On January 1st, 2007, Creating Safe Schools for Illinois (formerly GLSEN Chicago) and the Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation (CESO) joined forces to become the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance. In the almost four years since the Alliance was founded we have had amazing success working in Chicago and Illinois on LGBTQ safe schools issues. For example, ? April 17th, 2010 was the seventh consecutive Day of Silence/Night of Noise coordinated in the Chicago area by the Alliance--each year over 80 schools register to participate in the Day of Silence and over 350 youth attend the Night of Noise ? the Alliance has trained an average of 2,600 school personnel, youth, government employees and social service providers in Safety for All: Addressing Anti-LGBT Violence and Harassment per year ? October 30th, 2010 marked the 20th Youth Summit in the Chicago area; April 12th, 2010 was the 7th Youth Summit in central IL ? In June of 2010, the Alliance hosted the 7th annual Summer Institute for Educators ? the Alliance continues to be a successful fundraiser through special events, individual donations, fee-for-service, membership, and government support. The Alliance continues to build support from foundations including, Polk Bros. Foundation, Field Foundation, Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago Community Trust, Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust, Crossroads Fund, and the Colin Higgins Foundation.

The Alliance is dedicated to promoting the safety, support and healthy development for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, in Illinois schools and communities, through advocacy, education, youth organizing and research. The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance envisions a world in which youth develop to their fullest potential, learning in safe and nurturing schools, living in communities that accept and honor differences, where everyone has the freedom to express their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Alliance's current program areas are Public Education, Youth Organizing, Research, Policy Advocacy and Coalition-building. In Public Education, we focus on professional development for school personnel, youth, government officials and social service providers. We currently have three new projects underway in this area: 1) the Pre-Professional Preparation Project (P Project) works with colleges and universities for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity topics in preparation of teachers and counselors; 2) the Safe Space Project partners with youth development organizations to be inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity; and 3) the Let's Get Real anti-bullying project that includes training with middle schools in anti-bullying campaigns. These programs are in addition to our core training, Safety for All. A recent evaluation of this training in a school setting showed that the training for school personnel worked to increase the number who believe it is their obligation to create a safe environment for LGBT youth, to decrease the number who believe homosexuality is wrong, and to increase the number who believe the non-discrimination policy should be inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity. Our Youth Organizing work is based out of Chicago and central IL and is anchored by LGBT Youth Leadership Summits held twice yearly. The Summits are planned in collaboration with previous youth participants. The goals of the Summits are: 1) to provide networking opportunities for youth from across the state, 2) to provide tools and resources for organizing in local schools (particularly around the Day of Silence and founding Gay-Straight Alliances), and 3) to create a year-round youth community through a listserv and conference calls. The Alliance's Policy Advocacy work is focused at the local and statewide levels, as well as at the legislative and administrative levels. We work within systems to create change from the inside out. The Alliance worked closely with the Illinois Department of Human Rights to train all staff on the Illinois Human Rights Act Amendment. The Alliance recently had two large policy 'wins': the Chicago Board of Education voted on July 22nd, 2009 to add gender identity/expression to their non-discrmination policy and the Illinois State Board of Education voted to add gender identity to their regulations in October 2009. The Alliance also just had our first legislative win when Governor Quinn signed into law our amendment to Illinois anti-bullying law on 6/27/10. Our research and coalition-building work are ongoing priorities for the organization. The Alliance has recently produced two research reports: one analyzing results specific to sexual orientation identity and same-sex sexual contact and how they relate to bullying from the Chicago Public Schools 2003, 2005 and 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys; and one detailing The Alliance's impact in school settings over a two-year project. We see these programs as critical to our success.