In its first year, 1,000 visitors passed through the doors of Q Spot, and the program is gearing up for an equally triumphant return that will place even more emphasis on opportunities for LGBT youth.
Q Spot will host a meet-and-greet from 8 p.m.-1 a.m. May 5 at Broad Street Ministry, 315 S. Broad St., kicking off the twice-monthly event that will be held through December.
The event was created last May by a coalition of LGBT- and youth-serving agencies to provide a Saturday night safe space for LGBT youth and offer an array of information and advice — such as career and school resources, counseling, HIV testing and healthcare referrals.
Educational Justice Coalition founder and executive director Quincy Greene, a collaborator, said the program’s first year far exceeded expectations.
“It was better than we could have imagined,” he said, noting that attendance started off at about 25 and grew to more than 200 at the final Q Spot of the year.
Organizers decided to capitalize on the energy and youth and recruited nine young people for the Philadelphia Young Leaders Council to take an active role in designing the look and feel of Q Spot’s second year.
The council has so far taken part in eight three-hour sessions in which they planned the first four events around social determinants of health — the meet-and-greet event will address the need for social support while the next three Q Spots will look at job readiness, education and sexual health.
Plans for future Q Spots will focus on violence-prevention and the role of LGBTs in the athletic world, which will include a “Q Games” event this summer.
“It helped us so much to have the young people developing the programming and making it authentic, and they have had the opportunity to be leaders and advocate for their own community,” Greene said. “I’m so extremely proud of these nine young leaders. They’ve truly inspired all of the advisors. We would finish each session on cloud nine, so happy that they sat for three hours and planned out these entire events. Each session we would see their growth, and we are just so proud of each one of them and so excited to see what else they have in store.”
A number of Q Spot youth were also trained this year to implement security policies and conflict-resolution procedures, although Greene noted that last year’s Q Spot events were devoid of violence.
Each Q Spot will have also have a more formalized structure this year.
Following the educational piece from 8-10:30 p.m., the deejay will get the music going and the remainder of the event will be devoted to a party.
“It’s an alternative for some young people instead of going to a club or to 13th Street or taking part in the flash-mob activity that was happening,” Greene said. “They have this safe space to spend their Saturday night that’s violence-free, drug-free and shade-free.”
The venue itself in which the program is held proved to be a resource.
“The church is often a source of pain and anger for LGBTQ people, who may feel rejected and pushed out of their church community. It’s often not a place where this community feels safe but Q Spot is held at a church where the youth really can feel safe and accepted, which has been beautiful,” Greene said. “We did a series on religion twice last year and you could feel that the young people there really needed a connection and needed a chance to reconnect with their spirituality in a place where they wouldn’t be judged. And they’re able to do that at Q Spot.”
Greene said all of the collaborating agencies worked well last year and he expects the second incarnation of Q Spot to be just as smooth.
“We’re all dedicated to keeping this going no matter what,” he said. “Some collaborations don’t work that well because people have to deal with competition or other issues but we haven’t had that. We’re all focused on working together to provide high-quality services.”
For more information, search QSpot Philly on Facebook.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].