2021 Impact Report

Educators

A Queer Endeavor 2021 Impact Report

When you donate to A Queer Endeavor, you make an impact!

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In 2021, A Queer Endeavor...

Served over

2,000 educators

in Colorado and beyond this year

Received the needed donations to finalize a

$ 25,000

endowed scholarship

Raised

$ 78,495

through 66Ìýdonors and

$ 55,000

in grants

Hosted over

500 educators

at our Ìýin partnership with a diverse team of 14 graduate students, faculty, and staff

ÌýA Queer Endeavor is a bold program for educators wanting to do more than learn vocabulary. It is a program for educators who truly wish to do both the inner and outer work necessary to shift what counts as normal in our schools."

—Levi Arithson (he/him), Program Manager of LGBTQ+ Equity at Denver Public Schools

This year we have grown in so many ways. Here are some highlights...

This summer, AQE hosted our third summer institute for, and by, educators. Our goal was to walk the talk of intersectionality by expanding the scope of our work on equity and justice AND increasing the number of educators served. With of graduate students, faculty, & staff we hosted the new & improved annual #EIEJ2021. We served 500+ educators in person & online. And, we stayed LIT through the pushback!

Our co-founder Sara Staley co-emceedÌýÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ·'s Ed Talks this fall! This special series of Ed Talks featured five experienced educators and ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· scholars who came together last summer to design ourÌýfirst annual . Our very own Brittni Laura Hernandez gave her Ed Talk titled, "". Together, their engaging talks were an intersectional exploration of place, identity, family, the body, love and more with the goal of leading us closer to collective liberation.

2021 was a tough year for educators for so many reasons: the pandemic, online learning, mounting stress, and vigorous attacks on equity and justice work across the country. To honor and support educators, AQE organized educator collectives. This year, we supported over 2,000 educators near and far through professional learning opportunities, including a year-longÌýonline Ìýthat enrolled 42 amazing educators.

We received donations from 66 supporters totalling $78,495. We are so grateful for your investment in our work! Thank you to the Colorado Health Foundation, the Community Foundation of Boulder County, and Women Investing in the School of Education. Your support funded the EIEJ institute, a newÌýLGBTQ+Educator Collective, and twoÌýnew school district partnerships.

We brought Brittni Laura Hernandez on as our first full-time staff member this year. We are also excited to announce that we hired three new graduate students for the 2021-2022 school year! Welcome to Robyn Tomiko, Page Regan, and María-Ruíz Martínez! We cannot wait to continue our work with these amazing scholars in the spring.

With your generosity, we received the $25K needed to endowÌýA Queer Endeavor’s Kelley Therese Wylder Anderson Scholarship fund. We are honored to carry on Kelley’sÌýlegacy and commitment to creating a more just world.ÌýAn endowment fund has both immediate and long-term benefits, asÌýthe principal amount of an endowed fund is permanently invested to generateÌýinterest income which allows the scholarship to be awarded in perpetuity.

WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!Ìý

Our work is all about bringing people together. We know there is collective power in many voices, and greater impact with many supporters. It takes folks like you who believe in us. As the year comes to a close please consider making a gift, big or small, to A Queer Endeavor. Each gift is a source of strength as we continue this important work empowering educators, creating safer classrooms for our youth, and making this world better for everyone.

Thank you!

Again, we just want to sit in gratitude and say from a deep place of love and appreciation. YOU make an impact! We are so grateful.

EIEJ institute planning team