Niagara Pride Partners with GLYS to Expand GSA Grants Program, Application Portal Now Open

Niagara Pride recently secured grant funding from the M&T Charitable Foundation in order to help expand our GSA Grants Program. Additionally, we have partnered with GLYS of WNY to help maximize the impact these grants can have on local schools.

Under this partnership, GLYS will focus on providing macrolevel support via education and training to 1.) administrators and teachers on how to build structural change to support students and 2.) to LGBTQ+ youth directly on LGBTQ+ issues, examining bias and prejudice, knowing LGBTQ+ history, development of inclusive programs, and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Niagara Pride will provide microlevel support, by making grants available to the student clubs themselves for projects to help them advocate for and create more affirming spaces by bringing in speakers, purchasing books or other small-scale projects driven by students themselves. By pairing these two initiatives, we will be able to provide deeper intervention at the school level, creating more sustainable impact that training alone cannot meet.

Niagara Pride offers grants to local GSAs (Gay/Straight Alliances or Gender/Sexuality Alliances), with the goal of providing these student organizations funding that is needed to improve the diversity and inclusion of schools. GLYS, through its youth training program, teaches LGBTQ+ youth critical advocacy and self-empowerment skills. Our grants provide a direct method for students who have received GLYS' training to utilize the skills taught, by affording them the opportunity to become agents of change in their school by developing and implementing DEI projects, using the funding they are awarded through our grant. The partnership creates a nexus between both programs, maximizing the benefits of the education they receive from GLYS and creating real world possibilities to implement that knowledge at their level to foster change. Together, both programs strengthen the leadership and self-affirming skills LGBTQ+ youth need as they become future leaders in our community.

For the 2023/2024 academic year, Niagara Pride will be offering grants to high school GSAs under two different grant programs:

Niagara County GSA Grants Program - Niagara Pride will offer up to eight $1,000 grants to GSAs in Niagara County
Rural WNY GSA Grants Program - Niagara Pride will offer up to eight $750 grants to GSAs in Alleghany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming Counties

Deadlines:

Applications are now available at https://forms.office.com/r/p49tCYfdpw
Deadline to submit an application is 11:59pm on Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Winners will be selected and notified via email and letter by November 15, 2023

Requirements:

Grant funding is to be used to develop educational programming that affirms LGBTQ+ students and helps create a more diverse and inclusive environment at the school
Examples of possible projects include but are not limited to: inviting an LGBTQ+ guest speaker to address the student body; purchasing LGBTQ+ affirming books for the school library; creating a permanent display at the school for LGBTQ+ awareness
Grant awards will be paid in the form a check directly to the school to be used for the funding of the program/project outlined in the application and not directly to individuals (neither teachers, club advisors, nor members of the GSA)
Grant recipients are welcome to re-apply the following year to develop new programming at their school
Grant recipients will also need to sign a release of information so that Niagara Pride can include winners in a press release as well as use photos from programs created as a result of the grant on our website and/or our social media