Elliott Bystrak, MPH joined the Pride Center team in July of 2021 as the Engagement and Education Coordinator, responsible for overseeing the LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services grant. Elliott coordinated three social programs for the Pride Center: Silver Pride, Femmes & Thems and Bi+ Monthly, the latter two being revivals of programs that had been on pause because of COVID-19. In addition to these social programs, they were responsible for delivering LGBTQ+ cultural competency trainings to the community.
Elliott made their mark at the Pride Center right out of the gate. "The LGBTQ+ HHS grant contracted us to provide 12 trainings annually," they recall. In their first full year at the Pride Center, Elliott delivered more than 60 trainings at 50 distinct agencies, reaching over 1700 community members and far exceeding the contract requirements.
Because of high demand for the trainings and overwhelmingly positive feedback about the training program, Elliott was promoted into a new position where they would focus solely on fee-for-service LGBTQ+ cultural competency trainings. "The purpose of these trainings is to promote LGBTQ+ cultural awareness and responsiveness in a variety of professional settings," explains Elliott. "I have an LGBTQ+ Foundations training that acts as the building block for all of my courses, where we discuss relevant terminology, the difference between gender, sex and sexual orientation, as well as pronouns. We also discuss ways to check our assumptions, and how the experience of any one LGBTQ+ person will rest not just on their gender and sexuality, but at the intersection of all of their identities, like their age, race, socioeconomic status, etc. But I also have a number of specialized trainings to help people in specific fields."
One example is a training Elliott devloped to help healthcare professionals understand the unique disparities faced by the LGBTQ+ community, and the factors that contribute to these health disparities, like a lack of LGBTQ+ training in medical school, unintended biases toward patients of trans experience, and lack of access to care. Elliott educates providers about and the ways they can remove these barriers for LGBTQ+ patients. Elliott is also accredited to provide continuing education units for LMHC, LCSW, LMSW, LCSW-R, & CASAC mental health providers thanks to a partnership with Evergreen's Center for Behavioral Health. Another training gives teachers and student support staff tools to help schools stay in compliance with the
Dignity for All Students Act as it relates to LGBTQ+ students. "We discuss the increased rate of bullying and harassment experienced by LGBTQ+ students (from both their peers and adults), and how this contributes to adverse physical and mental health outcomes throughout life. We also discuss the unique ways in which people in school settings can be an ally to their LGBTQ+ students."
Other trainings are tailored for people in law enforcement, those working with international/foreign-born clients or LGBTQ+ seniors. "I will write new, agency-specific trainings by request."
Elliott says they get a great deal of satisfaction from the training process. "I enjoy working with an agency that is engaged in the training material and interested in learning more. Although I have a set curriculum, I'm always trying to elicit discussion from attendees, and I’m happy to pivot the material in response to questions that pertain to attendees specific work experience or needs. Even if attendees are uncomfortable with the material or defensive to the training information, it can still be a positive experience overall if I’m able to help them work through that discomfort and put them in a position where they can provide high quality care to someone regardless of their identity. I always tell attendees not to worry about asking questions in “the right way” or knowing the language/terms, because these are all things we can talk through together in a training."
According to Elliott, the biggest challenge they face is finding time to keep trainings fresh, up-to-date and engaging amid the other responsibilities for the role. "I’m the only person working under this initiative, so in addition to writing, scheduling and delivering all of the trainings for Pride, I'm also responsible for program management responsibilities, like creating a finance tracking system and monitoring program income, promoting the program in the community to ensure it generates enough revenue to maintain the initiative, along with all of my data entry and reporting. It can be challenging to also carve out time to improve on existing courses, especially because they tend to receive positive feedback, but the material could always be made better!"
Elliott has lived almost their entire life in Buffalo. "I lived in Houston, Texas for about six months in my early 20s." They attended Fredonia State University, earning concurrent degrees: a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in philosophy. "I think this combination really helped for my particular role, because it gave me not only a background in health & science, but also strong public speaking skills and the ability to thoughtfully and
respectfully engage in debate (this can help shut down people who are being disruptive in a training, or who are claiming that this material somehow 'goes against science/biology')." While at Fredonia Elliott was the student manager for the campus sexual health clinic, and led workshops on safer sex and contraception. Before coming to Evergreen, they worked as the Program Assistant for Health Promotion at the University at Buffalo, helping connect students to campus resources surrounding alcohol and other substance use, harm reduction, sexual violence prevention and support for survivors, nutritious eating and healthy body image and stress management. While working at UB, they also earned their Masters in public health. "My focus was on reducing health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community. For my culminating project (sort of the equivalent of a thesis for folks who want to write a community health intervention instead of a research paper), I wrote a program plan to help LGBTQ+ students feel safer in their schools. Research I did for this project became the foundation for the new role I have at Pride as it relates to my LGBTQ+ youth focused trainings!"
When they're not working to change the world, Elliott enjoys cooking and tending to their plants. "My apartment looks like a greenhouse and I’m especially proud of the herb garden I installed outside my kitchen window." But the best part of their week? "Spending time with my partner Lexie and and her sister’s kiddos: Annabelle, Jackson and Peanut."
Who is right for one of Elliott's trainings? "Any organization with a commitment to DEI and a desire to serve their LGBTQ+ community members as best as possible would be a good fit, especially those serving youth or providing healthcare. I also love to work with employers to help make their workplace more inclusive – this can be especially great for other staff at Pride when they’re helping clients look for job opportunities with affirming employers."
Note: organizations that wish to schedul a Cultural Competency training can do so by completing the Training Request Form HERE .
As renovation work continues at our Prather Avenue location in Jamestown, staff had the opportunity to sign one of the support beams.
Teresa Lee is the Correctional Health Educator at Community Access Services. She was invited to give the graduation address at Lakeview Correctional Facility for individuals who have completed their incarceration time. "While our work is heavily rooted in education and linkage to health care and other support services, we're often able to make a great impact in the individual lives of persons from populations that others tend to give up on," said Kimberly Brown, CAS Executive Director. "It is truly an honor for Teresa to be asked to give such a speech which will probably encourage someone to change their outlook on life and plan for a positive future. Teresa rehearsed this speech for me and I was moved to tears."
Let’s talk time. Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back. Time is of the essence. Time is what makes yesterday the past, tomorrow the future and today the present. If you didn’t know by now, time truly is a precious gift, our most prized resource that we all currently have right now. Time, as they say is more valuable than money because while money is replaceable, time is not. There are no refills on time or refunds on time spent. Instead, time is limited and undetermined. Time also moves quite swiftly. Moments shift into memories within a blink of an eye and before you know it, the days have turned into months and the months into years and you’re asking yourself, where did the time go? Time moves in one direction. You may feel as though you’ve lost time by being here. But time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters and when you spend time working on yourself, learning, achieving new skills and abilities well, that’s not time wasted. Very rarely are we are afforded a reset, but you all get to start the clock over and the best news is, it’s not too late to be great! As long as you have a beating heart and breath in your chest, you still have the time! Time is what you make of it. Use it. Enroll in school. Write that book. Start that business you’ve been daydreaming about. Turn your time into money by way of profession, the way lawyers and therapist do. The time for action is now! Time, is the longest distance between two places, therefore, it it requires a great deal of patience especially when it comes to, growing, healing, establishing trust, forgiving and even forgiveness. Change in general cannot happen without time. Don’t be afraid that. Go with the flow of time, it’s not in our power to speed it up or slow it down. Take time for yourself. Spend time with yourself, establish who you are, who you want to be. Spend time on people who deserve it like your families and those who matter most to you. Utilize time to become that wonderful, indispensable person you were always meant to be! Since we know that time does not last forever, it should never be wasted. Consider the people, places and things before you invest and always ask yourself, “Is it worth my time?” Consider what you’ll receive in exchange for it; whether it’s a paycheck, knowledge, a new skill? Did your time contribute to someone else’s happiness or was it just time lost? Who we become and how we spend our minutes, hours and days become our lifestyle. Our lifestyles tell the story of who we were and what we did with our time while we were here. Spend it wisely, do great things with it. I wish you all an abundance of beautifully lived moments, days and years. May you all live successfully and happily.
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