“My generation is tired and fired up,” said Maxx Fenning, the 23-year-old executive director and founder of PRISM FL, Inc. “We know that we deserve better than what we’ve been handed and we are ready to take the mantle and fight for that.”
The non-profit dedicated to expanding access to LGBTQ-inclusive education and sexual health resources for youth has House Bill 331 and Senate Bill 1492 in the current session of the Florida legislature. The bills aim to return the approval of sexual health curricula to local school districts after it was moved in 2023 to the State Department of Education. That department did not approve submitted plans as it took 18 months to provide one of its own.
“In some cases, out of Orange County for instance, they couldn’t use the words consent or abuse or fluids, and that reproductive health curriculum could not include diagrams of human anatomy,” Fenning reported. “They could not talk about specific types of sex and essentially, in the plainest terms, teach abstinence-only sexual health education.”
Advocacy is nothing new for the University of Florida graduate, who seven years ago this month first met with three other students at their Boca Raton Community High School to launch a genders and sexualities alliance (GSA). One year later, that evolved into registering PRISM as a non-profit organization.
“Our Fund Foundation has been a supporter of PRISM for a number of years now,” Fenning said. “There has been a stagnation in individual donorship and we have seen a real significant pullback on the corporate side especially to the support of LGBT organizations as we see attacks on DEI. A lot of our funding does come from the support of organizations that have the backs of the LGBT community. Our Fund has been a phenomenal supporter of PRISM and the work that we do.”
Among the programs that received direct support from Our Fund is the STI clinic search and network resource that assists anyone of any age to find free and low-cost STI testing across Southeast Florida.
“We’ve expanded it over the years to include things like PrEP, PEP and Doxy-PEP as well as preventative medications for HIV and bacterial STIs. Last year we implemented the STI clinic search helper that is essentially just a questionnaire that, of course, is anonymous and not retained. They get tailored information and resources that are going to best support their needs while also giving them what we like to call micro-education as there are aspects of STI testing that young people may not be aware of and may not even know to ask about.”
PRISM’s services directly align with the findings of the Our Fund Community Needs Assessment undertaken in 2024 that noted “Youth voiced: Give us support to be seen, understood, valued, and safe.” Toward that end, Our Fund has also supported PRISM’s student ambassador program.
“PRISM isn’t just a youth serving organization, we’re a youth-led organization,” Fenning said. “It’s always been a founding doctrine of our organization that the people that are closest to the problem are the closest to the solution. Our student ambassador program, which we call P-SAP for short, is a support network for GSAs and other LGBT student organizations. We give young people the resources that they need to run student organizations effectively from recruiting and retaining members, to social media strategies, to knowing the law and what protections and restrictions that they have. This is really how we’re able to build a new generation of leaders.”
Born decades after Stonewall, the leaders of PRISM have joined the struggle to promote LGBTQA+ equality, create safe spaces, and fight for social justice.
“I’ve been told as a young, big nonprofit executive that I’m inspiring, that the folks are so excited that I’m doing this work,” he said. “What that often feels like is ‘I’m so excited you’re doing this work because I don’t have to anymore.’ We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent, thinking that this generation will save us. Gen Z is not a savior. We’re a co-conspirator.”
The Art of Community
A prism bends white light into a rainbow of colors comprised of different individual wavelengths. It is a fitting name for a non-profit that operates under the banner “For every color, for everyone.”
A prism is also often in the shape of a triangle, the symbol Nazis used to mark gays for extermination in World War II, and which was later adopted by ACT UP, the activist group at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
The cultural and civic organizations that the Our Fund Foundation supports honor LGBTQA+ history as they continue fighting to preserve and expand hard-won rights while also creating brand new avenues for our community to thrive into the future. By highlighting these vital pillars, we invite you to learn more and join with us by volunteering, donating and taking action.
David Jobin
The Our Fund Foundation
President & CEO
