Mental Health and Our LGBTQ+ Youth

The past 2.5 years have introduced unprecedented stressors into adolescents’ lives: a global pandemic that has redefined normalcy, political divisiveness across all bodies of government, more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being considered and passed than ever before. Relying on groundbreaking research from the Trevor Project and Keshet’s own work with LGBTQ+ Jewish teens, we will explore the landscape of LGBTQ+ youth experience with mental health, and deepen our understanding of how we can show up as listeners, supporters, and advocates.

The Our Daughters, Our Future mental health speaker series is sponsored with the generous support of The Miriam Fund of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies. The Miriam Fund is a philanthropic community committed to creating an equitable world that expands opportunities for women and girls. However, individual webinars in the series touch upon the experiences of girls, boys, and non-binary individuals, and parents and educators of teens of all genders are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Our Speaker: Jaimie Krass

As Keshet’s National Director of Youth Programs, Jaimie brings a decade of creative curriculum design experience, an innovative spirit, crisis management skills, and boundless energy to this holy work of building a more just, affirming, and celebratory world for LGBTQ+ Jewish youth. Jaimie received her B.A. in political science and Jewish studies from the University of Florida, and her M.A. in experiential education and nonprofit professional leadership from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Throughout her career—and extending back to her teenage years—she has advocated for LGBTQ+ justice and inclusion, facilitating trainings at a variety of conferences, JCCs, and synagogues, and creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ Russian-speaking Jewish teens in Brooklyn, NY. She is a dedicated crisis counselor with The Trevor Project, a proud Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies alumna, and lives in Manhattan with her wife and their dog, MishMish.