I don’t have to convince regular readers of the need for LGBTQ-inclusive books and other media in schools. That’s why I’m excited about a new project that is donating boxes of such books to rural public schools, and providing coaching and curriculum guides to help educators use them effectively.
Hope in a Box is a New York-based nonprofit founded last year by several recent college graduates with the goal of helping to make English classrooms more LGBT-friendly. Their first step was to design a bibliography of 50 books covering a range of time periods, formats (novels, poetry, scripts), and identities, all for students ages 12 to 18. This spring, they partnered with 25 rural public schools to pilot “Starter Boxes:” packages of 20-30 books from their bibliography, along with supporting multimedia and curriculum guides for key texts. The pilot schools are diverse, including a traditional Mormon school in Washington state, low-income schools in rural Vermont and New Jersey, and conservative Southern schools in Tennessee and Alabama, among others.
The response has been resounding. All of the educators they’ve worked with say they feel better equipped to reach and support LGBT students because of Hope in a Box. Almost all (90 percent) believe Hope in a Box noticeably improves LGBT students’ emotional well-being within one semester of receiving materials, and 80 percent plan to formally incorporate the materials into their curricula this academic year.
According to GLSEN’s latest (2017) National School Climate Survey, the majority of LGBTQ students surveyed (65 percent) reported that their classes did not include material about LGBTQ historical events and positive role models. Less than half (41 percent) had access to LGBTQ-related curricular resources in their school library; about half said they could access LGBTQ-related information via school computers.
These resources can be invaluable to LGBTQ students, however. Sheryl, who teaches middle school English, told Hope in a Box, “Having a character in literature to connect to can make all the difference for some kids who feel alone.” And Dawn, a librarian who serves grades 7 to 12, observed, “I see these books constantly checked in and out sort of silently by my students…. By the nature of where a lot of students are in their journey, there hasn’t been a lot of open discussion yet, but these books signal to my students that they are safe with me.”
Hope in a Box is making a life-saving difference for many young people.
GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education under President Obama, was even more blunt, asserting, “Hope in a Box’s work is literally saving lives. When young LGBTQ people see themselves reflected in school curricula, their sense of self and well-being goes up dramatically, and rates of bullying and harassment drop just as dramatically. By providing these resources to schools with little access to them, Hope in a Box is making a life-saving difference for many young people.”
Joe English, founder of Hope in a Box and a 2017 graduate of Yale University, said, “I know that feeling of isolation and invisibility personally, having grown up in a small, rural town. After college, I returned to my high school to share my experience with my teachers and see how we could make the next generation of students feel more supported.” While his teachers saw the need for diverse books and materials to support their LGBTQ students, they felt they didn’t have sufficient familiarity with the subject matter or resources to acquire them.
The value is for all students, LGBTQ and not, though. Kristen, a high school English teacher, said, “Our small rural district isn’t very diverse; it’s been incredibly important for us to find creative ways to help students be open-minded and empathetic. I’m so grateful for the guidance and generosity of the Hope In A Box program because it sends our students such an important message: we recognize LGBTQ students and we appreciate them.”
One creative writing teacher added, “This library is what lets my students feel comfortable writing about LGBTQ issues and characters in their creative and personal writing.”
By end of the 2019 school year, Hope in a Box aims to support hundreds of rural schools in all 50 states; nearly 200 schools across 35 states have already joined a waitlist. The nonprofit’s goal is to help at least half of these schools incorporate the materials into curricula.
The project reminds me a lot of The Make It Safe Project, which gives free packages of LGBTQ-inclusive books to schools, youth homeless shelters, and juvenile detention centers. Make It Safe was founded in 2011 by then-14-year-old Amelia Roskin-Frazee, an out lesbian student from California. (See my coverage of its launch.) Roskin-Frazee is currently a B.A. candidate at Columbia University, and the project is also now offering a writing scholarship to LGBTQ teens.
A growing number of states (including California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon) are requiring public school curricula to include information about the history, writings, and contributions of LGBTQ people. Having the material to teach that accurately and effectively is vital. In states without such requirements, the need for guidance and resources is as great if not greater, since there’s less motivation for schools to implement it. Either way, projects like Hope in a Box and The Make It Safe Project can make a real difference for young people. Visit their websites to find out more and see how you can help.
For more on LGBTQ-inclusive schools and curricula, check out my latest Back-to-School Resources list.
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