A frequent refrain from the September meeting of the local host committee for Creating Change was, “We need more people to sign up.”
About 30 people have regularly attended meetings since March to plan the national conference sponsored annually by the National LGBTQ Task Force. It comes to Philadelphia Jan. 18-22.
Host committee co-chair Aneesah Smith, who works on LGBT services at West Chester University, set a goal of 500 volunteers but only 42 have signed up so far. People who volunteer four hours any day of the conference get to attend any workshops that day for free.
Young people are needed to help plan the youth hospitality suite, which will provide meals each day of the conference in addition to passive programming. People aged 16-24 are invited to offer input at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 at The Attic Youth Center, 255 S. 16th St. No volunteers have yet signed up for the community-housing committee, which will seek free accommodations for 75 attendees.
Those interested can sign up at www.creatingchange.org or by contacting Smith at [email protected].
On the financial end, two large gifts have been secured in the goal of raising $50,000, said host committee co-chair Samantha Giusti, executive director of DVLF, an LGBT grantmaking organization.
Giusti said TD Bank has pledged $20,000 to support the opening reception for Creating Change. Pride Institute, an LGBT organization based in Minnesota, has pledged $3,000 for recovery services.
The next host committee meeting is Oct. 18 at William Way. Task Force officials will attend to answer questions.