Cel­e­brat­ing Nation­al Com­ing Out Day & The LGBTQ+ Cen­ter’s First Anniversary!

October 08, 2020

10/10/2020 — Nation­al Com­ing Out Day! KYC is proud to cel­e­brate the LGBTQ+ Com­mu­ni­ty every day as we hon­or and sup­port all peo­ple as they live as their authen­tic selves. Octo­ber 10^th also marks the one year anniver­sary of KYC’s LGBTQ+ Cen­ter cre­at­ing com­mu­ni­ty for youth and young adults iden­ti­fy­ing as LGBTQ+.

Devel­oped to cre­ate a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults to con­nect, learn, and engage with one anoth­er, the LGBTQ+ Cen­ter has spent the last year sup­port­ing hun­dreds of youth and fam­i­lies across the north­west sub­urbs. From movie nights to social­ly-dis­tant gath­er­ings, Pride Parades to a month­ly sup­port group for Par­ents and Guardians of LGBTQ+ Youth, the Cen­ter builds bonds between peo­ple and offers oppor­tu­ni­ties for connection.

“I def­i­nite­ly love my job, my com­mu­ni­ty, and my team. My favorite part of get­ting to cre­ate pro­grams for LGBTQ+ peo­ple and their fam­i­lies is see­ing the ways that car­ing for one per­son splin­ters into impact­ing a whole com­mu­ni­ty” shared Don­na Boguslavsky, LGBTQ+ Cen­ter Project Lead. ​“The Cen­ter exists as a place for mar­gin­al­ized peo­ple to feel whole, authen­tic, and valid.”

Even through the pan­dem­ic, the Cen­ter con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners to host vir­tu­al events, such as their Queer, Mus­lim, and in the Burbs pan­el and VIDA[X] Train­ing Series which was in part­ner­ship with The Pin­ta Pride Project and The Human Rights Cam­paign.

Head­ing into its sec­ond year, the LGBTQ+ Cen­ter’s pro­gram­ming and impact con­tin­ue to grow. The team has start­ed a Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil to help guide and lead future pro­gram­ming, empow­er­ing youth to take an active role in devel­op­ing the sup­ports and activ­i­ties that meet their inter­ests, needs, and goals. In addi­tion, peer groups are start­ing for mid­dle school stu­dents, as well as a Span­ish-speak­ing par­ents to pro­vide cus­tomized sup­port tai­lored to each group. 

To get involved with the LGBTQ+ Cen­ter or to learn more about their pro­gram­ming, email LGBTQCenter@​kennethyoung.​org!

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