Psychology & Philanthropy In Action with Dr. Beth Turetsky: Trans Mentor Project

At APF, we’re bringing together the shared power of psychology and philanthropy to create a world where people are healthy, happy, and living with dignity. Through APF Direct Action, we’re supporting innovative interventions, based in psychological knowledge, that directly address pressing needs of communities.

We’re catching up with Dr. Beth Turetsky of Trans Mentor Project, an APF Direct Action Visionary Grant recipient. Their work reflects the powerful intersection of psychology and philanthropy, translating evidence-based psychological interventions into meaningful, community-centered support for the people who need it most.

In a time of escalating threats to the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender and nonbinary (trans) young people, Trans Mentor Project is a national virtual mentoring and community-building program designed to reduce isolation, affirm identity, and empower trans youth to build positive futures. A growing body of research highlights protective factors associated with resilience among trans young people, yet there is a gap in studies identifying targeted, community-driven interventions demonstrated to improve. Funding from the Direct Action Visionary Grant supports both the scaling of Trans Mentor Project to reach more trans youth nationwide, and the implementation of a robust mixed-methods research design to assess its impact on the resilience and wellbeing of trans young people. Publishing and disseminating these findings will address the gap in evidence-based solutions that help trans youth thrive and will inform practice by advancing an accessible, scalable model grounded in the lived experiences and specific needs of trans youth, with potential for adaptation to other marginalized youth populations.

Can you tell us a little about Trans Mentor Project and how it came about?

Trans Mentor Project (TMP) is a national, youth-driven, and community-led virtual mentoring program designed exclusively for trans and nonbinary young people. At our weekend retreats for teens, we saw the incredible impact of their being together with peers and counselors who share their identities. For many teens, the retreat was the first time they had ever interacted with a trans adult. TMP was born of our desire for all trans and nonbinary youth to have meaningful, ongoing relationships with trans peers and adults.

TMP’s model is accessible regardless of geography, disability, income, safety concerns, hostile political environments, or legislative impact. Currently with participants in 38 states, young people ages 13–24 choose one of our trained, supervised trans adult mentors for weekly one-to-one video meetups on a secure platform, available only to TMP staff and participants. The free-of-charge program also brings together the vibrant intergenerational community of mentees and mentors, creating opportunities for connection and belonging through workshops, affinity groups, creative expression, self- and community-care activities, social hangouts, topical chat threads, and a social media–style interface.

Can you share an update on Trans Mentor Project so far?

The Direct Action Visionary Grant has come at a critical time for us. The anti-trans rhetoric, laws and policies across the country targeting trans youth continue to intensify, further stigmatizing and isolating them and compromising their mental health. This funding supports Trans Mentor Project’s expansion and continued research to measure its impact.

We’ve been able to increase our in-person and virtual events with LGBTQ+ partners across the country, resulting in greater visibility and increased interest in Trans Mentor Project. This funding also allows us to expand our database by continuing to collect baseline, post-year, and other program evaluation data. In addition, we just began our 2026 Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) group whose work includes helping to design focus group questions with Dr. Angela Matijczak, assistant professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and co-investigator of this project.

Have you seen any early outcomes or emerging insights from participants that speak to the program’s impact?

Yes, we have. We’re seeing that TMP impacts not only the young people it serves but also the adult mentors who participate. Both groups consistently report the benefits of an ongoing one-to-one mentoring relationship. Mentees tell us their mentors help them envision positive futures, solve problems, advocate for themselves and feel more confident. Mentors tell us that they joined TMP to provide a young person with the mentorship they wish they had, but once in the program, they discover unexpected benefits— they themselves learn from their mentees, feel a sense of pride in watching them grow, and gain skills they use outside their mentoring relationship.

Similarly, we’re seeing how belonging to an intergenerational community is mutually beneficial. Our young people describe TMP as a space where they feel accepted and understood in a way they rarely experience outside of the program. They appreciate the opportunity to connect with peers like themselves and value having so many adults who serve as “possibility models,” giving them hope and inspiring them. Both mentors and mentees report that they appreciate the variety of modes for cross-generational interaction and for stepping into leadership roles in the community.

Are there any particular stories or feedback from youth that stand out to you and illustrate the impact of the program?

We collect feedback from our mentees and mentors through open-ended survey questions, focused interviews, their monthly check-ins with TMP’s staff, and from TMP’s leadership committees. Mentees often tell us how much they value having an adult mentor who is not only affirming but who also shares their lived experience, as reflected by this comment, “Being able to talk about everything from my gender identity to how my day is going with someone who has gone through similar experiences has allowed me to feel less lonely, and gain confidence in myself, and look forward to the future.”

We also hear about the impact of TMP from our mentees’ caregivers. One comment I often reread is, “When [my teen] first mentioned joining this program, I was skeptical at first. I am so glad they advocated because this has been the best decision for them. [Their mentor] is the only person they know that understands them and is a bright shining light in their life. I cannot thank [their mentor] enough.”

This mentee’s comment about TMP is particularly memorable: “Spaces like this give trans people hope that one day, everywhere will be safe for us to be ourselves.”

Trans Mentor Project was designed to reduce isolation and affirm identity through virtual mentoring and community building. What have you learned so far about what most meaningfully supports trans & nonbinary young people in these spaces?

Three things come to mind. First, we’ve seen the importance of centering the voices and leadership of the young people in the program. The input they provide through participation in YPAR groups, TMP’s Advisory Committee and during check-ins ensures that TMP continues to evolve to meet their needs and also serves as the impetus for making important program changes in real-time. In partnering with them, we see them take ownership of TMP—they’re invested in and proud of TMP’s success, and they want it to be the best it can be for themselves and each other. Second, we’ve learned that while trans young people are definitely looking for help navigating the challenges they face, they’re exhausted from defending and protecting themselves from the increasing hostility aimed at them. We repeatedly hear how much they also appreciate the safe spaces TMP provides where they can relax, explore hobbies, have fun and share joy—including moments of gender euphoria. Third, what stands out is how deeply meaningful it is to them to be seen and understood by so many others who “just get it.”

This program includes a robust mixed-methods evaluation to best understand what works and why. How has integrating research into a community-based program shaped this work?

Integrating a mixed-methods evaluation approach into TMP from the very beginning has been fundamental in shaping the program’s evolution. Because our evaluation and impact research is ongoing and structured to provide frequent qualitative and quantitative information, we stay in tune with what our young people are experiencing within TMP and what they’d like to see added or changed about their experience. This is particularly important as the TMP community grows. It keeps us responsive in a way that I think would be really hard to achieve otherwise.

How do you plan to use the outcomes from Trans Mentor Project to influence broader conversations, policies, or interventions surrounding trans & nonbinary youth wellbeing?

As the only virtual mentoring program designed specifically for and with trans and nonbinary youth, we hope the outcomes from Trans Mentor Project can help shift conversations about trans young people’s wellbeing from focusing primarily on identifying protective factors to reporting results of direct action that cultivates those factors. Specifically, by evaluating a community-based, accessible and scalable intervention, our goal is to demonstrate that sustained connection, mentorship, and community support can produce measurable improvements in the resilience and wellbeing of trans and nonbinary young people.

We plan to share our findings across academic, professional and community spaces. This includes submitting manuscripts to peer-reviewed publications and presenting our findings at conferences. We will also translate our findings into practical knowledge for the public, including LGBTQ+ organizations, healthcare providers, universities, donors, and community partners through education, events, social media, and our website. Ultimately, we want this work to help shape future interventions and encourage policies and funding choices that invest in community-based support for trans and nonbinary youth—and to serve as a model that can be adapted for other minority youth communities.

How has funding from the Direct Action Visionary Grants strengthened or expanded the scale of this work?

The Direct Action Visionary Grant has already expanded the scale of our work. We’ve begun a region-by-region focus on increasing our partnerships and public-facing presentations, and have already seen a 25% increase in mentee and mentor applicants to Trans Mentor Project. We have also strengthened our data collection process—including providing incentives to our young people and volunteer mentors to increase their response rate to our questionnaires. Increasing our database will enable more complex statistical analyses to test TMP’s impact and theory of change, and will help us improve the program.

From your perspective, what does Direct Action in psychology look like for the communities you work with?

From my perspective, Direct Action in psychology draws on our training and experience in psychology to address the needs of communities facing inequitable outcomes stemming from stigma, discrimination, and systemic bias. Most importantly, it means doing so alongside those we serve because they know what they need and what is and isn’t helpful. For us, this meant involving trans and nonbinary young people from the very start of our brainstorming and development of TMP and, since its launch, partnering with those participating in TMP. From a research perspective, youth input has been instrumental in selecting measures and designing additional questions to assess TMP’s impact and helping us understand the findings. In addition, Direct Action in psychology involves researchers who are members of the community they are
researching.

Do you have any advice for future APF Direct Action Visionary Grant applicants or other researchers who want to create a direct and meaningful impact?

My recommendation is to form a team early on that includes researchers, staff from the community organization and members of the group the intervention serves. A long-term collaborative partnership built on mutual respect and trust helps ensure that an intervention is evidence-informed, designed for realistic implementation and sustainable integration within the community it serves, and built to enable meaningful impact and measurement of that impact. In addition, it facilitates direct action that can be adapted in real-time to strengthen the intervention.

This work is incredibly important, but it can become emotionally heavy. What helps you stay grounded and committed to this work?

It’s not the work that feels emotionally heavy. What takes a toll is the constant barrage of anti-trans rhetoric, dangerous policies, discriminatory state laws and media pieces that quote debunked research and spread misinformation about trans people. Expanding Trans Mentor Project to support and empower thousands of trans young people feels restorative, and in the current climate, like an act of resistance. Also, hearing from the young people we serve about how TMP is changing their lives and watching them step into leadership roles is endlessly motivating.

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