The Zebra Coalition Organization was founded in 2010 as a result of the influx of LGBT people, particularly young people. The group was founded in response to the growing hardship of the LGBT population, which was suffering from concerns such as extreme physical, mental, and sexual abuse, abandonment by families, and a variety of other hindrances and competing life challenges. The Zebra Coalition Organization focuses on instilling the principles of hope and self-respect in the LGBT community and the younger generation in order to create an example for the entire community. Along with this, the organization also aims at providing a healthy environment, where people are treated with unlimited support and love so that they can grow and accept themselves. Situated in Central Florida, this organization constitutes of social workers, educational institutes as well government organizations that are engaging in uplifting the status of the LGBT community as well as the youth. The highly organized and functional program is designed according to the needs of the effectors. The organization has designed customized programs that cater to the individual needs of all the people who approach them for a more stable and recovered life.
Organizational Culture
Being partnered with numerous public as well as private organizations like Aspire Health Partners, Bowman & Co., City of Orlando Police Department, Community Food, and Outreach Center, Equality Florida, The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Central Florida. Rollins College, Stetson University and Harbor House of Central Florida, the organization can target all the LGBT community and youth and respectively address their issues. Since its advent, the Zebra Coalition Organization has helped at least 14,000 people so far. This has been successful due to the compassionate organizational culture this organization possesses. Based on their outstanding results, reputable organizations like the Wyndham Worldwide Charitable Foundation have donated massive amounts of money to the Zebra Coalition Organization. This shows that the private and public organizations followed by educational institutes place a lot of trust in the measures implemented by them. Their organizational culture is very cordial and open in nature.
As the organization aims at breaking stereotypes and facilitating the needs of the youth and LGBT community, who have already been abandoned by their families and loved ones, so the whole aura of the organization is very accepting. They believe in being expressive and communicating their feelings or any issue at hand openly. The whole environment is inspiring, motivating as well as rewarding in nature. The work staff, interns, and volunteers are always engaged in conducting fun activities and programs that aim at reshaping the status of the LGBT and youth. Volunteers are always welcome to join them individually as well as in groups. Anyone who is interested in providing aid to people and helping them overcome their differences, so that the society can accept them is more than welcome to join this organization.
Services and Programs
According to the current statistics, the Zebra Coalition Organization has significantly expanded the services and programs they provide to beneficiaries. They began with providing basic housing and support services to the LGBT community and youth, but now they have expanded to dealing with African Americans/Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, low-income persons, persons with HIV/AIDS, as well as individuals with STDs (GuideStar, “Zebra Foundation for Youth Inc”). Their programs include the Anti-Bullying Campaign, Arts Programming, Life Skills Programming, Fitness Programs, and Zebra’s Cinema Safari (GuideStar, “Zebra Foundation for Youth Inc”). Followed by this, their testing services comprise of HIV testing, Chlamydia testing, Gonorrhea testing as well as Syphilis testing. Moreover, their prevention services include spreading awareness about the onset and prevention methods of HIV/AIDS, STDS, and other drastic behavioral changes. Dealing with the people aged between 13 and 24 years old, the recent statistics show the expansion of their services and programs. In 2016, it was observed that as much as 182 youth were warmly welcomed at the drop-in center and around 145 youngsters have been given shelter so far (Zebra Coalition).
Outreach and Training
With the increase in funding and support, the Zebra Coalition Organization has been able to grow significantly, thus, expanding training services to as much as 307 students as well 72 teachers from the administrative staff, which allowed them to cater to the needs of teens (Zebra Coalition). They recently came up with a curriculum that aided in promoting the concept of "Creating Safe Spaces" for people belonging to diverse backgrounds. The whole aim of the "Creating Safe Spaces" program was to emotionally as well as physically empower people from all age groups so that they are not afraid of being themselves in public. This served justice to the LGBT community primarily because they are not allowed to show public display of affection in front of others because of the fear of being ridiculed or beaten up by fellow community members. Hence, this will allow in preventing bullying activities and make teens feel more comfortable in schools as well as other places. It is necessary to address the problem at its core, so this organization's basic aim has always been to address the plight of youngsters, who are constantly being bullied for being themselves. The organization teaches people to accept people for who they are and embrace their differences. If kids are not taught to embrace their insecurities and differences from an early age and see it as their uniqueness, then combating this issue is not going to be an easy journey. This is what this organization aims to do and teaches its employees, interns, volunteers, and beneficiaries to do so as well.
Similarly, their Cultural Competency Training Sessions have been readily embraced by private businesses, NGOs and even churches, so that they can play their role in supporting the LGBT community and youth. These training sessions revolve around basic topics like terminology, varying differences in people’s sexual orientation, and the pre-existing and current gender concepts, the emerging transgender culture and its acceptance, and coming out process. Especially in front of your friends and family and dealing with the fear of not being accepted, different types of oppression, be it physical or mental, macro aggressions and most of all the concept of intersectionality. So far, the cultural competency training has been able to train around 155 people, which makes a huge difference in the long-run.
Recently, they just launched their Zebra Youth Ambassador Project, which encourages youngsters to come forth and lend a hand in ensuring that their respective schools and universities will be safe places for the LGBT community as well as others. Aiming at reducing bullying, the beneficiaries will constitute of everyone, regardless of differences in gender and sexual orientation. Also, this initiative has allowed Zebra Coalition Organization to cement its alliance with its partner organizations. Similarly, Zebra Coalition’s Youth Council is an excellent imitative in engaging youth ranging from the ages of 13-24 to hold meetings and come up with the innovative idea to host social events and conferences. These will shed light on these issues and motivate others to join hands with them in creating safe and supportive spaces for people so that they can be more comfortable. The present nine members of this prestigious council meet on a weekly basis to brainstorm and discuss new strategies to that would make their goals more achievable.
Career Opportunities
Joining this organization allows you to experience various responsibilities. You can either join their staff permanently, work as an intern or just do volunteer individually as well as with a group. To join them as a permanent staff worker, one is required to possess a minimum bachelor's degree and for higher posts possessing a Master's degree is a must. Preferable fields are Mental Health Counseling, Social Work or any other related field that can be of help in the Social Service. Bilingual people have the edge over other, especially if they are fluent in Spanish. Furthermore, interning or volunteer work has no requirements, so anyone who wants to make a difference in someone else's life should join the Zebra Coalition Organization. When it comes to the salary packages they offer to the hired staff; they are not that high. Being a non-profit organization, one should not expect a lot of wages, because they are always running on funds from other organizations and those funds are mostly invested in the support and shelter programs implemented for the beneficiaries. Hence, if you are interested in giving back to the society, rather than taking from it, then Zebra Coalition Organization is the right place for you. Apparently, if one has been hired as a counselor or the upper management, then they will probably earn more as compared to their subordinates. However, joining this organization will give one the opportunity of interacting with a wide variety of people ranging from the LGBT community, government officials, and leaders from educational institutes as well as representatives from private organizations. This allows one to widen their social circle and come across more opportunities that will aid in career mobility.
Personal Experience
I myself had the pleasure of interning with them and had the best experience of my life. Before interning over here, I was barely involved in any social work or volunteer work, but the moment I met these people, I started to view all the privileges granted to me very differently. This organization showed me how to inspire myself as well as other people to cherish the little things they have in life while using their impressive talents and skills so that you reap benefits for other people. Interacting with their Senior Youth Counselor helped me understand further the extent to which his organizations facilitates anyone who comes to their doorstep. During their counseling sessions, they aim at meeting the needs of their beneficiaries through excessive planning and research. These counseling sessions are not only restricted to those who have been abandoned by their families, but also aim at solving issues like unusual behavioral changes, mental disorders as well as drug and alcohol addictions. These were further followed by an individual as well as group meetings, which invite their families for more efficient group therapy results. Moreover, this also aids them efficiently assessing, diagnosing, managing, documenting, and most importantly, ensuring their recovery. Being an active participant in all of their meetings and workshop sessions, I learned the immense effort they used to put into while designing the curriculum.
One must wonder as to how they manage to monitor all of this, especially their housing services. Since I was curious about that as well, so I asked our project manager about their procedure. He explained to me the various indicators they have employed that aid them tracking down all the activities. They regularly visit their clients and beneficiaries and do a proper background checkup before assigning them houses. Followed by this, they prepare regular reports about the total outreach, who refereed their organization to the youth, their reasons for joining them, the period they will stay for, the results of providing housing services, and so on. Moreover, the board members hold monthly meetings where they go through these reports and then devise initiatives accordingly. This also allows them to develop strategies regarding public relations, marketing and most importantly, finance. Assigning roles and responsibilities also becomes more efficient and so does tracking the progress of goals. Learning this has inspired me more to join their organization permanently shortly.
Conclusion
Their effectiveness and outreach have been greatly appreciated by numerous organizations and people, which has also proved when they were given the honor of receiving two national recognitions at the American Counseling Association's 2015 Conference (Rosenthal, “Zebra Coalition receives national awards”). For those who might know, this is not the first time this organization is being recognized for its unyielding efforts for empowering the LGBT community and the youth. People throughout the world praise them for their initiatives, especially the Mental Health Counseling Program. Being a part of their team will be a life-changing experience for anyone, both professionally as well as personally. The benchmark Zebra Coalition Organization has set up for other organizations was difficult to meet as well as the firm dedication with which they are working.
Works Cited
GuideStar. Zebra Foundation for Youth Inc. December 2013. 3 July 2017. .
Rosenthal, Samantha. Zebra Coalition receives national awards. 24 March 2015. 3 July 2017. .
Zebra Coalition. n.d. 3 July 2017. .
