Advocacy & Programs → LGBTQ+ → Youth and family program Our family is here for yours.

When your feelings don’t fit into words, art is there to give them shape. Join Health Care Advocates International’s Youth and Family Program Director and Life Coach Tony Ferraiolo as he presents “Creating Kindness” workshop. This workshop is designed to guide the participants down a path of inner discovery which in turn will open their hearts to express themselves through their drawings. During our workshop, we’ll use art as a window to talk about love and kindness. Participants will be asked to draw answers to questions like, how can you create kindness? Draw what you can do to be kind to yourself. Which in turn will have them leaving this powerful workshop with a feeling of love and kindness in their hearts.

We offer individual coaching by Tony Ferraiolo, a certified life coach who has been providing guidance to the LGBTQ+ community and families for over a decade. He has coached hundreds of LGBTQ+ youth and empowered them to live the life they have always imagined.

It’s normal to react with fear or sadness when your child comes out, often due to a lack of understanding or anxieties about what others might think. This workshop will help you confront some of those fears and questions. We’ll also review common terms and misconceptions so you have the tools you need to accept and support your child.

This presentation is also offered to extended family members and friends, who might need some guidance to accept your child for who they are.

Artistic Expressions of Transgender Youth is a unique workshop presented by Tony Ferraiolo, HCAI’s Director of Youth and Family Programs. Through art, trans youth can express their experiences and feelings, helping them better understand and advocate for themselves. The workshop will also showcase a slideshow of actual drawings created by members of Tony’s youth groups, Translation and Create Yourself.