Trailblazing youth leaders at Brave Trails Brave Trails has a mission to build the next generation of LGBTQ leaders. As a non-profit organization dedicated to LGBTQ youth leadership, they aim to help the youth thrive by giving them a space to find their people, their place, and their passion,' and take those skills and experiences gained at their camps out into their communities and the wide world to make impactful change.
They offer several services throughout the year like mental health services, meet-up groups, and family camps, Charlie Moon explains, however their bread and butter is in running youth leadership summer camps for LGBTQ youth aged 12-18.
Charlie Moon, who uses they/them pronouns, is the Operations Planner for Focusrite in the US, and this year, they brought the magic of music production to Brave Trails' leadership summer camp.
I attended the fifth session of Brave Trails in Maryland as a Cabin Counsellor and Program Lead. As a cabin counsellor, I helped supervise campers throughout the day. As a program lead, I designed a 7-day workshop where campers learned the basics of music production.
Founded in 2015, Brave Trails has been steadily growing each year since its launch, with this year being their biggest summer to date - five sessions throughout the summer served approximately 400 campers from 40 different states and ten countries. Four sessions took place in California and the fifth in Maryland.
I became involved through my wife who learned about Brave Trails while volunteering for the Trevor Project, says Charlie. She has volunteered at Brave Trails Summer Camps for the past five years, but this year was my first.
Charlie's involvement with the Brave Trails summer camp was to teach music production to the campers. Their programme emphasised accessibility to music for all, providing them with equipment and essential know-how to get started making music and expressing themselves through song.
Through the Focusrite Pride in Music' Diversity & Inclusion workstream, we were able to donate Focusrite Scarlett Solo Studio packs, Novation Launchkey 37s, and laptop rentals. Without these donations the program would not have been feasible.
The overall goal of the program was to have campers build an 8-bar loop adding a new layer or element each day, resulting in a track the campers could play at a showcase hosted on the last full day of camp, says Charlie.
Given that I had no idea what level of experience with music or technology the campers would have, I was striving to make an experience that was accessible even if you've had zero experience with either. Across the seven days, the structure covered the basics of the gear and software (Ableton Live Lite 11), Drums, Chords, Bass, Melody, Mixing and Showcase performance practice.
A typical day at Brave TrailsBetween waking up, mealtimes and getting ready for bed, the camp included a range of activities, evening programmes and free time for the campers to chill, either on their own or with the wider community of the camp.
At the beginning of camp, campers chose their Build On' programs, with options between music production, musical theatre, poetry, and zine making, then attended their chosen program throughout the ten days of their stay.
Every night at dinner, campers could sign up for new workshops for each day, including LGBTQ History, Anti-Racism - mandatory for all campers and staff with the exception of POC campers who were allowed to opt out and attend a different workshop -, Public Speaking, Farming, Basic Design and many others.
Similarly, Free Choice' programs were available for daily sign-ups, which included dance, a high ropes course, archery, sports, astrology and BT Caf - this was designed to be a quiet break space for campers who needed more down time, to hang out, talk to their friends, paint their nails or read a book.
Trail Blazers Troops' allowed the campers to discuss topics they had submitted at the beginning of camp in small groups. At dinner, campers chose from four different topics for the next day. Some examples of topics included neurodivergence, gender fluidity, anime, nature, Ace/Aro, makeup and fashion, and peanut butter - I didn't realize there was so much to say about this one, Charlie remarks.
Cabin Chill' and Community Chill' hours allowed campers to get on with tasks or activities including cabin cleaning, reading, card games, drawing, and writing notes home, either on their own or with the entire camp collectively. To wind down their days down, campers could attend evening programming, with activities such as talent shows, campfires and skit nights.
One thing worth highlighting about the activities is that the staff worked hard to incorporate visibility and representation wherever possible, Charlie explains. For example, in Music Production, we began each day by highlighting an LGBTQ artist, discussing their accomplishments, and listening to their music. Another example was the sports workshop - it was led by a trans athlete who was able to talk with the campers about his experience coming out and transitioning as a professional athlete.
Unforgettable experiences Brave Trails not only provides formative learning experiences for the campers, but for the camp leaders themselves as Charlie recalls through their experience.
In general, I could not believe how amazing the youth at this camp were. There was so much talent, intelligence, and thoughtfulness. I really wasn't sure what to expect, having not spent much time with kids since I was one, but they really blew me away.
In particular, they point out their surprise in the musical skill of the campers and how fast they picked up music production.
Musically, there was a self-taught guitarist and a few kids who were in school choir. On day one, w
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Trailblazing youth leaders at Brave Trails Brave Trails has a mission to build the next generation of LGBTQ leaders. As a non-profit organization dedicated to LGBTQ youth leadership, they aim to help the youth thrive by giving them a space to find their people, their place, and their passion,' and take those skills and experiences gained at their camps out into their communities and the wide world to make impactful change.
