In This Issue
- Long Island Center Launches Awareness Campaign
- Resource Center Dallas Responds to President Obama
- LGBT High School Program Opens at LA Center
- OutCentral TN Plans Summit, Looks At Expansion
- Affirmations Youth Program Reboots
What is Center Links?
From fighting for equality, to serving diverse needs, creating a safe space, and building community and unity, LGBT community centers are the backbone of the LGBT movement. Center Links is the monthly newsletter to see highlights of what is happening every day at centers all over. Center Links is in your mailbox the 10th of every month.About CenterLink
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers was formed in 1994 to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBT community centers and to build a unified center movement. Learn more at www.LGBTcenters.org
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CenterLink members can submit their stories to be featured in an upcoming issue of CenterLinks, and we will do our best to include them. Please submit to Guido Sanchez, guido@LGBTcenters.org
Long Island Center Launches Public Ad Campaign Promoting LGBT Awareness
If you travel the roads or rails on Long Island, chances are you will see advertising promoting gay acceptance. The ads started popping up a week ago and more are on the way. The messages on the advertisements read, "I am Gay, and this is where I play."
The posters and billboards are the first of their kind on Long Island. The campaign is meant to raise awareness and prevent homophobia. Long Island Gay and Lesbian youth or LIGALY, paid $37,000 on the ads that are on Nassau County MTA buses and on Long Island Railroad station platforms.
"This is very positive," LIGALY CEO David Kilmnick told PIX News. "This is about where we live, where we pay our taxes. This is where we play in terms of basketball and other things and it's a very positive campaign." Click here to read more.
Resource Center Dallas Issues Statement Responding to The State of The Union
The following statement is from Mike McKay, executive director of Resource Center Dallas, on President Obama's statement that he will work with Congress to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" barring the GLBT community from openly serving in the military:
President Obama's pledge to work with the legislative branch to end the misguided ‘don't ask, don't tell' policy is worthy of praise. It's important to note, though, that GLBT Americans have heard these words before. As a candidate, President Obama said them on the stump; and just last fall, he said them at the HRC dinner in Washington. Talking is for campaigns; action is for leaders. The time is long overdue to move beyond speeches and put the "fierce advocacy" we were promised before the 2008 elections into action.
Read more by clicking here.
LGBT High School Program Begins at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in Los Angeles has added a new service: now, in addition to housing, job placement, health, and other areas of assistance, the center provides a safe educational environment for LGBT students.
There’s need for such a program, given the experiences of many GLBT youth, noted a Feb. 1 article in the Los Angeles Times, which characterized the educational program as a "harassment-free school" and reported that students in the program meet with instructors twice weekly, doing a considerable amount of homework in between sessions. The program is set up to accommodate around 40 students, ranging from 7th through 12th grades, but the program could be expanded if there’s enough response. For the time being, one instructor sees to the education of three students. But the program is not an equivalency program: graduates receive a high school diploma, just as if they had attended a regular school.
Read more by clicking here.
OutCentral Tennessee Plans Summit and Pushes Expansion Forward
As it continues to expand its programming to reach all aspects of the Middle Tennessee GLBT community, OutCentral cultural center is planning a leadership summit designed to give multiple community organizations a forum.
The summit is set for Feb. 18, and the goal will be for leaders and groups to come not only with their own agenda, but also listen to other people and organizations to see how they might come together, said Jim Hawk, executive director.
“We want it to be an open meeting to get opinions and input, but we need to listen to each other first and foremost so we can reformulate what we’re doing and facilitate everyone’s ability to work together,” Hawk said. “We want to see what these leaders can come up with so that we can do more as a community, and so that we can engage the 18 to 25-year-olds as well as our older community members.”
Read more by clicking here.
Affirmations Youth Program Has a New Look & a New Vision
Despite the fun they have, it's not a free-for-all for Affirmations youth, which number at least 70 and range in age from early teens to their early 20s. Last year, the center began to reinvent the entire program, aiming to provide more structure and assistance to these LGBT and questioning young adults, who need much more than just a place to hang out.
"Over the course of the past few months, I've been focusing on the dynamics of the program changing, because it wasn't something that was going to be a gradual process," explains Youth Program Manager Ryan Oliver, who took over the transitioning effort late last summer. "It was something that needed to be done."
And that sentiment holds true not just for Affirmations board and staff members, but for the youth as well. Oliver and his staff held focus groups with the teens to hear what they needed from the center. The biggest theme? Structure.
Read more by clicking here.