• No funds needed! All done in-house using the resources and staff that were present, willing, and eager to assist.
• “Best practices”:

• • Allow for student body suggestions/inclusions as much as possible!

• • Helps students to feel included and heard.

• • Helps promoted Teacher-student or Faculty-student interaction and relationships.

• People involved:

• • Steven Zografos (School Social Worker, GSA Club advisor, and WSCC Team member)

• • Roberto Labaut (School Multi-cultural Teacher and Club advisor)

• • GSA members of student body

We are excited to announce the creation of our very own GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Club. Only the 2nd in the Elizabeth district of its kind. Students were surveyed on various SEL topics through our Schoolwide Panorama Survey in the previous year. Two topics we scored very low (under 50% or 0-19th percentile Nationally) on were Teacher-student relationships and Student Sense of belonging. With the data used, AHPA created a GSA Club and conducted their 1st Annual PRIDE Assembly on June, 3rd 2022 for our 10th-12th grade student body. Our PRIDE assembly included PRIDE history, education, and a introduction of students and staff involved in our GSA Club. Students were educated on Elizabeth New Jersey’s very own, Marsha P. Johnson. Johnson was an African American transgender woman and revolutionary LGBTQ rights activist. Students learned that Johnson was a prominent fixture in the LGBTQ community serving as a “drag mother” by helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth. She is also credited for being an instigator in the Stonewall riots of 1969. Along side with Sylvia Rivera, she later established the Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group committed to helping homeless transgender youth in New York City.

The GSA was created to bring current students and staff of the LGBTQIA community together to create a sense of belonging and increase Teacher-student relationships. The group will work to promote LGBTQIA PRIDE, inclusion, and SEL amongst the student body and community. Our GSA club plans to recruit more members, survey for student body suggestions and or inclusion ideas, while also implementing more inclusion activities, and assemblies to educate the student body, staff, and community.

Name of school and town/school district: Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy/Elizabeth Public Schools

Name and credentials of contact person: Rashidah Gilliam 310 Cherry Street Elizabeth, NJ 07208 Gilliamra@epsnj.org