While the public will enjoy the Creating Change Conference for five days next week in Philadelphia, four individuals have been working for almost a year to make sure the event takes off.
The Creating Change Host Committee gathered Jan. 10 to discuss last-minute details for the conference. Aneesah Smith spoke to more than 25 members in the Grand Ballroom at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott.
“As a host committee, we did it,” Smith said. “Give yourself a round of applause.”
The National LGBTQ Task Force, which spearheads the annual traveling LGBT-equality conference, relies on a local host committee to organize efforts within the host city. This year’s Creating Change Host Committee co-chairs consist of Smith, Samantha Giusti, Naiymah Sanchez and Le Thomas. Each co-chair helped coordinate smaller subcommittees for the event with missions ranging from fundraising and volunteering to programming and marketing.
As the president of Philadelphia Black Pride, Thomas said he applied for a co-chair position because he was looking for a new opportunity to get involved in the community.
“I wanted to try something different other than what I was normally doing, which was planning Pride,” Thomas said. “I wanted to contribute in a different way.”
Each co-chair has attended Creating Change in the past but this is their first year involved on the organizing side. Sanchez said they gained a stronger understanding of what it takes to put together the conference, which draws up to 4,000 people.
“You grow to gain appreciation for the actual conference from being on the organizing part of it,” Sanchez said. “Being a conference-goer, you just go, you travel to the state and you go to the workshops. Being on the opposite side, you get a sense of what it takes to put a conference together. You grow to respect the community and you grow to respect the conference as well.”
All four co-chairs also hold LGBT-centric positions outside of Creating Change, with Giusti as the executive director of DVLF, an LGBT philanthropy organization; Sanchez as the transgender advocacy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania; Smith as the assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs for LGBTQA Services and Special Projects at West Chester University; and Thomas as president of Philadelphia Black Pride, an organization dedicated to changing the lives of LGBT people of color.
The co-chairs said while it has been challenging to juggle other jobs with their Host Committee responsibilities, there was also some overlap. Giusti said her organization has been understanding of her work on the committee.
“DVLF has really been amazing and has given me the time away from the office to dedicate to this because we want to make sure that the LGBTQ community is strong here in Philadelphia, and this is just an extension of that mission,” Giusti said.
The work hasn’t come without its challenges.
Smith said one she faced was getting volunteers involved. She said the Host Committee still has “great people involved” but recognized that some early volunteers later dropped off.
“It’s a long process,” Smith said. “We have been doing this since May, which has been super-awesome, but I feel like we lost some people along the way with the holidays.”
Despite logistical obstacles, Sanchez stayed optimistic about the Host Committee’s efforts.
“All of these challenges that we’ve seen, now that we’re a week away, we overcame those challenges and we’re still struggling,” Sanchez said. “Any work that you do, you struggle to do it. And we’re continuing to do it a week out.”
Each co-chair also has personal achievements they are proud of. Thomas said he is looking forward to seeing the programming, which he helped coordinate.
“Programming is important because it sets the tone of what the conference is going to look like,” Thomas said. “It was our recommendation to make sure that we got the programming that was inclusive of the culture here in the Philadelphia region.”
Meanwhile, Smith was satisfied with how the housing committee, which organized members of the community to open their homes to conference attendees, turned out.
“I can say today at this hour that anyone who needed housing got housing for Creating Change and will be here next week,” Smith said. “We had enough hosts and they were willing to welcome more people [into their homes]. We just made it work and didn’t turn anyone away.”
Sanchez said she was “proud of all of the ambition” the co-chairs put into the event.
Smith noted that the variety of perspectives all four brought to the job was important.
“I think [the National LGBTQ Task Force] did a good job of picking four different folks from different walks of life and we made it happen,” Smith said. “So it’s been great. And we will stay in touch — and it’s on the record.”
That comment elicited laughs from the other co-chairs before Sanchez interjected: “This is on the record: Aneesah made the banging-est [sic] cupcakes,” she said, referring to the desserts Smith would bring to committee meetings.
“I think Aneesah’s cupcakes were the highlight,” Giusti added.
Thomas said he has worked with Sanchez for the last three years but didn’t really know Giusti or Smith prior to joining the Host Committee.
“It’s good to interact and have a relationship with the group collectively and have a relationship with them individually,” Thomas said.
In addition to forming friendships with their fellow co-chairs, the four leaders are looking forward to enjoying the actual conference.
Thomas attended last year’s Creating Change Conference in Chicago. Now as an organizer, he plans to deliver feedback to the Task Force so the organization can in turn present the information to next year’s Host Committee.
“I like instant feedback so I’ll be keeping my ears open to things and help if there’s something we can adjust while the conference is going on,” Thomas said.
Meanwhile, Giusti is eager to see first-time conference attendees.
“I’m really looking forward to sitting back and watching the faces of people whose first time it is because I remember so fondly what it was like for my first time,” Giusti said. “I can only imagine there’s a lot of young people who are really looking to get involved and channel their energy, their fears, their frustrations and their hopes. I remember what it meant to me and I can only imagine it will mean something similar, if not more impactful. I’m going to be looking for their faces and hoping to relive that moment with them as their first time.”
While the conference will conclude Jan. 22, the co-chairs’ work will continue beyond Creating Change and will filter into their other jobs.
“Through Creating Change, I hope to connect with people nationwide, maybe internationally,” Smith said. “The sky is not even the limit.”
Giusti said attending the conference with thousands of others allows her to refocus her efforts as executive director of DVLF.
“When I go to Creating Change year after year, it really allows me to take a step back,” Giusti said. “I realize that nationally, there’s a huge movement for LGBTQ equality and there’s great work across the board. It energizes me.”
Thomas echoed that statement.
“It helps put a focus on a viewpoint that I may have missed,” Thomas said. “I’ve learned some new things through the conference and I used the conference as another set of eyes to give me some more insight on what Philadelphia Black Pride can do in the future.”
Sanchez, who is transitioning into a new position with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the conference will help her interact with others on post-election issues for transgender people.
“With this election and the movement that we’re going to have to go into, this is going to be a chance for me as the ACLU transgender-advocacy coordinator to network with transgender individuals across the United States and also internationally,” Sanchez said.
Giusti encouraged Philadelphia residents with all levels of community involvement to explore the benefits of Creating Change.
“Even if you’re a seasoned LGBTQ activist, if you’re someone that’s never been before, if you’re someone that just feels kind of compelled with what you see in the news to get involved, you don’t want to miss this,” Giusti said. “There’s nothing like being in a space with 4,000 other LGBTQ people who are ready to be themselves, to be accepted and to create change. The energy is electric and you need to be here and be yourself and be with us.”
The 29th-annual Creating Change Conference will take place Jan. 18-22 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market St. Visit www.creatingchange.org for more information, to register and to volunteer. Volunteers signing up for four-hour shifts will receive free admission to the conference for the remainder of the day they volunteer.