Layla Firuz started directing the Queer Youth Rights program last September, ending its two-year hiatus in the Seattle Young People's Project. Six months later she was accepting the award for Nonprofit of the Year from the Greater Seattle Business Association.

"It was a huge surprise, ... and it's a huge honor," she said. "It's rewarding to feel like the rest of the community recognizes that what we're doing is important. It's good to feel a connection between the younger community and the adults, because frequently that's not there."

Queer Youth Rights members meet once a week, to discuss issues ranging from the independent magazine they publish to their annual trip to "Young, Loud and Proud," a queer youth leadership conference in San Francisco. "It's a place for queer youth to just know there are other queer youth out there," Firuz said.

The mission of QYR is very much the same and has made a difference in the lives of people like Firuz, who is 18. "It's been really wonderful for me personally, as a queer youth who goes to public school," she said. "There's definitely not as much community for queer youth as there should be. It's been wonderful for kids to have that forum."

Seattle Young People's Project has been offering various programs for local youth for nearly a decade and was very pleasantly surprised to be the recipient of an award. "We don't often get recognition from big groups like [the GSBA]," said Mike Graham-Squire, director of SYPP. Noting that Queer Youth Rights members were sent to the event to receive the award, he added, "I think they really felt appreciated."

Firuz noted she was rather nervous. "When I found out I had to go up there and say something, I was really scared," she said. "But the people there were very warm and enthusiastic."

Queer Youth Rights is one of SYPP's longest running programs and began in 1994 as Gay Youth Rights, a caucus of queer youth participants in other programs. At the time, Graham-Squire said, there were not a lot of programs for LGBT youth in Seattle.

"There was a real need for a space for queer youth to come together and have a support group," he said. They started off with such things as anti-homophobia workshops, and they were instrumental in getting more literature addressing queer youth issues in local school library collections.

Other early programs included Project Street Life, which involved homeless youth visiting schools, churches and community groups to talk about what it was like to live on the streets.

The organization was started by Flip Rosenberg, whose move from Boston was specifically for that. "He basically wanted to have a place where youth could go and where youth could take charge, and adults would take a supporting role," said Graham-Squire, who is the organization's fourth director.

Seattle Young People's Project now has around 10 ongoing programs besides QYR. From the Youth Art Collective to Youth Against Corporate Exploitation Worldwide to Youth Undoing Institutional Racism, there is a program that caters to every interest.

Graham-Squire, now 27, started as a youth member of the organization himself during his senior year in high school. "It was very empowering to see that a group of youth could totally plan and put on a conference ourselves," he said, alluding to the entirely youth-generated programs of the organization. "Through the process I learned a lot of organizing skills."

All youth members are under 19, and they vote on proposed projects that other young people introduce. Everyone on the Board of Directors in under 25, Graham-Squire said. "Now I'm one of the oldest people involved in the organization," he added.

"Seattle Young People's Project is an amazing place because it's run for youth by youth," Firuz said. "It's there to empower youth, and it's a beautiful place."

"That's pretty much the mission of the organization," said Graham-Squire. "To help youth see that they can make a difference."

Seattle Young People's Project holds bi-monthly general meetings to draw new youth members and initiate new youth-led projects. To lend support or for more information on the organization, call Graham-Squire or program coordinator Andre McKinney at (206) 860-9606. For more information on the Queer Youth Rights program, e-mail Firuz at queeryouth_rights@hotmail.com.