OUT Maine is very grateful to Burlington Code Academy students Bob, Julie, Korey, Will, Alan and Shadman, who worked closely with OUT Maine staff to develop a better system to track and fulfill youth binder requests. 

What is a binder, you might ask? Binders, or chest binders, are specially-designed compression garments that help flatten the chest. Binders help many transgender youth and adults live their lives more authentically or feel more comfortable in their bodies, and also can help folks navigate public spaces more safely.

OUT Maine provides free chest binders to any Maine transgender, nonbinary, gender-expansive, or any other LGBTQ+ youth, ages 14 to 22, who needs one and cannot afford to purchase or safely obtain one. Since the program launched in July, binder requests were arriving daily. Clearly, OUT needed an online ordering system to better manage these requests.

Students at Burlington Code Academy’s coding bootcamp program stepped up and we are so grateful! As their school project, the student team designed a wonderful online ordering process that is now integrated into OUT Maine’s website. We can now fill these important requests more quickly, thanks to this great team of coders! This project is the second coding project for OUT completed by the Burlington Code Academy. We are deeply thankful for this Academy support for LGBTQ+ youth!