Training & Consultation

SQSH offers training and consultation services – rooted in anti-oppressive values, community input, and lived experiences – with the goal of shifting cultures, mindsets, and systems.

SQSH has experience offering trainings and consultation on peer counseling, protest support, group facilitation, queer terminology & allyship, queer community organizing, survivor support, transformative justice, and other skills relevant to movement work.

SQSH’s trainings take an anti-oppressive lens, drawing on our grassroots experience with community-based work in St. Louis. We dream of working with our partners to create a world where queer St. Louisans can live with safety, power, and abundance.

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Through our training and consultation services, SQSH’s partners gain the socio-emotional and conversational skills to create safe, liberatory spaces for queer/LGBTQIA+ people. SQSH offers expertise in:

  • Peer counseling skills

  • Queer/LGBTQIA+ issues

  • St. Louis’s resources and queer community organizing landscape

  • Queer St. Louis community needs, including grassroots data and stories

  • Transformative justice approaches to navigating conflict, harm, and survivor support

We offer trainings to values-aligned partners who want to deepen their relationships with queer St. Louisans and queer liberation movement work.

We are open to working with service providers, administrative staff, community organizations, support groups, schools and universities, guidance and career counselors, teachers and faculty, friend groups and families, roommates and flatmates, conferences, grassroots groups, informal social networks, and more.

SQSH Training Participants

  • Do you feel anxious about keeping a conversation going within your friend group? Do your friends not know what to say when one of you needs support through a difficult situation? Is your social circle finding it hard to connect with others amidst the pandemic?

    Sign up for a SQSH training with your friends to kickstart some fun, engaging conversations that will bring you closer to each other.

  • Are you seeking more fulfilling relationships with your family members? Do you crave deeper conversations at the dinner table? Would you like to create a more supportive environment within your bio-legal/chosen family?

    Sign up for a SQSH training to help your family gain conversational tools to enrich your family dynamic.

  • Is your organization well-intentioned but could do better at supporting its queer/LGBTQIA+ members? Do you wish that your organization were better-equipped to provide queer-affirming support? Would you like to create a more LGBTQIA-supportive, anti-oppressive culture in your organization?

    Sign up for a SQSH training to help your organization gain the knowledge and skills to uplift its most marginalized queer/LGBTQIA+ members.

  • Would you like to work at a more justice-oriented, healing-centered workplace? Do you wish that your workplace could address interpersonal conflict more effectively? Do you wish you and your co-workers could bring your full, authentic selves to work?

    Sign up for a SQSH training to help your workplace become a more identity-affirming, equity-centered place to be.

  • Do you wish that teachers, students, or staff at your school were more queer-affirming? Are you struggling to feel seen and heard as a queer person at your school? Would you like to have honest, open conversations about LGBTQIA+ issues with others at your school?

    Sign up for a SQSH training to help advocate for LGBTQIA+ visibility at your school.

SQSH Training Options

Note: The modules and durations below are suggested as part of our standard curriculum but can be flexible. We are open to tailoring our training modules and durations to your needs and preferences. Submit a Request if you’re looking for a free initial consultation!

  • Learn about queer liberation values, SQSH’s mission and programs, and ways you can support SQSH’s work! This standard presentation is for groups looking to raise awareness about queer/LGBTQIA+ issues in their communities and resources that allies and community members can tap on to support the queer people in their lives.

    Content includes:
    • Queer/LGBTQIA+ Terminology
    • SQSH’s Founding, Mission, and Programs
    • Ways to Support Queer Liberation Work and Partner with SQSH
    • Upcoming SQSH Projects & Events
    • Q&A

    Total: 15mins to 1.5 hours

  • Learn how to provide identity-affirming emotional support and resource referrals using an anti-oppressive, queer-affirming peer counseling approach.

    Modules:
    • Active Listening (3h)
    • Empowerment Skills (3.5h)
    • Conversational Flow (1.5h)
    • Feelings-Oriented Skills (1h)
    • Solution-Oriented Skills (6h)

    Total: 2 hours to 15 hours

  • Learn how to provide emotional support and resource referrals to protest participants using an anti-racist and queer-affirming peer counseling approach. Peer counseling background is preferred.

    Modules:
    General Protest Support (30mins-1h)
    Supporting Protestors Before, During, and After an Action (1.5-3h)
    Navigating Arrest & Detainment (30mins-1h)
    Identity-Specific Considerations (30mins-1h)

    Total: 3 hours to 6 hours

  • Learn how to facilitate discussions, meetings, support groups, trainings, and various social events more effectively using an anti-oppressive approach. Includes consultation on how to develop interactive, effective lesson plans.

    Bonus: Template materials (including lesson plans) offered
    Modules: Customized
    Duration: Customized

    Types of Facilitation Supported:
    • Support Groups
    • Trainings
    • Mediation / Conflict Resolution
    • Community Town Halls

  • Creating non-judgmental space for holding marginalized people's truths is key to healing from injustice and systemic oppression. Learn how to tap on the inherent power and wholeness within your community to create spaces for vulnerable storytelling.

    Total: 1.5 hours to 4 hours.

  • Learn the language needed to discuss queer issues, identify best practices to support LGBTQIA+ loved ones and community members, and reconceptualize your own relationship to gender and sexual identity.

    Modules:
    • Understanding Gender and Sexuality
    • History of the Term “Queer”
    • Allyship Best Practices
    • Gender and Sexuality Self-Reflection

    Total: 1.5 hours to 6 hours

  • Learn about the local landscape of queer liberation work in St. Louis, and how you can contribute.

    Modules:

    • Overview of Queer Community Organizing in St. Louis

    • Understanding the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

    • The Water of Systems Change

    • Applying Transformative Justice to Activist Culture

    Total: 1.5 hours to 4 hours

  • Seeing someone authentically includes having the right language and tools to describe their identities and needs. Learn how to to collect data on the St. Louis queer community’s needs and lives using an anti-oppressive and community-centered approach. Learn how to use community needs assessment data to inform the systems, services, or policies that you’re designing.

    Total: 1.5 hours to 4 hours.

  • We’ll learn about how Gender-Based Violence impacts queer communities, and ways to center queer survivors in relationship and sexual violence prevention and intervention spaces.

    We’ll discuss myths and misconceptions about relationship and sexual violence in queer relationships, obstacles faced by queer survivors, and anti-carceral healing practices.

    Queer survivors have dreamt of a world without violence – let’s talk about how to get there, using a transformative justice approach.

    Total: 1.5 to 4 hours

  • Learn about diverse relationship structures, how to challenge popular ideas based in toxic monogamy culture, how to Identify and combat dysphoria during sex, and practice queer-affirming sexual practices and communication skills.

    Note: This is not an introductory training. Ideally, participants should already be familiar with various LGBTQIA+/queer identities, including trans, non-binary, non-monogamous, asexual, and aromantic identities.

    Modules:
    • Split Attraction Model
    • Toxic Monogamy Culture
    • Roleplay Activity
    • Sex & Dysphoria
    • Personal Boundaries Activity

    Total: 1.5 hours to 4 hours

What to Expect from a SQSH Training

SQSH’s Trainers will facilitate customized, engaging trainings and community dialogues tailored to your needs. We aim to equip your group with the knowledge and skills needed to engage in principled disagreement, non-judgmental peer support, and ongoing political education.

Our trainers will help you and your peers, staff, or volunteers learn the day-to-day tools needed for queer liberation work – especially interpersonal skills. Let’s work together to build power, strategy, and support for your team.

Hear from Past Clients

About Peer Support & Storytelling Tools

  • “I value myself as a fairly open person and strong communicator, and I picked up tip after tip to improve communications further. I feel more confident as an ally who sometimes engages in conversations like this with members of the LGBTQ+ community in how I can validate and summarize lived experiences that I don't share without feeling like I'm belittling them, and also recognizing my boundaries if I may not be the best resource to engage in this way.”

  • “Fantastic, actionable training, expertly delivered. I left with a better understanding of how to provide peer support, and feel empowered and excited to put what we learned from Luka into effect.”

  • “This trauma-informed, LGBTQ-affirming training on Peer Counseling is ESSENTIAL to ANY volunteer group, ESPECIALLY one that exists to support historically marginalized people.”

About Queer Terminology & Allyship

  • “Very well-designed presentation and amazing creation of a safe space for queer people to share their experiences, highly recommend it!”

  • “I feel like this really taught me more about the LGBTQIA+ community and how to be a better ally. I do not identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I want to advocate for the community and be the best ally I can be, so this was super insightful.”

  • “Luka took an intersectional and liberation-focused approach to teaching a large staff about LGBTQIA2S+ identities. Staff felt safe and comfortable sharing personal experiences of LGBTQIA2S+ discrimination, joy, community, and pain. I have attended several LGBTQIA2S+ trainings and this was by far the most warm, inviting, intentional, and inclusive training I have ever received.”

  • “As someone who does not have any personal relationships with folks from the LGBTQIA+ community this course was extremely helpful in understanding terminology surrounding the LGBTQIA+ community. As our society moves to a more accepting and open place I think it is important for all people to be aware of the content taught in this course not only for personal growth but for inclusion and respect of all people!”

  • “I appreciate how connected I felt to my workmates as a member of the LGBTQTIA+. I was very nervous to share my history and coming out experience with the group, but I was met with open arms and loving energy. This may not have ever happened on such a large scale without the comfort and safe space the training provided.”

  • “I feel much better equipped to support members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The presentation gave me more courage to advocate for affirming language among colleagues and peers.”

  • “Finding out that there’s nothing wrong with the way I feel and have terminology to describe me feels empowering!”

  • “Even if you think you know and understand queer terminology, I would strongly recommend!”

  • “This course helped ground both my continued interest and commitment to creating safety and support for the queer community.”

  • “I loved the discussion on terminology, language, split-attraction model, and Queer theory. It was such an affirming experience for me and amazing to see how many of my coworkers were already familiar and comfortable with Queer ideas! Truly an awesome training and it made me feel so comfortable in my workplace.”

  • “The facilitator, Luka, fostered such a gentle and curious space to have open dialogue about LGBTQIA+ issues.”

  • “This training was extremely helpful for gaining insight into the specific needs of STL queer and LGBTQ youth. I think everyone who works with youth (and, really, everyone) in St. Louis would benefit from taking this course.”

SQSH Training Pricing

In the spirit of economic justice, we charge on a sliding scale basis. Based on the class size and your group’s annual budget, your personal annual income, or your friend group’s/family’s collective annual income, find your estimated training price using the table below:

  • 1 Facilitator: $10 / hour
    2 Facilitators: $20 / hour
    3 Facilitators: $30 / hour
    4 Facilitators: $40 / hour

  • 1 Facilitator: $50 per hour
    2 Facilitators: $75 per hour
    3 Facilitators: $100 per hour
    4 Facilitators: $125 per hour

  • 1 Facilitator: $100 per hour
    2 Facilitators: $150 per hour
    3 Facilitators: $200 per hour
    4 Facilitators: $250 per hour

  • 1 Facilitator: $200 per hour
    2 Facilitators: $300 per hour
    3 Facilitators: $400 per hour
    4 Facilitators: $500 per hour

  • 1 Facilitator: $400 per hour
    2 Facilitators: $600 per hour
    3 Facilitators: $800 per hour
    4 Facilitators: $1,000 per hour

  • 1 Facilitator: $800 per hour
    2 Facilitators: $1,200 per hour
    3 Facilitators: $1,600 per hour
    4 Facilitators: $2,000 per hour

On average, most SQSH partners pay $300-$500/hour for our trainings.

We’ll also consider how much you’ve paid for similar trainings in the past when constructing our quote.

Initial consultations are free. Discounts are available to SQSH’s community partners on a case-by-case basis.

All revenue from trainings and partners goes towards SQSH’s general operating expenses and paying our trainers a salary or contractor fee, and helps to support SQSH’s mission and work towards queer liberation.