After an exciting four days in Plano, Texas, the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute team is back home. From Thursday, February 9th to February 12th, we hosted 24 trainees at the Toyota Motor North America Inc. headquarters in Plano, Texas, about half an hour outside of Dallas. Toyota’s Spectrum (LGBTQ Employee Resource Group) members served as volunteers throughout the weekend, with 20+ individuals supporting our work throughout the training days. They even gave us a tour of the campus! Most exciting for me, when getting some packages from their mailroom, I got to see where they test their new cars!
We received great feedback from our trainees throughout the weekend, with one sharing “This has been the best training I’ve ever attended,” and another sharing that the training was “transformational for [my] life.”
Our trainees were a great mix of local participants (42%) and those hailing from many different states, including California, Virginia, and Illinois. There was also great demographic diversity of participants:
- 39% of our trainees were women
- 26% of our trainees were transgender, nonbinary, and/or gender nonconforming
- 39% people of color
By having 24 trainees, we were able to provide our attendees with a more personalized training experience. In small groups of six, our trainees connected with the CCT training team; our trainers shared their excitement over the group sizes and their ability to get to know everyone well. Over two-thirds of the participants had a 1:1 meeting with our sister organization’s Vice President of Political Programs, Sean Meloy, to discuss their individual campaigns.
These candidates and staff are now ready to run – and we’re proud to give them the resources and tools they need to win. Stay tuned for more updates as our team will be back on the road soon!
Learn more about LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s Candidate & Campaign Trainings and Leadership Summits here.
