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Background: Many LGBTQ youth experience rejection and discrimination in their families and schools, and the range of interventions for improving their resilience and well-being is limited. We developed and piloted an LGBTQ-youth-focused intervention to build resilience and promote health equity, called Pride Camp, in an urban environment in the Midwest. Methods: Using a mixed-method approach we examined the impact of Pride Camp on resilience and other measures of well-being among LGBTQ high school students who attended camp on a college campus in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Camp attendees and the research sample included a majority proportion of transgender and gender nonbinary (TGN) youth. Results: Pre- and post-test data from our quantitative surveys (n = 28), indicated significant increases in resilience, self-esteem, and quality of life in LGBTQ youth who attended camp. Similar results were found among the TGN participants (n = 19). Qualitative data from focus groups indicated that specifically for TGN youth, the affirming environment at the camp provided social opportunities that they had not found elsewhere. Conclusions: Findings suggest that the Pride Camp intervention provides a platform for LGBTQ youth to meet peers and engage in LGBTQ communities, improving their resilience and outlook on the future. A larger controlled study of the Pride Camp intervention including measurement of additional specific health outcomes over a longer follow-up period is warranted to examine the impact of this program on health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgender youth have been found to experience mental health disparities, experiencing greater rates of depression and anxiety than their cisgender counterparts. This mixed-methods study examined social support and how it is related to well-being and resilience among transgender youth. A sample of 154 transgender and gender nonbinary youth (13 to 21 years) completed a survey at a Pride event in a Midwest US city. The survey assessed living as one's affirmed gender, social support, finding meaning in life, quality of life, mental health, and resilience. A focus group (n = 8) discussed their experiences of support. Ninety-two percent reported being assigned female at birth; 27% identified as transmasculine, 38% genderqueer, and 24% more than one gender. Family support was positively associated with the likelihood of living as one's affirmed gender. Support from friends and significant others were not significant indicators of living as one's affirmed gender. Participants with greater family support were less likely to report that they had a mental health problem in the past year. Friend support was positively associated with connectedness and finding meaning in life. Qualitative analyses identified how transgender youth define and experience support in their lives. Future studies should examine the use of family counseling and building communication skills for transgender youth health and resilience interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the role that social capital plays in sustainable local food networks and community development. Through a qualitative study, we explored the current local food system in the Midwest in the United States, and we began to describe the role that social capital can play in developing this community. We asked the research questions: How can local food systems contribute to the development of social capital in a community and how does the social capital contribute to the development of the local food system? We used grounded theory methods to explore and understand how to support and expand the food system for locally produced foods, including production, distribution, marketing, and promotion. The informants were local foods participants from a community who had roles as growers, producers, educators, and advocates. We found that social capital among the participants, while present and contributing to the system, is weakened by a lack of trust and divided goals. We theorize that social capital expands in a community as a consequence of the connections and reciprocity that emerge with the development of a locally grown food system when facilitated by trust and unified goals among the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]