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Queer youth et al. are encouraged to speak out
at upcoming YouthNet Town Hall by Katy Davidson
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Clockwise from left: Ciara, YouthNet coordinator Mel Rudd, Sarah Barnard and Stephanie
Perron are helping develop an agenda for the sexual minority youth services netw ork
n the office of YouthNet, nestled above
the outstretched waiting areas of Portland’s
funky Union Station, you’ll find a busy
jumble of flyers, resource guides, lists and
brainstorming
notes.
Appropriately
enough, the sexual minority youth services net
work’s current agenda is a pretty accurate reflec
tion of the lively space.
YouthNet, which began operating two sum
mers ago, already has its hands full with regular
ly scheduled activities, such as youth council
meetings and various high school projects, but
network participants have recently been throw
ing attention toward two upcoming events: a
Town Hall in February and an anti-racism train
ing poised for April.
Mel Rudd, YouthNet’s coordinator, says the
idea for the Town Hall originated when the net
work first began operating. The purpose of the
event is to pull together queer youths, service
providers and allies and get them to shout out
their frustrations— and possible solutions.
“W e’re going to get together, have a lot of
food, maybe an open mike or something, and
just have a brainstorming session about what
people want," Rudd explains. “We want to get
stuff down on paper.”
Nadia Cannon, one of YouthNet’s high-
schcxff-age interns, is convinced the Town Hall
will be anything but boring.
“We want this to be big and huge and fun,"
she tells Just Out.
Associate
Broker
503 . 228.9801
bucherts@hasson.com
Rudd says the goal of the Town Hall, which
is slated for Feb. 26, is to take everyone’s ideas
and turn them into YouthNet’s needs and ser
vices plan.
We can start to create a vision on paper of
what we want to do," says Rudd, who’d like to
see the development of a centralized place for
queer youths to call if they run into trouble.
A big red flag came up on my screen when
I got four crisis calls in one week and we didn't
have people to respond right away," Rudd says,
adding that a crisis line may actually be devel
oped with resources that are already in place.
“W e’re not creating new services as much as
we’re trying to improve existing services," Rudd
says.
Anti-racism training is also on the networks
horizon. T h e seminar is a collaborative effort
with two local service organizations, Rainbow
and Bradley-Angle House, and is tentatively
scheduled to take place at Portland State Uni
versity in early April.
Amid these larger events, there is a web of
activity that keeps YouthNet moving on a daily
basis. Among other involvements, Rudd says,
the network is busy trying to make the Portland
Police Bureau’s Sexual M inorities Roundtable
more accessible to youths and working with the
Streetlig h t Youth S h e lte r to help develop
awareness o f trans issues.
“I can’t stress how excited I am about that,
Rudd says.
Like many other nonprofit organizations,
however, YouthN et’s vision is somewhat con
strained by funding.
Rudd says the network gets enough money
from M ultnomah C ounty to pay the coordinator
for 25 hours per work week, fund some events
and keep the office up and running.
“T h e county only partially covers us; we re
always looking to other sources for funding,
Rudd says. “W e have two incredible interns
working for us, but we can only pay them a small
stipend."
■ YouthNet’s T own H a ll will be held at 6 p m.
Feb. 26 at the Q uaker M eeting H ouse, 4 3 I 2 S.E.
Stark St. m Portland. All queer youths and their
allies are encouraged to attend.
To learn more about YOUTHNET programs,
send an e-m ail to pdxyouthnet@hotm ail.com or call
(503) 2 2 7 -19 8 1.
K aty D avidson is a Just O ut staff writer. She
can be reached at katy@justout .com .