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Empowering LGBTQ+ Youth and their Allies

A place where you belong.

Free drop-in nights, support groups, and counseling for LGBTQ+ youth ages 10 to 24 and the people who love them. In Sarasota and Bradenton since 1992.

Find your night Get support
  • Campers settling onto sleeping bags under a glowing blue tank that arches overhead.
    Aquarium overnight
  • The mummy wrap game at Halloween in the Sarasota Center lounge, with streamers of toilet paper across the floor.
    Halloween 2025
  • A cozy corner of the Sarasota Center lounge with couches, red curtains, a brick wall, guitars, and pride flags overhead.
    The Sarasota Center, open again after Hurricane Milton

Next event

ALSO Youth Camping Trip

Saturday, Dec 12, Overnight, 3 PM Saturday to 10 AM Sunday

Happening next

Checking this week's schedule.

Who are you here for?

Live from the schedule

This week at ALSO

Week & month view

2026 End of Year Campaign

Open Doors, Open Hearts

Open the door for EVERY young person!

For many LGBTQ+ youth, home is complicated. Some have supportive families, some are not out at home, and some face rejection. ALSO Youth opens doors to a place where they can show up exactly as they are. When Hurricane Milton took our Sarasota Center, young people lost more than a building. This holiday season, every gift helps us keep the doors open!

Your personal gift may be doubled thanks to the Louis and Gloria Flanzer Philanthropic Trust. Monthly gifts count too! And monthly sustainers get to join our Inner Circle.

$0 of $20,000 match unlocked

Thank you to our matching partners: Martha and Evans Edinger, Toby Deutsch, and Patrick Cosgrove and Bill Myers.

Double your gift with Flanzer!Give through QgivAll ways to give
ALSO Youth members and friends filling a few rows of green stadium seats.

Shop a wishlist

@alsoyouth

Follow along

  • Two friends in front of a colorful mural, one kissing the top of the other's head.
  • Two young people proudly holding up the zines they made, in front of a wildly colorful painted wall.
  • Two young people doing crafts on a couch under a Queer Kids Are The Future mural.
  • A group of young people sitting on the carpet, backs to the camera, watching a penguin on the rocks through a big glass tank.
  • Four friends posing in front of a sparkly photo booth curtain with teal and gold drapes.
  • Campers shaping gray clay at a table covered in a sparkly rainbow tablecloth.
  • A big group posing in front of a huge orange and yellow net sculpture at the art museum.
  • About a dozen young people posing together in a room at the center, one lying on the floor in front.
  • The ALSO Youth rainbow tent on a closed street under a bright blue sky, with the booth set up and people passing by.

Gallery

Our latest photos

See the full gallery
  • Kids trick or treating
  • ALSO Youth table trick or treat
  • Trick or treat table with books, parent with child talk to person in costume
  • Three people gather around ALSO Youth trick or treat table
  • Person dressed in nurse costume doing CPR on skeleton
  • Candy on table
  • Person behind face with whole posing
  • ALSO Youth trick or treat table
  • Trick or treating at 1,000 Pieces of Candy
  • Laura Alcover gives out candy at 1,000 Pieces of Candy

Two taps

Find your night!

Tell us your age and what you are into. We will show the nights that fit, so a 12-year-old never walks into Young Adult Night.

  1. 1Your age
  2. 2
  3. 3
How old are you?

Newsroom

Our latest news.

All news
The Sarasota Center at 2195 Ringling Boulevard: a cream building with a red tile roof, white columns, and an arched entry.
From the Executive Director

ALSO Youth returns to Sarasota with a new center

After nearly 10 months without a physical home in Sarasota, ALSO Youth once again has a center in the heart of the community.

Annie Berkness (she/her), Executive Director & CEO ·

ALSO Youth in brief

  • 1992

    ALSO has been serving LGBTQ+ youth in Sarasota-Manatee since 1992

  • 10 to 24

    The ages we serve, with a program for each age

  • 1,600+

    Youth visits last year. Every one started with an open door.

Want the full picture? Read the 2024 to 2025 impact report.

Moments

Moments that made us.

See the gallery
  • A guest in a black lace dress laughing beside someone in a shaggy red monster costume with googly eyes.
    Halloween at the Sarasota Center
  • A young person with pink hair waving from the pitcher's mound before throwing the first pitch.
    Marauders Pride Night
  • A packed ballroom at the Space Cowboy Prom, glowing purple and blue, with giant planets and a UFO hanging over the stage.
    Prom 2025: Space Cowboy
  • Campers and an adult painting a large, bright canvas together.
    Camp True Colors 2024
  • A young artist with pink hair and bold makeup beside their framed artwork on easels.
    Expressions Exhibition
  • Two young people posing in formal gowns in front of racks of donated dresses.
    Prom Closet and salon

For parents & caregivers

Supervised, affirming, and open for a visit.

Volunteers are 25 or older and pass a background check. Read the center rules, meet the staff on a 15-minute tour, and join a support group of your own.

The youth lounge at the Sarasota Center: couches, big bean bags, a guitar on the wall, pride flag bunting, and a rainbow painted art piece.
The lounge at the Sarasota Center.
Parents & caregiversBook a tourCenter rules (PDF)

Coming up

ALSO Youth Camping Trip

Saturday, Dec 12, Overnight, 3 PM Saturday to 10 AM Sunday

Join ALSO Youth for an overnight trip to Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey. We will camp in tents, share campfire tales and stories, sing classic camp songs, and make plenty of s'mores.

Event detailsAll events
Santa sitting by campfire and tent roasting a marshmallow.

Thank you

Partners & supporters

See everyone
  • Community Foundation of Sarasota County
  • Manatee Community Foundation
  • Gulf Coast Community Foundation
  • Barancik Foundation
  • Greenfield Foundation
  • Gamma Mu Foundation
  • Louis and Gloria Flanzer Philanthropic Trust
  • Embracing Our Differences
  • CAN Community Health
  • Watermark
  • Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation
  • Forty Carrots Family Center
  • The Trevor Project
  • CenterLink
  • GLSEN
  • Project Pride SRQ
  • Equality Florida