Grace Hansen has joined the OUT Maine team as a youth health educator. Hansen’s work will focus on reducing smoking and vaping among LGBTQ+ youth as part of a new partnership with the Center for Tobacco Independence. 

LGBTQ+ youth vape and use tobacco at higher rates than other youth – a critical health disparity, according to OUT, in a news release.

Hansen graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a BA in Anthropology and International and Global Studies. Her past work and volunteer experience has concentrated in youth development, leadership, and community health. She spends most of her free time with her (very large) family or in the mountains and is thrilled to get to explore the Midcoast as she moves to Thomaston to support OUT Maine’s mission, said OUT.

"I am thrilled to be joining such an inspiring team and mission at OUT Maine,” says Grace, in the release. “My past experience studying food insecurity in Franklin County has developed a passion for working with rural health and the barriers that Maine, specifically, faces both geographically and culturally. There are so many people and issues that go unnoticed, and I feel incredibly grateful that I am able to help these people and issues gain visibility as my job and feel passionate about what I am doing."

OUT Maine works toward a welcoming and affirming Maine for all rural young people of diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions and gender identities. In partnership with their allies and families, OUT Maine supports, educates and empowers these youth in their journey from adolescence to adulthood. For more information, or to support OUT”s critical work on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth, please visit our website at outmaine.org.