JQY, Inc.

BOLD JEWISH IDEA

JQY supports and empowers LGBTQ youth in the Jewish community, with a special focus on teens and young adults from Orthodox, Chasidic, and Sephardic communities. 

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

JQY is a non-profit that supports at-risk LGBTQ Jewish youth and young adults. They specialize in providing crisis support, social services, and community resources to teens from Orthodox, Sephardic, and Chasidic homes. Their core programming includes a New York City-based teen Drop-in Center offering a weekly safe and free space for Jewish LGBTQ teens to meet others like them, enjoy a hot kosher meal, check-in with JQY’s trained Social Workers, gain access to health and safety resources (including HIV and STD testing), and participate in JQY’s facilitated group programming specially tailored to meet the needs of LGBTQ Orthodox youth. JQYUniversity is their college program, designed to develop a bottom-up movement of queer Jewish college students empowered to connect the different resources that cultivate their queer Jewish campus life in NYC, including their Hillel experience and JQY affiliations.