Give Us The Floor

If you prefer to contribute by check, please mail to:
Give Us The Floor
943 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Give Us The Floor provides 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and allies in distress with the peer-positive human connection that they are too often missing. Through a safe, inclusive mobile app, youth ages 13 to 17 and young adults ages 18 to 24 can access peer support in a youth-only community, breaking the isolation and shame cycles they are experiencing. Trained youth facilitate the confidential group discussion spaces, and participants help each other with prevalent mental health and social issues such as depression, isolation, anxiety, identity, discrimination, family and school challenges, bullying, relationships, domestic violence, and body image.

Within this supportive community:

• Youth in distress from all backgrounds and locations across the US have 24/7 access to peer support in a safe, non-judgmental, and confidential environment.
• Participants communicate anonymously as often as they wish via closed group chats and discussion channels (no one-on-one communication is possible)
• They share daily life struggles, insights and accomplishments, encourage each other, and provide non-judgmental feedback without fear of stigma, taboo or shame
• Groups are organized by age and primary discussion topic to keep the chats relevant and relatable
• Youth who need adult help are quickly identified and given resources to help them.

Research reveals that increased isolation is contributing to the rapid deterioration of mental health and wellbeing. It’s affecting youth way more than adults: Experiencing social isolation and loneliness [during adolescence/ childhood] increased the risk of depression up to 9 years later. *

After only 1 month with Give Us The Floor:

• 83% of the participants report that they feel less lonely
• 78% were helped with their struggles
• 77% feel better about themselves
• 70% experienced improved mental health

**You can learn more in our 2024 Impact Report

And this support has never been more needed. Some important statistics:

• Nearly 50% of LGBTQ youth age 13-17 seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year and 18% of them did attempt suicide:**
• LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers: 12% of white youth attempted suicide compared to 21% of Native / Indigenous youth, 20% of Middle ------- Eastern / Northern African youth, 19% of Black youth, 17% of multiracial youth, 16% of Latinx youth, and 12% of Asian / Pacific Islander youth**
• LGBTQ youth who had access to spaces that affirmed their sexual orientation and gender identity reported lower rates of attempting suicide **
• 60% of LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health support in the past year were not able to access care, including nearly 3 in 5 transgender youth and more than 3 in 5 cisgender youth**

Your support makes a real difference in a time when mental health resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth face major cuts to programming, or are shutting down altogether. Queer youth are counting on supportive community to be there.

Give Us The Floor changes young lives. Give Us The Floor saves young lives.

*Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19, Loades and colleagues
**National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2022 - The Trevor Project