IT REALLY DOES GET BETTER
It Gets Better is a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe. Learn more about our work.
About It Gets Better
In September 2010, in response to a rash of suicides that claimed the lives of several LGBTQ+ youth, the first It Gets Better video was released on YouTube urging young LGBTQ+ people to stay true to themselves despite bullying and other challenges of adolescence.
The message was simple – no matter how difficult things may be, it can get better. Those words, and the sentiment behind them, went viral, inspiring more than 70,000 people to share their personal stories of resilience and triumph, catalyzing the world’s largest storytelling effort to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth.
Fourteen years later, with an Emmy Award and a New York Times bestselling book in tow, It Gets Better affirms the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people every year. Through powerful storytelling and media campaigns, impactful educational programming, and global community-building initiatives, It Gets Better reaches and connects with LGBTQ+ youth before they are in crisis – helping them to navigate their sexual orientation and/or gender identity journey with life-affirming resources paving the way to a future with limitless possibilities.
A Vision For The Future
It Gets Better envisions a world where all LGBTQ+ youth are free to live equally, connect to their communities, and know their power as individuals.
LGBTQ+ youth are three times as likely to struggle with self-esteem and half as likely to receive the support they need. It Gets Better aims to connect with LGBTQ+ youth before they experience crisis, connecting them to community and equipping them with the language, tools and resources they need to better navigate adolescence and their unique sexual orientation and/or gender identity journey. Our preventative efforts to support LGBTQ+ youth have a direct impact on their mental health, academic performance and overall well being. We accomplish this in three ways
Storytelling
Storytelling is at the heart of our effort to empower LGBTQ+ youth around the globe. We share stories that inspire hope, stories that spark conversations, and stories that can inform and positively influence a sexual orientation and/or gender identity journey.
Education
It Gets Better EDU exists to ensure our uplifting and informative stories reach LGBTQ+ youth and their peers wherever learning takes place. With an impactful youth ambassador program, student-driven grantmaking initiatives, and a growing library of free educational resources for educators and student leaders, thousands of middle and high school students engage with It Gets Better EDU programming every year.
Building Global Community
It Gets Better is the world’s largest storytelling effort to empower LGBTQ+ youth. Investing in local, like-minded organizations outside the US, It Gets Better brings story-telling and other life-affirming support to communities of LGBTQ+ youth around the globe.
“SAFETY is a COMMUNITY EFFORT”
Castro Community On Patrol (Castro Patrol / CCOP) is a California nonprofit volunteer safety patrol and education corporation that focuses on enhancing safety and security of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco for residents, businesses, employees, and visitors.
.
Castro Community On Patrol, 584 Castro Street #731, San Francisco, CA 94114
Federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation Tax ID: 99-1829349
We acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Region. We honor the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for generations. We recognize the ongoing connection of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to this land. We pay respect to the elders, past, present, and emerging. We commit to supporting Indigenous rights and sovereignty. We encourage learning about the history and culture of the local tribes throughout California and the World.