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Interior Design Society of Sarasota heads up Project ALSO

2/14/2017

As I woke up this morning I will thrilled to have checked my email and received a message from a G2H2 patron about a charity he was spearheading for ALSO YOUTH. I quickly sat down in front of my computer and wanted to share the story with SarasotaOUT.com readers! Check out PROJECT ALSO.

Today, I spoke with Raf the charity liaison for the Interior Design Society of Sarasota. The Interior Design Society or IDS is a national organization for designers, trades, and retailers who's mission is to raise money for local charities and student scholarships. Each IDS chapter is responsible for reaching out into the community in a program called IDS Impact. Our Sarasota IDS chapter has been working the sidelines for the last year to help renovate ALSO Youth’s drop in center located in Sarasota. They are now rolling their efforts out to the public with a campaign called PROJECT ALSO.

ALSO Youth is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides peer support services, educational programs, advocacy, and referrals for LGBTQIA youth who are 21 and under, their families and friends, and the community. ALSO Youth’s outreach includes LGBTQIA Inclusion trainings for organizations and businesses, “Ally 101” workshops for students/youth organizations, an ALSO Youth Ambassador program which provides a platform for youth to speak in the community as a panel or as individuals, Gay-Straight-Alliance/ Gender-Sexualities-Alliance (GSA) support to local schools, and more.

They are desperately in need of light construction to build private meeting rooms in their facilities so they can run multiple support groups and meetings simultaneously.

ALSO Youth is now in it’s 25th year and 12th year in its current location. They need the communities help. They are desperately in need of light construction to build private meeting rooms in their facilities so they can run multiple support groups and meetings simultaneously. Because of the nature of their meetings, particularly the weekly transgender meetings, more privacy is necessary to provide a functioning safe space for the youth to meet.

The IDS Sarasota chapter have set up a Go-Fund Me account and are trying to raise $8500. They have vendors, private donations and some materials donated already but are still thousands of dollars short. They are not only looking for monetary donations, they are also looking for Flooring, Furniture, Paint, Construction, Drywall, Wall Art, Rugs, Organization, Cleaning & Volunteers!

We at SaraostaOUT.com will help in any way we can and will cover the story as it progresses! If you would like to donate time or materials please reach out. idssrq@gmail.com We are looking forward to see how PROJECT ALSO makes an impact on our community!

By: Joshua Beadle, Editor & Chief of SarasotaOUT.com