An extremely vulnerable segment of our society is comprised of young people who identify as LGBTQI, especially those who are people of color and mixed race. Along with the urgent need for an inclusive society that supports their growth and development as people, access to technology is a crucial component to self-determination and success, whether personally, educationally and/or professionally. The LGBTQI youth community faces serious and ongoing challenges on a daily basis

ThinkProgress has published a fascinating series on the state of homelessness in Washington, D.C. According to ThinkProgress there are more than 11,000 homeless people living in and around Washington, D.C. The series is meant to highlight their stories, examining policies and looking at how people bounce back from homelessness. LGBT Tech’s Connect 4 Life program, which has been providing cell phones to homeless gay youth in the Washington D.C. area since 2015 was featured p

We can do an extraordinary number of things with our phones. They are lifelines that serve as our emergency contacts, maps, planners, journals, clocks and our main way to access friends and family at all times. Most recently, with the release of the Apple Watch, improved Fit Bit and many other 24 hour monitoring devices, we are able to track almost everything our body does and how it’s performing. But soon, due to a new innovation in the world of healthcare, they will also be

WHEN CHRISTOPHER WOOD was a teenager growing up in Virginia, he came out to his parents as gay. They rejected him and kicked him out of the house. As Wood describes it, a cell phone saved him from becoming permanently homeless. It wasn’t a smartphone; it was a flip phone, but it allowed him to contact a friend who found him a temporary safe place to sleep. The way Wood sees it, mobile technology saved his life. Now he’s working to provide the same lifeline to teens today whos

This month the FCC voted to advance a proposal that would allow the government to subsidize broadband services for low-income Americans. Currently, under the Lifeline program, Lifeline receivers must be at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line, or be enrolled in some type of public assistance program. Users may use the subsidy for either wireline or mobile service, but not both. Only one Lifeline account is allowed per household. The expansion approved today woul

Institute’s Connect 4 Life Program Completes First Funding Round Effort to Support Homeless LGBT Youth to Launch in D.C. This Quarter Thanks to the generous year-end support of donors and organizational partners all across the U.S., the LGBT Technology Institute will soon be providing mobile connectivity to homeless and at-risk LGBT youth in the nation’s capital. The Connect 4 Life program closed a successful crowdfunding round on January 23, receiving over $10,000 in gifts.

***Media Advisory*** Arcus Foundation Awards $5,000 Matching Grant for the LGBT Technology Institute’s Connect 4 Life Program On December 8th, the LGBT Technology Institute kicked off a holiday “friends and family” fundraising campaign to raise $7,500 for it’s groundbreaking Connect 4 Life program. Today we are excited to announce a generous matching grant from the Arcus Foundation that will double every dollar donated up to $5,000. An estimated 40% of homeless youth identify

At the White House LGBT Innovation Summit this summer, LGBT Tech vice president Allyson Robinson announced a new program to leverage the power of mobile technology to improve outcomes for homeless LGBT youth: Connect 4 Life. We are excited to release our latest research report, Helping Homeless Youth Stay Connected, showing just how big the problem of LGBT youth homelessness really is – and how mobile connectivity can help solve it. In producing this research, LGBT Technology