176. The Trevor Project: LGBTQ Advocacy and Suicide Prevention - Muneer Panjwani
Today’s episode is part of a 5-day Mental Health Week series on the We Are For Good Podcast. Explore the other episodes and resources here.
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Overview
Meet Muneer. As the VP of Foundation, Government, and Corporate Partnerships at The Trevor Project, Muneer’s team focuses on building impact-centered long-term partnerships with some of the world’s largest companies and foundations to help end LGBTQ youth suicide. Companies are not experts in impact. So when we walk into a room with our corporate ask, Muneer says we need to do that through education steeped in our expertise. He’s taking corporate partnerships and ethical movement-building to the next level with his wise counsel and vulnerable storytelling.
Today’s Guest
Muneer Panjwani, VP Foundation, Government, and Corporate Partnerships, The Trevor Project
“All of us know what it feels like to be alone, to feel like we’re not worthy of love, to feel invalidated, to feel lost and to feel invisible. So what the work that The Trevor Project is doing is really about making sure that every LGBTQ young person has the opportunity to live a life that is full of love, and care, and validation, and affirmation.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode highlights
Muneer’s story and journey to where he is today (3:00)
The story, mission, and programs of The Trevor Project (15:00)
Values based fundraising and partnerships (24:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Muneer’s life (33:00)
Current stats around LGBTQ youth and how you can help (42:00)
Muneer’s One Good Thing: Do not be afraid to exercise the power your seat at the table gives you. (45:00)
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Powerful quotes
“The mission of the Trevor Project is to end suicide among LGBTQ young people. As a queer person, as once a queer young person, I fully understood the importance of this mission, right? I remember growing up and thinking about how lonely it was that I couldn't see anybody that looked like me, that was also queer. I didn't know where to go.” -Muneer
“All of us know what it feels like to be alone, to feel like we're not worthy of love, to feel invalidated, to feel lost and to feel invisible. So what the work that The Trevor Project is doing is really about making sure that every LGBTQ young person has the opportunity to live a life that is full of love, and care, and validation, and affirmation.” -Muneer
“When we look at that perspective, we start to see that that there are tools in the toolbox for us to use to start to support identities and communities that have not been supported in the past using corporate dollars.” -Muneer
“For the first time, we started getting calls that very night, and the calls haven't really stopped since.” -Muneer
“We started to look at what are the other things that we need to start doing because part of the work is of course, making sure people are supported in their moment of crisis. But the other part is making sure that people don't enter a crisis in the first place.” -Muneer
“Our research, for example, has found that having one supportive adult actually decreases the person's chance of suicide by 40%.” -Muneer
“So for the first time, people are being seen as how they want to be seen and recognized and affirmed. So that's why the program is really, really important.” -Muneer
“Now, because of pressures from consumers, pressures from employees pressures from just our culture, companies are being held to a much higher standard to actually show their authentic commitment to issues that they say they care about.” -Muneer
“The conversation on authenticity has gotten bigger and deeper over the years, that puts nonprofits at a much powerful table to have this discussion. We now control not only the impact that a company can see that it created, we also control the way that they can say that it created it, but also who they work with to create it.” -Muneer
“Come from a place of power, know how much power we have in today's world as an organization that is literally creating impact. And we can say you can create this impact with us and be able to own the story with us.” -Muneer
“This company's core business model is not your social impact organization, it's not your mission, they're expert on selling clothes. They're an expert on building airplanes. They're not an expert on ending suicide, they're not an expert on ending climate change, or they're not an expert at ending homelessness. They're not an expert expert on providing shelter. So when we walk into that room, and they need some supportive and find how do they combine their business goals with our goals, they need our expertise to do that work, right.” -Muneer
“We can get there by clearly defining your value and the expertise that you can provide as a business partner to these organizations.” -Muneer
“It was truly a movement making moment where we all knew we were in this together, and they were not competing interests that were trying to negotiate when it was an easy process to get people to pause, give space, respect the space, and then also acknowledge that we have some work to do, and then really committed that work together.” -Muneer
“When you understand what your values are, and you understand the weight of pain, you move into spaces where you can eliminate that at any level. And I love that you saw this moment was bigger than your moment.” -Becky
“Our movements are connected.” -Muneer
“We're all against violence. We're all against unnecessary police surveillance and violence against our communities, and particularly the people who have been most marginalized, particularly people who don't have as many resources and have historically been oppressed in significant ways.” -Muneer
“We know this is a fact, lesbian, gay, bisexual youth are 4 times more likely to consider suicide than their straight peers, and nearly half of all trans and non binary people have attempted suicide in their lives, many of them before the age of 25.” -Muneer
“All the experience that people are having are creating an environment where the mental health is challenged on a daily basis, but little under half of LGBT youth told us that they want mental health care, but they can't access it.” -Muneer
“So this is what Trevor Project is so important, because we are at the end of it when people are feeling like they have no other option. They come to the Trevor Project, when people feel like they can't go anywhere else they come to the to the Trevor Project.” -Muneer
“Things that we often say on a crisis hotline is that you are loved and you're deserving of love, which is something that LGBTQ people have never heard in their life before.” -Muneer
connect with The trevor project
Get Help / TrevorSpace / Website / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter
connect with muneer
LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram
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Jonathan McCoy, Muneer Panjwani, Julie Confer & Becky Endicott
