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GLBT Host Home Program

The GLBT Host Home Program was created in 1998 out of a grassroots effort to address GLBTQ youth homelessness.  Originally hosted at YouthLink, it moved to Avenues for Homeless Youth in January 2007.

The GLBT Host Home Program is an ‘outside-the-system’ community and volunteer-based response to youth homelessness.  It offers a transformative and intimate approach to providing homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) youth with safe homes and support.  We have intentionally kept this program small and non-institutional, with up to 10 youth participating at a time.  All youth served by this program are homeless and queer-identified. 

As volunteers of the program, adults open their homes and their hearts to young people who need and are looking for a healthy and nurturing connection, in addition to stability and basic needs.  During their stay in a host home, young people experience living with and being supported by stable adults, witness the give and take of living in functional households, and experience living in situations where their sexual orientation and gender identity is respected and celebrated.  This experience of sharing resources and lives is challenging but powerful.

The GLBT Host Home Program is a strong, resilient, and nationally recognized community-based program – one with over 10 years of history.  The focus has been on taking care of basic needs while simultaneously fostering connections and building community.  Ultimately, this program is about empowering a community to take care of itself while at the same time working with others organizing for social justice.  We advocate for moving beyond just responding to homelessness and, in fact, making social changes needed to truly end homelessness.

The GLBT Host Home Program is fortunate to have a strong Advisory Council – a group of community members that includes past youth participants, hosts, and community organizers from other local programs and organizations, such as TYSN and Out4Good. The Advisory Council helps ensure that the program stays informed by a philosophy of solidarity and a passion for social change. It is a multi-racial, multi-gendered, and cross-generational council of activists.

Advisory Council Members

Amy V. Perez
Angie Brown
Clayton Roberts
Coya Hope Artichoker
Katie Burgess
Kelly Brazil
Khalid Adams
Myrl Beam
Rowan-Marie Fakhoury
Roxanne Anderson
Shauen Pearce
Tiffany Lane
Vi (M Haldeman)

Donate Now

GLBT Host Home Information Sessions

Tuesday, 7/31/12, 6-8pm
Thursday, 8/2/12, 6-8pm

Midtown YWCA
2121 East Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55407
www.ywca-minneapolis.org

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GLBT Host Home Program on PBS!

The GLBT Host Home Program was featured on the PBS "Need to Know" series January 13. The informative and inspiring segment is now online. Watch it here.

Local freelance designer Tim Cronin used audio content from the above PBS segment to create this brief video for a class at MCAD. At less than 90 seconds, it visually depicts a unique summary of this vital local program. Check it out!

Design: Tim Cronin
Music: "Twinklebox" by Emphemetry