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Better Toledo | Safe Zone Training with Marcos Gomez

Sponsored by the City of Toledo Human Relations Commission

This interactive session provides you an opportunity to listen, learn, and share, providing best practices, resources and tips to help support the LGBTQIA+ community and its members.

Do you wish to deepen your understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community? Are you seeking ways to become a more effective ally? When it comes to advocacy and alliance, creating a safe zone is a great place to start. Safe zones do not necessarily refer to spaces, although they can – they also include people. By becoming a Safe Zone trained ally, you help create an environment of openness, safety, and trust for LGBTQIA+ community members.

This interactive session, designed by The Safe Zone Project, provides you an opportunity to listen, learn, and share, providing best practices, resources and tips to help support the LGBTQIA+ community and its members. Lessons include understanding core vocabulary, navigating the coming out process, explorations of gender identity/expression and use of pronouns, and an opportunity for Q&A.

From TheSafeZoneProject.com:

Safe Zone trainings are opportunities to learn about LGBTQ+ identities, gender and sexuality, and examine prejudice, assumptions, and privilege.

The Safe Zone Project (SZP) is a free online resource providing curricula, activities, and other resources for educators facilitating Safe Zone trainings (sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ+ education sessions), and learners who are hoping to explore these concepts on their own. Co-created by Meg Bolger and Sam Killermann in 2013, the SZP has become the go-to resource for anyone looking to add some Safe Zone to their life. For more information on The Safe Zone Project, please visit www.thesafezoneproject.com.

This event is sponsored by The City of Toledo Human Relations Commission and is part of Better Toledo, a personal and professional development series to ensure “you will do better in Toledo.”

Certificates of completion are available to participants who take part in three or more sessions in 2023.

For group registrations please call 419-259-5293.

Marcos Gomez (he/him) is a Safe Zone facilitator, and a previous co-advisor of the Owens Community College Pride Club. He is currently the Director of Student Financial Services. As part of this role, he has prioritized revising college financial policies from an equity standpoint and providing access to resources and financial literacy training to historically underserved communities.

Beyond his primary responsibilities, Marcos has served on the College’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Task Force, helping to shape equitable policies and atmosphere at the College. Previously, Marcos has served as Owens’s Assistant Director of Admissions and as its Community Advocate. Through these roles, he gained exposure to and perspective from the culturally-rich and diverse greater Toledo community. His experience has shaped him into an empathetic and motivated advocate and ally. Before joining Owens, Marcos has held positions in international student advising, human resources, and law.

Marcos holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Toledo, a J.D. from Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and an A.A.B. in Computer Programming Technology and an A.A. in Political Science from Owens Community College.