Evaluation of Teen Connection Project for Trans and Gender Minority Youth

The Teen Connection Project (TCP) includes seven 90-minute sessions facilitated by transgender and/or gender minority (TGM) adults. Each transgender and/or gender minority youth (TGMY) will be paired with a TGM adult mentor based on TGMYs' rank-ordered preference for mentors. The research team seeks to match mentors \& mentees such that each TGMY is matched with one of their top 3 preferred mentors. Mentors and mentees participate together in each session along with other mentors \& mentees. Facilitators direct activities/discussion to promote TGMY social-emotional skills acquisition and facilitate mentor-mentee conversations. TCP sessions also include mentor-mentee breakout sessions where mentors share challenges they personally faced as TGMY and how they overcame them. Break-out discussions focus on self-acceptance, coming out, dating questions, hopes and goals for the future, \& how other marginalized social identities, such as race and ethnicity, intersect with identifying as TGMY.