Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

Clothing Drive Fills Unmet Need in Local Transgender Community

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, By Michele Barrett
Share
Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamicsgiving

Table after table lined with hundreds of donated shirts, pants, sweaters, skirts, jackets and other clothing items were visible in one Peck Hall classroom because marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate students Amy Goss and Megan O’Brien recognized an unmet need within Syracuse’s transgender community.

Second-year Falk College MFT students organize donations during a January 2015 clothing drive to benefit Syracuse’s transgender community. L-R: Jamie Kanter, Melanie Gonzalez, and Megan O’Brien.

Second-year Falk College MFT students organize donations during a January 2015 clothing drive to benefit Syracuse’s transgender community. From left to right are Jamie Kanter, Melanie Gonzalez and Megan O’Brien.

“Working with the transgender population, it became startlingly obvious how expensive the transition process is. Many insurance plans don’t cover the costly expense of hormones yet, plus there are fees associated with blood work, binders, doctor visits, name changes and other legal documentation. Add on top of that a new wardrobe? It costs a lot of money,” says O’Brien.

Goss and O’Brien, who are in their second year of graduate study—working with classmates and faculty and staff in Falk College’s Department of Marriage and Family Therapy—organized a clothing drive in January to benefit the Syracuse-area transgender community. The organizers explained that for clients with families, or teens who may not have parental support or any financial abilities, shopping for clothing is not only costly, but can be a fearful experience during the transitioning process. “The added challenge of trying on clothes that appear to not match external presenting gender and gendered changing rooms could be a real nightmare,” notes O’Brien.

So during the drive, MFT students allocated private dressing room space for trying on clothes in a comfortable, safe and judgment-free space. The students are actively working to store the clothing in the Couple and Family Therapy Clinic for clients to attain at any time throughout the year, and anticipate a clothing drive to benefit the transgender community will be an annual event.

Both Goss and O’Brien serve on the Transgender Team—or Trans Team—that includes MFT graduate students, guided by Assistant Professor Deborah Coolhart and Falk Endowed Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy Linda Stone Fish, as well as adjunct supervisor Dara Shipman, who train students in basic clinical skills to work with the transgender population to help them during their transition and beyond.

“My clients have given me so much, and I’ve been able to grow in a way I never expected through working in the community that I want to provide safety and security in a time that can be distressing,” notes O’Brien. “To provide a place where the people understand the clientele, where they know the proper terminology and are nonjudgmental, and where those in the community can attain free clothing to help support their internal gender identity and make their lives more cohesive is really important.”

For more information about the available clothing, contact the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy’s  Couple and Family Therapy Center at 315-443-3023.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Michele Barrett

  • Deborah Coolhart

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Press Participating in Path to Open Program
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • A&S Chemistry Professor Receives Award From the American Chemical Society
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By News Staff
  • ‘Guys and Dolls’ opens Syracuse University Department of Drama 2023/24 Season
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Joanna Penalva
  • Libraries Add MindSpa Wellness Rooms
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse University Announces the Opening of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Kerrie Marshall

More In Health & Society

School of Education Faculty Publish ‘Lesson Study With Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers’

“Lesson Study with Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers: Finding the Form” (Routledge, 2023) is a new overview of the fundamentals of lesson study edited by School of Education Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Professor Sharon Dotger and Jen Heckathorn G’22, director for…

International Drug Policy Academy Offers a Unique Opportunity for Students Interested in Addiction Studies

Needing one more class or an independent study to complete a master’s degree in public health, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics student Emily Graham turned to Public Health Professor Dessa Bergen-Cico for advice and Bergen-Cico offered the opportunity…

Hendricks Chapel Dean, Chaplains and Students Attend Parliament of the World’s Religions

Representatives from Hendricks Chapel recently attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in August in Chicago. This year’s theme was “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights.” More than 7,000 participants from more than 95 countries, representing…

Roundtable: 3 School of Education Alumni Define ‘Human Thriving’ in the Context of Global Diversity

“Human thriving” is among the areas of distinctive excellence enumerated in the University’s 2023 Academic Strategic Plan. This concept is inspired by the words of Chancellor Erastus Haven. In 1871, he charged Syracuse students “to thrive here, to learn here,…

Lerner Center and Maxwell X Lab Join Sheriff’s Office to Reduce Illicit Drugs’ Impact

The Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health and Maxwell X Lab have partnered with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office on an initiative aimed at reducing the impact of opioids and other illicit drugs. The two centers, both…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.