science

The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Trevor Project rather than just read about it. In short: The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number where confidential assistance is provided by trained counselors.

Key takeaways

The Trevor Project belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Trevor Project to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Trevor Project from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number where confidential assistance is provided by trained counselors. The stated goals of the project are to provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for youth (defined by the organization as people under 25), as well as to offer guidance and resources to parents and educators in order to foster safe, accepting, and inclusive environments for all youth, at home, schools and colleges. The Trevor Project also operates the internet forum TrevorSpace.

History

The project was founded in 1998 in West Hollywood, California, by Celeste Lecesne, Peggy Rajski, and Randy Stone. They are the creators of the 1994 Academy Award–winning short film Trevor, a dramedy about Trevor, a gay thirteen-year-old boy who, when rejected by friends because of his sexuality, attempts suicide. When the film was scheduled to air on HBO television in 1998, the filmmakers realized that some of the program's young viewers might be facing the same kind of crisis as Trevor and began to search for a support line to be broadcast during the airing. They discovered that no such helpline existed and decided to dedicate themselves to forming the resource: an organization to promote acceptance of LGBTQ youth, and to aid in crisis and suicide prevention among that group. The Trevor Lifeline was established with seed funds provided by The Colin Higgins Foundation and HBO's license fee. As a result, it became the first nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. The project also provides online support to young people through the project's website, as well as guidance and resources to educators and parents. In 2004, the organization released an educational kit for both educators and youth service providers which included a copy of the short film, a teaching guide (to be used with the film), cards with the hotline number, and posters. 2005 saw the release of "Dear Trevor", an online question and answer forum which allowed for people to anonymously ask and answer "non-urgent" questions regarding sexual orientation and identity. While continuing various educational and media campaigns (including a PSA with Daniel Radcliffe) in 2006, a new short documentary was released consisting of interviews with hotline staff telling stories of calls from LGBTQ youth that they had received. By 2007, the hotline had received over 100,000 calls since its inception, over 3000 education kits had been distributed, and hundreds of questions had been asked through the "Dear Trevor" online forum from around the world. During National Suicide Prevention Week a digital advertisement campaign named "Don't Erase Your Queer Future" was undertaken which included banner ads on social media websites and The Trevor Project website which encouraged reflection by displaying quotes and progressively erasing words to show how many artistic, cultural, and social contributions would be lost if prominent LGBTQ people would have committed suicide. Additionally, a new PSA with various celebrities was released. In June 2009, seven Tulare County volunteers completed The Trevor Project Lifeguard Workshop Facilitator training. "Lifeguard workshops" have been done in schools in Tulare County municipalities, including Dinuba, Lindsay, Porterville and Visalia, as well as in Hanford in adjacent Kings County. In November 2009, the Trevor Project was contracted by the Tulare County Suicide Prevention Task Force, located in Tulare County, California. With this agreement, the project received public funds for the first time. Additionally, Sensis provided their digital marketing services including a website redesign and social network marketing on both Facebook and the Trevor Projects own social media website "Trevor Space" (which is still currently operating). In 2019, The Trevor Project received a $1.5 million grant from Google, which had also donated in years prior. In January 2020, The Trevor Project received a $1.2 million grant from Google, which was used to fund the nonprofit's suicide prevention programs, including the TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText programs. In addition to the grant, Google fellows worked pro bono to upgrade its crisis lines, automate moderation of its online forum, refine a virtual training simulator, and promote TrevorSpace. Part of the fellows work included the integration of artificial intelligence into the TrevorChat and TrevorText platforms, using machine learning to assess suicide risk. In 2021, the first openly gay active NFL player, Carl Nassib, used his coming out to also announce a $100,000 donation to The Trevor Project. From 2016 to 2022, the CEO of The Trevor Project was Amit Paley. During this period the Trevor Project grew its revenue from $5 million to over $60M which included a financial reserve of $50M. In 2019, for the first time in the organization's history, TrevorText went from limited operating hours to a 24/7 text and chat counseling services. In October 2022, The Trevor Project launched free digital services in Mexico. In November 2022, The Trevor Project's Board of Directors announced that Amit Paley had been removed effective immediately. The organization's Board of Directors announced that co-founder, Peggy Rajski, would be the interim CEO. Following this news, media outlets also reported that over 200 employees had signed a letter expressing their displeasure with former CEO, Amit Paley, and numerous employees had expressed concerns over the organization's growth and his ability to manage effectively. In April 2023, Trevor Project staffers formed Friends of Trevor United, a union affiliated with CWA. In July, during collective bargaining, management terminated 12% of bargaining unit employees, about one-third of whom were union leaders. Friends of Trevor responded by filing an Unfair Labor Practice complaint, alleging targeted retaliation.

Projects and research

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Trevor Project

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Trevor Project claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Trevor Project before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Trevor Project ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Trevor Project

In research: The Trevor Project appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Trevor Project in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Trevor Project is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anti-bullying campaigns, Anti-bullying organizations in the United States, Charities based in California, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Trevor Project outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Trevor Project in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Trevor Project means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Trevor Project out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Trevor Project in simple terms?

Why does The Trevor Project matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Trevor Project?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Trevor Project.