a heterogenous group of young people mostly living in Trento, Italy, with various backgrounds. They have an informal horizontal organizational structure and meet biweekly online or offline depending on the pandemic and weather situation. Each time they discuss a different topic related to gender and sexuality selected through a poll in their facebook group.

Associazione Te@ is a cultural association founded in 2012 that is based in Trento, Italy, and operates across all the European Union. Te@ was established by a group of young friends who met during their time at University and wanted to raise awareness about feminist, LGBT+, body-positivity and sex-posivitiy issues. Through workshops, seminars, art exhibitions and open debates it educates young people on LGBT+ issues, changing attitudes towards gender identities and roles, and to stimulate an intercultural dialogue on intersectionality of gender, race, class, ableism and ageism.

If you are interested in participating in the Youth Exchange, please fill out and submit the participant application form HERE.

We will recruit participants on a continuous, rolling basis until MAY 1, 2022. We will then take a few weeks to conduct a final review of applicants, send out official selection notices, and build a waiting list as well.

Furthermore, accessibility is very important to us, and so, while the common areas of the lodge are already wheelchair-accessible, if you require any other type of accommodation, please let us know in the application form.