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Recently, we spoke with the Executive Director of The Trevor Project, Charles Robbins, about their recent advertising campaign, “I’m Glad I Failed”, The Trevor Project and National Suicide Prevention Week, which runs each year from September 7-13th:

Bambi Weavil: How did the “I’m Glad I Failed” campaign come about?

Charles Robbins: We wanted to reach young people at a relatable level, and we believe this campaign does exactly that. It speaks to youth in an understandable yet highly compelling fashion, and encourages them to be accepting and supportive toward one another in order to avoid a tragic loss of life. It also creates awareness about The Trevor Helpline as a resource that LGBTQ youth can turn to when they need someone to listen and understand without judgment. There was a great deal of careful planning surrounding the “I’m Glad I Failed” campaign, including testing the artwork on youth focus groups. We found that young people responded to the campaign and learned something from it, which is extremely important.

Adamo Ruggiero poses at Trevor New York, the eighth annual New York fundraiser benefitting The Trevor Project on June 30, 2008. (credit: The Trevor Project)

The talented and handsome Adamo Ruggiero recently came out this year as a openly gay actor to Canadian press and is a popular star on the highest rated show on The N Network in the United States called Degrassi: The Next Generation. Ruggiero is best known for playing Marco, a long-time openly gay character on the show and Ruggiero spoke with us about his coming out experience, Degrassi and his activism work, as he prepared for PRIDE in Toronto in June 18th.