�鶹��Ƶ

Crisis texting line for young people of color. Text STEVE to 741741 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.

(800) 604-5841 or download the Call BlackLine® App. This is a peer-run support line which prioritizes support for persons in BIPOC communities. They also operate as an incident reporting line for experiences (or witnessing experiences of) abuse or physical and disrespectful behavior by police or vigilantes.

Mental health resources for students of color.

Resource list by The National Mental Health Coalition

A website that celebrates the knowledge production of marginalized people - particularly people of color.

Racial Trauma Toolkit from Boston College Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture

NBC News Article

BLM Resource Page

An organization whose mission is to support Black people in healing from anti-Black racism.

Toolkits and Education

Directory of Black mental health therapists in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Aims to improve the health and wellness of Black women--physically, emotionally, and financially.

Providing access to mental health treatment, psycho-education, and community resources to men of color.

A space of connection and support for Native Youth.

Student resources including scholarships, support for college success, and career development.

A Minnesota-based organization whose mission is “to advance Asian American and Pacific Islander participation in democracy for an equitable and just society”.

A Minnesota-based, immigrant-lead organization whose mission is “connecting immigrants, refugees, and US-born persons of color with the resources they need to thrive.”

A directory of South Asian therapists.

A collection of LGBTQ+ Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander organizations who aim to “promote visibility, educate our community, enhance grassroots organizing, expand collaborations, and challenge anti-LGBTQ bias and racism.”

Resources for mental health and therapy for Latinx persons in English and Spanish.

988

Articles written for queer persons of color by queer persons of color.


A hotline and non-profit organization "offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis - for the trans community, by the trans community". Callers can press 3 (or text PRIDE to 988) to speak with staff trained in working with LGBTQ+ persons. If using the web-based chat feature, users can check the LGBTQ+ box in the pre-chat survey.


A collection of LGBTQ+ Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander organizations who aim to “promote visibility, educate our community, enhance grassroots organizing, expand collaborations, and challenge anti-LGBTQ bias and racism.”

(866) 488-7386
24/7 support for LGBTQ+ persons through phone (see above number), , and text messaging (text START to 678-678). There are additional resources on their website.

(877) 565-8860
A hotline and non-profit organization "offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis - for the trans community, by the trans community". Callers can connect with support staff who speak Spanish.

988
Call or text 988. There is also an internet chat feature on their website. Services are available in Spanish. Callers can press 3 (or text Q to 988) to speak with staff trained in working with LGBTQ+ persons.

Queer & Questioning Support Group at �鶹��Ƶ

The �鶹��Ƶ Counseling Center created the Queer & Questioning group as a safe and confidential space for students who identify as LGBTQ+ or are questioning their sexual or gender identity. In this group we examine diverse gender and sexual identities and hold room for supporting each person wherever they are at in their identity development process. For any other questions, contact the Counseling Center.  Information about the Counseling Center's other support groups and workshops can be found on the Counseling Center's services page.

Queers & Allies at �鶹��Ƶ

Queers & Allies is a student-led organization concerned with fostering a supportive environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and allied students on campus. The above link will direct you to contact information and social media links for the group.

Gender Neutral Restrooms on Campus

A map showing which buildings on campus have gender neutral bathrooms. This was created by members of Student Senate.

Looking for gender-neutral changing areas and restrooms in Lund Center on campus? Private, gender-neutral changing rooms and restrooms are located in the newly remodeled cardio area of Lund (on the second level of the fitness center). Lockers are also available in the hallways to store personal items while using the facilities. Additionally, two single-occupancy, gender-neutral restrooms with private showers can be found on the main level of Lund, near the locker rooms and pool area.

Changing Your Name?

�鶹��Ƶ recognizes that some students use names other than their legal names to identify themselves. As long as the use of this different name is not for the purposes of misrepresentation, avoidance of legal obligation, or use of a derogatory term, the College will make every effort to welcome, include, and support �鶹��Ƶ students in establishing and maintaining their self-declared identities within the College community. 
 

Additional Campus Resources

• The Career Development Center's Resources for LGBTQ+ Career Development
• �鶹��Ƶ Health Service provides , patient specific STI education and screenings, as well as support for gender affirming care.  See the Health Service's list of LGBTQ+ Health Resources
• LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group
  This group is designated for �鶹��Ƶ faculty and staff who identify as LGBTQ+ or are questioning their gender identity or sexuality.

A mental health clinic in Mankato that specializes in serving LGBTQ+ populations. Check out their list of "Gender Affirming Services" and "Safer & Affirming gathering spaces [in Mankato and St. Peter]".

A non-profit organization whose mission is to promote pride and visibility for LGBTQ and allied communities in South Central Minnesota. Each fall they run a pride festival in Mankato. See their calendar for year-round events in Mankato and their resource list for local LGBTQ+ resources and safe spaces.

They are located in Rockford, MN and can provide telehealth therapy statewide. They offer a variety of services including specialized care for LGBTQ+ individuals (including support for gender transitions). Also offers ADHD and Autism assessment.

"Transmission Ministry Collective is an online community dedicated to the spiritual care, faith formation, and leadership potential of transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive Christians." This organization hosts peer-run online support groups for general trans and non-binary folx, trans Christians of color, and a gender exploration group for anyone who think they don't "fit entirely in the cisgender box". Other services include LGBTQ+ Bible studies, workshops, resources for family members of trans and gender expansive folx, and resources for ministry professionals.


OutFront Minnesota serves the GLBT and allied communities of Minnesota with a wide variety of programs and services.

Support for transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender questioning youth and their families to come together.

A public resource to locate queer-owned spaces across the country. Available as a free smartphone app.

Refuge Restrooms is a web application (also available as a smart device app) that seeks to provide safe restroom access for transgender, inter-sex, and gender nonconforming individuals. Users can search for restrooms by proximity to a search location, add new restroom listings, as well as comment and rate existing listings. 

An organization that offers free binders and grants for covering gender-affirming surgery for individuals who identify as being on the trans spectrum. Applications can be submitted in English or Spanish. Genderbands also hosts several online support and social groups for trans individuals of different ages and for parents of trans children. 

"We Tell Trans Stories To Save Trans Lives" A media outlet for and by transgender people--blog posts, news, podcasts, zines, and other stories.

A trans-led legal advocacy group.

Informational resources for people who identify as asexual or are questioning. AVEN also includes information about romantic orientations (e.g., aromatic, grayromantic, and demiromantic).

Information about gender medical care for transgender youth in each U.S. state.



Getting Trans-Competent Healthcare: How to work with your nurse or doctor

Trans Health Guide: Hormone Therapy

Commonly Used Medications for Transition

Feminizing Hormone Resources
Types of Feminizing Hormones and FAQs
Feminizing Hormone Therapy
Information on Estrogen Hormone Therapy
Hormone Monitoring Summary
Effects and Expected Time Course Regimen Consisting of Anti-Androgen and Estrogen

Masculinizing Hormone Resources
Masculinizing Hormones
Information on Testosterone Hormone Therapy
Hormone Monitoring Summary
Effects and Expected Time Course Regimen Consisting of Testosterone

Giving Hormones by Intramuscular Injection*
*We provide this resource to give an understanding of a common route through which hormone therapy is administered. Always refer to an authorized medical provider's directions when administering medications.


What to do with sharps in Minnesota.

Managing Anxiety/Fear of Needles

Guidelines for the Primary and Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Non-binary People
This is an extensive resource and its intended audience is professionals who provide primary medical care. However, we feel that it can be a useful resource for the patient/client to access to know that these guidelines exist for medical providers and to offer the patient/client an understanding of the medical care they are entitled to.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

• (can do virtual appointments)

Comprehensive Gender Care (Including Gender Affirming Surgeries)

Other Medical Care Resources

• A directory to find LGBTQ+ friendly healthcare near you.
• HIV and Hepatitis C testing and case management services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

A dedicated resource for LGBTQIA+ topics, including sexual and romantic orientations, gender identities, and the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole.

by The Trevor Project

Voice De/Gendering Lessons:

Information on adjusting to a new culture and working through culture shock

• Tips for Adjusting to a New Culture
• 
   

Off-campus mental health counseling referrals

International students at �鶹��Ƶ are required to purchase the �鶹��Ƶ Student Health Insurance plan through UnitedHealthcare. Being on this plan (and other UnitedHealthcare plans not purchased through �鶹��Ƶ) qualifies students for free mental health therapy, psychiatry, and general medical care via telehealth. 


Dr. Tom Allen specializes in working with college-aged individuals and has experience working in international student affairs in higher education. He accepts UnitedHealthcare, which is the company that the �鶹��Ƶ Student Health Insurance plan is through. Dr. Allen's office is in Mankato and he can offer services in-person or through telehealth.

Mental Health and Wellness Abroad Handbook
A handbook with resources and considerations for managing mental health needs while studying abroad.

International Crisis Hotlines/Resources Directories





Mental Health Counseling Abroad

List of Actions You Can Take

From Do The Work! An Antiracist Activity Book by W. Kamau Bell & Kate Schatz
 

At Home

• Buy coffee, gifts, food, etc., from BIPOC-owned stores
• Buy anti-racist/multicultural books for the children in your life regardless of their ethnic/racial backgrounds. Buy extra copies and donate them to local libraries, schools, pediatric facilities, etc.
• Buy a subscription to your local newspaper and read it. Know what’s going on in your town
• Become a monthly subscriber to a Black wine club, CSA, Patreon, coffee roaster, publication, etc.
• Pay digital creators for the content you appreciate
• Make a list of companies that use prison labor and avoid buying from them
• Make new friends who are different from you
• Ask how others would like/prefer to be introduced
• Put your pronouns in your email signature, Zoom screen, name tag, and social media bio
• Find a financial advisor who can help you transition into racial justice investing
• Sit with children and elders and listen to them. Offer them your attention, respect, and curiosity
• Don’t dress yourself or your kids in racist or stereotypical Halloween costumes
• Shut down racist talk whenever and wherever you hear it
• Be intentional about your words and actions
• Put a sign in your yard or window
• Interrogate your relationship with your white partner. Hold them accountable
• Learn how to apologize
• Give the land you own back to Indigenous people
• Share/repost positive content by and about BIPOC, particularly Black men
• Get curious about what makes you uncomfortable. Do ideas like prison abolition, reparations, or universal healthcare seem radical, impractical, or beyond your comfort zone? If so, why?
• Discover your own hidden biases by taking an Implicit Associations Test like the one offered online by Project Implicit
• Be brave because even quiet voices can be impactful when they speak
• Sign up for a training to develop new skills: transformative justice, nonviolent
  communication, DEI training, antiracist training, violence interrupting, etc. Disabled BIPOC folks experience specific physical, digital, and social barriers. Learn about these barriers and work to dismantle them
• Be willing to give up advantages you didn’t earn
• Disentangle your pride and your feelings of entitlement. You worked hard, but you also had privileges that others did not. Both of those things can coexist, and that doesn’t diminish your accomplishments
• Ask why until you get to the core issue
• Remember that we are all just humans, and do your best
• Pay your domestic workers and caretakers a living wage
• Check out to learn how to ethically employ
  someone in your home.
   

In Community

• Are you part of a church or faith community that’s doing racial justice work? If they’re not, get it started!
• Don’t let people talk shit about Black- or Brown-majority schools in your presence
• Find BIPOC health care providers for yourself and your family
• Push for prioritizing investment - from housing down to food purchasing - in BIPOC communities, with the understanding that it has always been prioritized for white men
• Make sure your book club reads books by BIPOC writers
• Talk to your neighbors, both housed and unhoused
• Do you know about mutual aid? Are there any mutual aid projects in your community? If not, consider starting one
• If you’re white, learn how to organize other white people to take action without being righteous know-it-alls
• Send your kids to public school and help your local schools get the resources they need
• Keep extra cash and supplies (bottled water, hotel soaps and shampoos, clean socks, packaged snacks) in your car to share with unhoused community members in need
• Find opportunities for your children to play and learn with a diverse group of children. Bias starts at an early age, but so do acceptance and love
• Offer to provide childcare for a parent so they can show up and do the work
• Talk with and listen to people who don’t agree with you. Host a community “skill share” event and take turns teaching each other useful skills
• Extra fruits and veggies from your garden? Share with your neighbors
• Greet community members in the languages they speak
• Start a Little Free Library and stock it with antiracist literature and books by BIPOC authors. Bonus if you make it a food pantry, too!
• Facilitate ways for people in prison to gain literacy. Illiteracy rates in prisons are 75 percent, and it’s near impossible to navigate the post-prison world without reading and writing skills.
• Volunteer with a local organization that supports unhoused people
• Attend local city council meetings. Who else is showing up? Whose voices are the loudest? Who’s already doing the work you want to be doing?
• Attend and fund local community celebrations and commemorations such as Lunar New Year, Juneteenth, Day of Remembrance, and Dia de los Muertos
• Ask Black-led organizations how you can help and then do what they say
• Join your local chapter of SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice)
• Use your special skills! Cook for an event. Host a fundraiser. Offer legal or tech support services to activist organizations. Donate pro bono care work, therapy, or legal advice to BIPOC-led organizations
• Give reparations. Put aside $20-$100 a month and contribute to a GoFundMe, DonorsChoose, or other fundraiser started by Black folks
• Start a giving circle
• Volunteer for the campaigns for local officials and ballot initiatives that you support
• Review diversity statement of any organizations in which you participate. Does the organization’s reality reflect the values it expressed in the statement? Is it actively antiracist?
• Join the diversity and inclusion group at your work. If there isn’t one, get it started
• Are you involved in hiring? Recruit from historically Black colleges and universities
• Do you sit on a corporate, nonprofit, or arts board? Don’t confirm any additional white board members
• Refuse to be on all-white or all-male panels
• Planning a protest or public action? Make sure it’s designed with disabled people in mind
• Offer to run errands for neighbors who might appreciate the support, including single parents and the elderly.
• Advocate for pay equity within your field or company. Make sure interns get paid!
• Give away what you don’t use! Sites like Freecycle help reduce waste and encouraged reuse and sharing

Worldwide

• Do research for crowd-sourced genealogy groups that help the descendants of enslaved people find their ancestors and family history.
• Write your representatives and tell them to end qualified immunity of police
• Outraged by a news story? Use the internet to find on-the-ground organizations already working on it. Do and share what they say.
• Fight voter suppression with grassroots organizations in your state or national groups such as Fair Fight Action or Black Voters Matter.
• Campaign and raise money for the progressive candidates you believe can make change in your city, county, and state.
• If something you care about isn’t getting the attention it deserves, write a proposed policy, form a coalition around it, and take it to your city council, school board, or state capitol.
• Pay attention to global events
• If you use social media, follow people from other countries who are doing work that aligns with your interests.
• Start with the desired outcome and work backward to find your role in making it real.
• Choose a few respected newspapers from major cities in other countries and read them regularly.
• VOTE!
• Run for office! From the school board to the Senate, consider a campaign.
• Check in regularly with Black and brown leaders in trans, disability justice, climate justice, and fat liberation communities. Support their needs!

Rx For Resilience 

How do you keep doing the work? How do you cultivate resilience? How do you keep going?

• “I try to spend time with much older activists who remind me how much has actually changed.”
• “I go into nature as MUCH as possible. It seems to be the only anecdote that can diffuse the noise and pain of the world and remind me there’s a greater (much more beautiful) force at work.”
• "I create intention around who and what I surround myself with. Especially when it comes to family or coworkers that do not want to do the work in dismantling white supremacy.”
• "Eat some snacks. Go outside. Cry. Journal.”
• “I look to my children and imagine the future I want for them.”
• “When I’m burned out and overwhelmed, I’ve learned to set boundaries. By cutting back, I can focus on the work and the causes that mean most to me.”
• “Don’t read the comments.”
• “Always remember to align yourself with the people for whom giving up hope (or courage) is not an option.”
• “I read about historical figures, especially women, who persevered in conditions I can’t even imagine. That perspective keeps me humble.”
• “If I’ve dropped the ball, I remind myself I can always try again.”
• “Remember you don’t have to attend ALL the events/rallies/protests, especially if you’re not feeling safe, but also just take a break.”
• “I hang out with younger activists who remind me of all I don’t know and how awesome that is.”
• “I remind myself that deciding whether or not to engage with struggle is a privilege.”
• “When it comes to social media, remember you don’t need to post about everything that happens, or respond to every outrage-of-the-day.”
• “Pick your battles, and choose to put your energy into the efforts that mean the most to you.”
• “Know what you’re FOR. So often we define our activism in terms of what we’re against: racism, war, corporate greed. Which is all true and critical. But make sure to ground the work in what you’re FOR. What’s your vision for the world? How does your work help build the worlds you want - not just resist the ones you’re against?”
• “De-personalizing is huge for me. My actions matter, but I don’t matter that much.”
• “Keep a journal of your work, so you can look back at it and see that it did help.”

Visit our front desk to check out a copy of this book (and other titles) from our lending library.

What riding my bike has taught me about white privilege
An article from Quartz on the topic of white privilege.

An article from the McSilver Institute with information about traumatic impacts of racism.

Activism is hard work. Practicing self-care is essential for sustaining your activism.

Resources for addressing mental health impacts of climate change.

Dr. Joi Lewis (book)
“When you’re an emotional laborer, healer, activist, community leader, or voice for change, the burden of oppression, trauma, and sorrow can seem never-ending. When you’re facing nonstop heartache day-to-day, it’s easy to wish for total numbness. But when you can’t feel pain, you can’t feel joy.”

Podcast about healing and inspiration for social justice activists.