Mission

The mission of the PFLAG/HATCH Youth Scholarship Foundation (PHYSF) is to provide educatinoal scholarships to Houston area GLBT youth. 

History 

The PFLAG/HATCH Youth Scholarship Foundation is a combination of two scholarship programs previously offered by community organizations in Houston.  In 1998, two non-profit organizations, PFLAG-Houston and Houston Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals (H.A.T.C.H.), separately raised funds for scholarships but combined their efforts to jointly qualify youth applicants for scholarship awards.  The project proved to be so successful that the two organizations decided in 1999 to incorporate a new, stand-alone foundation named the PFLAG/HATCH Youth Scholarship Foundation and used this new entity to unify their scholarship programs. 

Today, PHYSF is a tax-exempt entity separate from each of PFLAG-Houston and H.A.T.C.H., but each of these original sponsors have pledged to continue their contributions, both in terms of financial support and volunteer hours, even as PHYSF has established its own, independent identity in the GLBT community.

PHYSF is one of the most successful GLBT scholarship-granting foundations in the United States, dedicated to the purpose of raising scholarship funds for disenfranchised GLBT youth.  Having granted more than 220 scholarships valued at over one million dollars through the 2009-11 academic year, PHYSF's contribution to Houston's GLBT youth is fundamental to the continued development and re-affirmation of their self concept.
 
Identifying GLBT students and making them aware of our program is a major challenge.  PHYSF, P-FLAG and HATCH work together through their respective outreach programs to increase awareness of PHYSF's scholarship program in Houston-area high schools, colleges and universities.  

Statistics

From inception through the 2009-11 academic year:

• 266 scholarship applicants
• 226 scholarships awarded
• $1,014,300.00 total scholarship dollars awarded
• Scholarship recipients self-identify as:
  • 60 % male
  • 40% female
  • 1% transgendered
  • 52% Caucasian
  • 10% African American
  • 28% Hispanic
  • 7% other ethnicity