Jayeson Watts, MSW, MT-BC Direct Services Coordinator 

Jayeson Watts is the Direct Services Coordinator at Youth Pride, Inc. He began his career at YPI simultaneously as a 1st year MSW intern and as a Drop-In Center program staff member in August of 2008. He has facilitated hundreds of hours of trainings and workshops on LGBTQQ topics with an emphasis on gender identity and expression.  His trainings have been attended by a wide range of audiences including human service professionals, community members, families and young people. Prior to working at Youth Pride, Jayeson had seven years of experience working at inpatient psychiatric and residential settings with people of all ages. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and has been a Board Certified Music Therapist since 2002. He earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from Rhode Island College in 2010 where he completed a research study on the capacity of social workers in RI to meet the needs of the transgender community. Jayeson is a member of the Phi Alpha Honor Society for Social Work students, an alumnus of Tau Beta Sigma music sorority and a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient.

In his free time, Jaye enjoys spending time with his partner, his pets and playing music. He is an oboist for several local community ensembles. Jaye is also passionate about volunteering and advocating for causes that are important to him.

Jaye can be reached at Jaye@youthprideri.org