GLBT Youths Explore Exchange Program

Seven members from Bristol, England’s GLBT group Freedom Youth are going to visit Japan and take part in an inaugural educational exchange program, reports the Kyodo News International.

The seven students will arrive in Tokyo August 18th. While in Japan, they will also take a cultural trip to Kyoto.

While in Tokyo, the participants, aged from 16 to 21, will have the opportunity to co-facilitate educational workshops on GLBT issues which affect today’s youth. A larger public event on August 24th at Tokyo’s International Youth Center is set to involve a couple of hundred people.

Organized GLBT events aimed at youth are extremely rare in Japan where gay youth support networks are basically non-existent.

Rose Richards, the Bristol City Council Head or of Youth and Play Services told Kyodo News, “LGBT young people are amongst some of the most disadvantaged young people in the country. They are a group who are often denied access to mainstream opportunities. Involvement in the planning and delivery of an international exchange provides a unique platform where they can develop personally and socially. The impact of this exchange has been phenomenal already. Just by giving young people the opportunity to come together and overcome their isolation by developing their social networks, they secure mutual support, self-confidence and self-esteem.”

The trip has been set to be the main subject of an upcoming Japanese documentary by the Japan Broadcasting Co.

A group of GLBT Japanese youth are planing a reciprocal trip to Bristol, England in 2009.