FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Robin McHaelen, MSW
True Colors Conference Relaunch Committee

Phone: (860) 416-0068

Email: [email protected]

World’s Largest LGBTQ+ Youth Conference

to Relaunch in Connecticut

Manchester, CT (February 16, 2024) A group of committed volunteers has announced the re-establishment of the True Colors Conference, a national event focusing on LGBTQ+ youth issues. The perennial favorite of LGBTQ+/Ally youth as well as youth-serving professionals has been on hiatus since COVID struck, but will return in March 2025 to the University of Connecticut (UCONN) in Storrs, CT.

In 1994, True Colors, Inc. first presented their landmark conference. By 2020, the transformative two-day event became the world’s largest LGBTQIA+ youth conference, drawing more than 3,000 high school and college students, educators, clinicians, and family members from Connecticut and 18 other states. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference took a hiatus and the organization subsequently dissolved.

“Today, many Connecticut organizations have stepped up to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ youth and they’re doing a great job”, McHaelen says the retired True Colors Inc, executive director. “But people continued to tell me how important the conference was and how its absence is affecting kids, because nothing comparable has emerged (since the closing of True Colors). Everyone kept asking ‘how can we fill that gap?’. That question was literally taking over my dreams! After a recent social media poll, it was clear that there was an appetite to bring the conference back.” Zoe Donnellycolt, a recent MSW graduate from the UCONN School of Social Work, said, “ I grew up going to True Colors with my parents. I remember thinking that the conference was a truly unique opportunity for teenagers in Connecticut… (and) how lucky I was to be able to attend it. With all the fear I felt growing up, celebrating and dancing were unique moments of relief. My memory of the joy, pride, and empowerment I witnessed and experienced at True Colors was an anchor of hope for my future…”

Longtime conference volunteer Matthew Wallace agrees. “The TC Conference is needed now more than ever. With hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives across the country - including Connecticut - LGBTQ+ youth are under attack. The steady stream of vitriol toward transgender and non-binary youth in particular is taking a terrible toll on them and their families. They need a safe space where they can connect, create community, learn from local and national experts – particularly experts with lived experience.

McHaelen added, “We’re honored that The Health Collective has agreed to serve as our fiduciary, allowing us to raise the funds we need to run the conference in 2025 - and rebuild the infrastructure to ensure that it will keep going.” David Grant, Executive Director of the Health Collective, mirrored this sentiment. “Throughout the Health Collective’s history, we have witnessed the profound impact that the True Colors Conference has had on the LGBTQIA+ community,” Grant said. “It is an honor to recommit the Health Collective to this cause, particularly at a time when loneliness is becoming an epidemic in America. I want to extend our deepest gratitude to Robin McHaelen and the conference relaunch committee for allowing us to be a part of this journey.”

Veteran volunteer Barbara Curry, noted, “It takes an army of volunteers to make this conference a success. We’re forming teams now to handle all aspects of organizing - operational, marketing, fundraising, inclusivity and workshop selections.” Interested volunteers can get more information and/or sign onto the email list at www.RobinMcHaelen.com

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March 20 and 21st at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT

1) Sustainability: This team is focused on ensuring that the conference continues regardless of the specific people in leadership roles.

2) Technology: This team is exploring options for participant registration, workshop solicitation and financial accountability

3) Fundraising: It costs about $180,000 to produce an event of this magnitude. This team is helping to identify grant, sponsorship and individual donor opportunities.

4) Intersectionality: This team's focus is on ensuring that all elements of the conference reflect the diversity of the community as a whole.

5) Media: This team is working on social media, engaging youth, caregivers and professionals, getting and keeping the word out.

6) Volunteer Committee: This team is recruiting, training and managing the army of volunteers needed before, during, and after the event.

7) Workshop Committee: Launching in or around July, this team will be soliciting, reviewing, selecting and slotting workshops for middle school, high school, college, educator, clinician, youth and family serving agencies as well as family member audiences.

Volunteer Sign up form 

Call: (860) 416-0068

Email: [email protected]