An episode of Changing the Conversation podcast.
Elliott Hinkle shares their experiences providing community aid to youth with a focus on LGBTQIA2S+ youth with host Rowan Willis-Gorman. This episode is part of a series featuring youth peer workers and recovery innovators discussing how to improve and uplift behavioral health systems for youth.
January 20, 2026
[Music]
Rowan (00:02): Hello and welcome to Changing the Conversation. I’m your host, Rowan Willis Gorman. I’m a subject matter expert and manager at C4 Innovations within our Center for Youth Well-Being. Today’s conversation is part of a podcast series called The Next Generation of Recovery Leaders, where together, we’ll learn from youth peer workers and recovery innovators across the country about how they’re utilizing creativity, grassroots organizing, and determination to uplift a behavioral health system for them. Through conversation and reflective storytelling, we’ll explore the current landscape of youth and young adult recovery systems across the country, discuss how innovative youth voices have impacted those systems, and how harmful legislation is being met with passionate young advocates pushing towards a brighter future. Our aim is to uplift and recognize the vibrant youth leaders and to inspire the next generation of advocates. Today, I have Elliott Orrin Hinkle, using they/them pronouns with me.
(01:02):
Elliott is the principal and founder of Unicorn Solutions, LLC. They are based in Wyoming, but travel nationally as an expert on child welfare, youth mental health, and LGBTQ populations, particularly in rural spaces. Hi, Elliott. It’s really great to have you join us today.
Elliott (01:21): Yeah, glad to be here. Thanks for having me, Rowan.
Rowan (01:24): So Elliott, you do such amazing work across the country and specifically in Wyoming. What led you to start working in this field?
Elliott (01:34): Yeah, I think part of what led me to this field is, of course, my own lived experience growing up in foster care in Wyoming, experiencing conversion therapy in Wyoming and surviving that, and then leaving for college, but also just wanting to create a better future for myself. That journey certainly was informative of what supports were and were not there and the experience I had knowing that other young people are probably experiencing something similar and wanting to change that experience, both preventing some of those harms, but also creating stronger supports. And so, a lot of my lived experience really continues to drive my work, even though the experiences I had were, I would say, in a different system because time has changed. And just wanting there to be passionate advocates along the way for the next generations of young people to have support them and to help them figure out that there’s ways you can use your voice, you can organize, you can change things and to not lose hope in all of that.
(02:30):
And so, I think that’s continued to drive me to be in this field and to want to do work that helps others and helping adults treat kids better. There’s still a lot of the same sort of struggles and issues, change and improve the way that we live our lives.
Rowan (02:46): Elliott, I remember the first time I met you. I think it was my first HT (Healthy Transitions: Improving Life Trajectories for Youth and Young Adults with Serious Mental Disorders Program) Youth Coordinator meeting, which was many, many years ago. It was really also my first time meeting other youth peer workers across the country. I think I had a weird notion that I was alone in a little bubble and meeting you and meeting all the other youth coordinators really kind of allowed me to see that there was work happening outside of Maryland, but also outside of the Youth Move space, which was so cool to see because it also showed me that there was work happening in other parts of the child serving system, not just mental health, behavioral health. And you and I both grew up in rural and conservative unaccepting communities. I grew up queer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which for folks that aren’t familiar with Maryland, is a very rural and conservative place.
(03:44):
It’s a very challenging place to grow up queer. And I think you and I also both worked to, as we grew up and reached adulthood, support queer youth in those communities and to try and give back. I know from my experience that that is very challenging and very stressful. I ended up moving away to a different part of Maryland in Baltimore that has a much larger queer community because it just felt like the best choice for me at the time. But in your experience, how did you navigate this and how did you create safe boundaries for yourself in doing this work?
Elliott (04:18): Well, I think certainly the boundary stuff is just an ongoing process of learning and unlearning and what I like and don’t like and what I would put up with or not. I certainly know more now, but Wyoming taught me a lot about what I would put up with or not. And there was the survival times of like, I’ll do what I need to do to get through. But knowing that for me, college was my ticket out of my hometown. I had a scholarship called the Daniels Fund that would let you transfer once to somewhere else and they’d still cover your college funding. And so, I used that as my ticket out of Wyoming to Portland, Oregon.
(04:53):
And what I didn’t know at the time was that moving to Portland was going to plug me into the right sort of launch for my lived experience foster care, child welfare career of people that could help support me, but would also help me learn skills to coach and mentor other young people, things that I had dreamed of doing, but was giving me the skills to do it without the constraints of needing to go to social work programs. So I did a Women’s Studies, Gender Sexuality, Queer Studies undergrad as my study. And that was really helpful for me so I could both answer some questions about myself that I wasn’t getting answered in Wyoming and at the same time, find my community both professionally and personally. And that was huge. That really helped me see what do I need to be able to even try to do this work and what questions do I want to answer about myself?
(05:35):
And I think somehow along the way, I didn’t lose curiosity about the people who had harmed me or their beliefs in the sense that “How did people get there? Why do they desire so much to change other people or to think that something’s wrong with us?” How do I understand them better to then potentially reach them later and to reach parents who are harming their kids in the name of love, but not understanding the harm that they’re doing. And that’s in child welfare or other systems or not. It’s across the board a challenge. And so, I think for me, learning the boundaries of what that looks like is why it’s important for us to all understand that we don’t all have to do this work. For me, having conversations with people who say things that are completely against my humanity, that’s not something we all can do or should do, but if we are able to find ways to do it, it can be really important work.
(06:23):
I think the discomfort of sitting with parents who had harmed kids was probably a learning process, too. People who love their kids, but also still had caused harm. For some folks, that’s not a room they can’t even stand to be in, understandably so. I think identifying those things somewhat by accident along the way has helped me sort of carve out this path for myself that has both some compassion and empathy and patience while still wanting to hold people accountable and help them do better and not continue to cause harm. But it’s also in this process taught me boundaries around what of my story I want to share or have to share and what I don’t need to share anymore or how I share it, that people don’t have a right to things in my life just because maybe they’ve heard about it or whatever. I feel like I’m learning all the time, and especially in this time period, what’s important to me and made it clear what’s important to me right now.
(07:11):
I don’t have a desire to be quiet about who I am or harms that are occurring because they’re still happening. And that’s to me in so many regards, the easy way out, to just pretend it’s not there to check out. I don’t think I could do that both ethically and just like, I think I’d be bored doing something else. I’d be like, “I should be helping people. What am I doing?” That’s some of what got me to this point, I think, regularly though still revisiting this question of, “Is it helpful? Am I helping? Is this what I should be doing?” versus getting lost in this maybe overinflated idea of what I’m doing is the right thing and it’s working. I’d rather constantly sort of question, “This has been good. Is this the thing or should I do something else?” And so, I’m just sort of rolling along.
(07:50):
And I joke with people that the work that I’m doing is something that I’m just sort of doing until the wheels fall off and then I’ll figure something else out. So far, the wheels have been going for a while, so I’m not too worried, but it’s given me things to do that really fill me with both pride and I feel like I’ve found at least where I need to be for the time being. And so, I’m really grateful to get to do this work.
Rowan (08:10): Elliott, I love that you have such a passion for it. And also, I love the acknowledgement of it’s not for everyone, it doesn’t need to be for everyone. When I first started working in this field, I was so driven to support queer youth like me in rural settings. And I put myself out there in ways that I think 31-year-old Rowan would never do, but 21-year-old Rowan was like, “Yeah.” And it led me to situations that I still kind of reflect on, whether it be complete strangers. This is the joke that I tell, but it happened, complete strangers coming up to me in the grocery store and asking me to define different terminology for them, to having parents bring their children to the LGBTQ Youth Move group that I ran and asking me to fix them and being stuck with the thought process of did I do the right thing by saying, “No, your child doesn’t need to be fixed.” Was the representation and affirmation the right choice in that moment?
(09:13):
And I think that was what kind of led me to be like, “This isn’t right for me in this time.” But I still… I like the language of until the wheels fall off. I love the work that I do in a more national scope and more of thinking broadly about youth peer work and youth advocacy, but I still have that churning of like, “Do I want to go back and do this? Do I want to go back to the rural community that I both love and harmed me?” And so, it’s really amazing to watch you dive into that with such sincerity and honest reflection. And I want to talk a little bit more about the work that you’re doing in your community. But first, I’m wondering if you can give us a definition of what community aid means, because I know that a lot of the work you do is around community aid.
Elliott (10:00): I really think about community aid via the mutual aid idea. And Dean Spade has a book that’s literally called Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next). In the cover of the book, it said, “Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.” And that’s probably an overly simplistic sort of very general definition. But for me, so much of my work before I even understood what mutual aid was, is mutual aid, which is like, how do we help people without needing them to justify their suffering to prove that they’re suffering enough to need help, to meet some sort of definition that’s in systems of “You’re not poor enough so you can’t have this safety net.” Mutual aid is so much about, and community aid is so much about, I have the resource or the thing, you have a need, let’s get you that thing and not require you to pay it back or to justify it or whatever.
(10:50):
It’s just helping for the sake of helping because we care about each other and how that will change the way that we operate and look at each other over the idea that more people probably know about, which is charity. And charity often comes from a place of, yes, wanting to help, but this sort of, “I have a lot and I get to help you and I sort of have a power over you and you need to justify and prove that you still should be having this. And once you’re at a good enough place, you’re on your own.” And that mindset doesn’t actually help people sustain that change, but it also lacks… I think it’s more transactional versus relational. And so, the core of my work I think is also relationships and knowing people and caring about them and connecting them and connecting them to each other.
(11:30):
So when I think of community aid work here in Wyoming, but any state that I go to, things that I’m thinking about is like, who’s in my community, even if I’m not going to be best friends with them, they make my community work also. Their presence here is they’re here, whether I want it or not. And I also think about when I was serving young people when I first came out as trans and I was doing ILP (Independent Living Program) work as a young person, I remember telling young people when I transitioned that also if they didn’t want to work with me anymore, that was fine, if it made them uncomfortable. And I only had one young person who sort of chose out and they were a young person who was, like any young person here in Wyoming, because I was doing that work in Portland, Oregon. So I had a lot of progressive youth, but I had a young person who was certainly, like, their family supported conservative politics and were far more unsupportive and he didn’t want to work with me anymore. And that was fine.
(12:16):
And I say that as in we all deserve to get help regardless of what is going on and what our beliefs are. Doesn’t mean it’s okay to be hateful or to say terrible things or do terrible things, but we all likely need a hand up and support and we will do better when we’re in our community actually feeling connected to one another and feeling like we actually are cared for and that we have belonging. So community aid work for me is not just the getting people the resources they need, but it’s the way we see and view each other and hold each other up. Doesn’t mean you have to be best friends, but that caring goes a really long way. And it’s been a healing process for me to come back to the community that harmed me and create groups and support and conversations to represent what does it look like to come back here and not hold a hostility to this community, but a sort of, “I’m going to do you one better.
(13:02):
I’m going to come here and care even more and try to help more versus giving you some sort of satisfaction of I’m here in rage or revenge, like, that doesn’t do anything for me. I think if we all can get to a place when it feels like our society is sort of crumbling to understand what mutual aid is, we’re going to need it to see ourselves through this time period. When the systems fall apart, how do I still show up for other people and having a sort of understanding of, if I have a resource and you have a need, that’s good enough to help you. It doesn’t have to be justified beyond that. That’s where some of my work really comes from.
Rowan (13:31): That is such a beautiful definition, Elliott. And I think I am many things, but I am a peer worker at the forefront of all of those things. And what you really just spoke about, I think just struck one of the main tenets of peer work, which is mutuality, that concept of we are all working together to support one another towards whatever our common goal is in that exact moment, whether it be helping someone find housing, someone navigate a system that was not meant to be navigated easily, or even more simple things about having some food to eat that night. So appreciate you sharing that definition for folks. And I know that you do a lot of different types of community or mutual aid work in Wyoming. Can you tell us a little bit about what those might look like?
Elliott (14:14): So Unicorn Solutions is the sort of umbrella of my LLC. When I’m in Wyoming, I’m Western Unicorn Solutions, and I’m also a Director of Community Education and Wellbeing at Casper Pride, which is a local nonprofit. And so, whether it’s the Unicorn hat or Pride hat, I started a group for parents of trans kids and adults called Transparency. And that group is truly just about both social connection and peer support among parents that have queer and trans kids and adults and are navigating a world that’s telling them not only there’s something wrong with their kids, but that there’s something wrong with them for loving their kids fully. And so, wanted to create this space that helps them know that there isn’t actually anything wrong, but that also a lot of them felt really isolated and were sort of self-isolating out of safety for their kids, but it meant that they were that much further cut off from social community support.
(15:04):
And so, just in the act of creating that group and bringing people together, I think is where the idea of relationship is the intervention really comes to life, that we don’t need to have an entire agenda or have a whole program or curriculum, that right now what people need is support and community that feels safe, non-judgmental, and free as much as possible as well, reducing any of those barriers. I certainly get something out of that, which is all these parents come together and I get to sort of connect with them and see people love their queer and trans kids as they should. We did a queer prom here for Trans Day of Visibility last year called Masquerade. And what was beautiful about that is that it was both like the prom most of us didn’t get, but it was also a night to feel beautiful as yourself.
(15:47):
This writer, Alok Vaid-Menon, has a quote that says, “The days that I feel most beautiful are the days that I’m most afraid.” Creating an evening where people got to be their most authentic, beautiful selves and they might have been afraid, but for a night they got to be themselves and really beautiful. Beyond that, we’ve created clothing closets, food pantry, access to events, connecting people to therapists, finding out who are the safe therapists or providers in our community and creating that list. Are there people that people can call and trust to reach out to for help?
Rowan (16:16): It’s so amazing to hear about all the different elements of the community that you’re touching. You truly are trying to impact the world as much as you possibly can in this beautiful way. What do you hope the future of Wyoming looks like for queer youth?
Elliott (16:34): It’s almost a question I could cry about because I hope that there is a future for queer youth in Wyoming, and I think we’re working really hard to make that so. And I think very validly, families are scared, especially for minor kiddos, that they’ll need to leave the state not only to get care, but to keep their kids safe under what feels like a time that’s trying to make trans existence illegal, make mechanisms that would take kids from families, which is the exact opposite of the work people have been doing for years in child welfare to stop family policing. Those are real challenges. And I think in some regards, people see some of this as so political that they don’t want to talk about it. And I’m like, “But it’s actually happening. It’s not just an idea or belief, like, this has actually impacted kids and families. Don’t tell me this is just political.” For me, I hope that Wyoming can get to a place where we undo the gender-affirming care ban for minors law.
(17:23):
I’d love to get to a place where we build back the support because when you build affirming spaces for people, it takes years to build out. And as we see right now, it could take nine months or less to just absolutely obliterate public support. And I want kids to walk through their neighborhood and see a sign in someone’s yard that says, “Acceptance saves lives, start at home,” and not just see that as a supportive sign, but, “Hey, my neighbor is someone that’s safe. There are people that know about me and care if I had to go to my neighbor’s house.” Right now, I don’t know that that’s the feeling youth have, let alone that families have. That same person I was quoting earlier, Alok Vaid-Menon, also has a quote that says, “What parts of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in this world?” I don’t think we should be destroying any parts of ourselves to have to survive in this world.
(18:09):
Ideally, people are thriving, not surviving. I hope Wyoming becomes a place where we also pass laws that should have happened when Matthew Shepherd was murdered. Yesterday was the anniversary of that. So I want Wyoming to actually be the equality state, which is the phrase, the slogan of Wyoming that we’re the equality state. I’d like us to actually be that. And I don’t think we are right now, but I know there are a lot of people here who care about trying to create a world that that’s actually true.
Rowan (18:33): That is such a beautiful goal to strive towards. And I want my home where I grew up to become a place where growing up queer is not a scary thing and not a thing that needs to be a secret. I hope that anyone that’s listening to this walks away with the knowledge that just being open and supportive and welcoming can still be lifesaving. Elliott, I want to thank you so much for having this conversation with us. This has been something I’ve been really looking forward to. Thank you for joining us today.
Elliott (19:05): Thanks for having me. And I think I’d just say to folks who are listening that I want to be a symbol for people and I also have to make sure I have spaces to take it off and turn off and take care of myself. The secret to some of that sauce and that success is that, yeah, you have to show up, but you also have to have your space and your places, too. So don’t forget that. Keep going. Thanks for having me, Rowan.
Rowan (19:24): To all of our listeners, join us next time on Changing the Conversation.
Lee Locke-Hardy (19:29): Visit C4Innovates.com and follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube for more resources to grow your impact. Thank you for joining us. This episode was produced by Lee Locke-Hardy and Christina Murphy. Our theme song was written and performed by Peter Hanlon. Join us next time for Changing the Conversation.
Listen to other episodes in the Next Generation Recovery Leaders series.