Friends and Supporters,
First and foremost, thank you for your continued support of ALSO Out Youth! We have faced many challenges the last few years, and with your help we have made it through and are now seeing a record number of youth at our drop-in Center, expanded programs, and a new sense of accomplishment in making our community a better place for our LGBTQ youth and their families and friends.
Our Executive Director, Sue Westcott, and our board of directors have really stepped up to promote our renewed message and vision.
With a reduction in grants and business donations, we have expanded our events and have found innovative ways to fund our programs. But your continued support now and in 2012 is needed more than ever.
One important initiative is our Mentor Program which will become operational in 2012. As part of that program we hope to send several youth to Orlando to distribute voter registration forms during Gay Days at Disney. ALSO is part of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation's "Gulf Coast Gives" website (www.gulfcoastgives.org/projects/452). Our current project is to help fund our Mentor Program, and any and all donations are greatly appreciated.
We also will be having Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally (www.athleteally.org) visiting Sarasota and our area schools in 2012 to spread this organization's important message of learning appreciation of differences and overcoming anti-gay bullying in athletics. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting event.
Again, THANK YOU in helping to make
2011 a success for ALSO. We look forward to many, many more years of providing
support and resources to our GLBTQ youth.
All the best,
Greg Taylor,
President
of the ALSO Board
