Joe Rand
Joe Rand (he/him/his) is an Associate Extension Professor at the University of Minnesota. He has facilitated equity and inclusion workshops related to LGBTQ+ youth within the Minnesota 4-H program, the broader Minnesota Extension program, and with a variety of youth and family service organizations throughout Minnesota. He serves as an advisor for his local Gender and Sexuality Alliance comprised of rural queer youth and allies. He also serves as co-chair of the national LGBTQ+ subgroup of the Access Equity and Belonging committee of the 4-H Program Leaders Workgroup working to create equitable spaces within youth development settings for queer and trans youth. He received his M.Ed. in Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota.
Monday June 7th
Powerful Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of people’s names. The most common pronouns are She/Her/Hers and He/Him/His, and are traditionally related to a person’s sex assigned at birth. However, just like our names, pronouns carry indicators of our identity and can be tied to gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth. This session will explore proper pronoun use and approaches that can be drawn on for youth development professionals to better understanding the significance of pronoun use and how it contributes to inclusion, acceptance, and belonging. Workshop participants will practice sharing pronouns and better understand the relationship between pronouns, names, and identity by creating a nameplate to introduce themselves to a small group to further put the enhanced knowledge into practice.