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Front and Center Issue 26

	Advocates Honored by the White House as LGBT Emerging Leaders For most people, an invitation to be honored by the White House is a dream – one that came true on Wednesday, September 19, for Center advocates and interns Skyler Cruz, Shaquana Green and Patricia González-Ramírez.
These three outstanding Center representatives were honored as Emerging LGBT Leaders at the Vice President's Residence in Washington, DC, where they joined approximately 150 advocates from 34 states to discuss the work the administration is doing nationally and internationally in the LGBT community. "It felt great to be recognized and honored by the White House," said Shaquana, a youth advocate for the Center's Foster Care Project. "I felt like I meant something to this community and I was excited to tell everyone I knew. This is a highlight of my life and I can't explain how it makes me feel as a role model for my younger sisters." "Skyler and I spent all morning at the LGBT Policy Roundtable where we participated in discussions and presentations, including LGBT Rights are Human Rights, a Legal Update and Health and Safety for LGBTQ Youth," said Patricia, Gender Identity Project Group Facilitator and former Lesbian Cancer Initiative Community Outreach and Program Promotions Peer Intern. Congratulations to Shaquana, Skyler and Patricia, and thank you for your amazing dedication to the Center and the community! Your work inspires and humbles us all. About the Advocates Skyler Cruz Youth Enrichment Services (YES) Youth Leadership & Learning Lab Specialist Sky has worked at the Center since 2008 and provides LGBT youth with support around job skills, education, leadership opportunities and interpersonal skills through facilitation of several support groups, as well as the Peer Education and Older Adult Technology Service Internship programs. He began working with youth at the age of 17 as a part of the Police Athletic League through the Summer Youth Employment Program. Sky has a BA in Philosophy from Connecticut College and is currently pursuing a master's degree at the Hunter College School of Social Work. Patricia González-Ramírez Gender Identity Project (GIP) Group Facilitator and former Lesbian Cancer Initiative (LCI) Community Outreach and Program Promotions Peer Intern Patricia González-Ramírez started working at the Center in 2010 as Peer Educator and Outreach Intern for the LCI. Developing educational resources around cancer prevention, screenings and holistic wellness, she has become an advocate in the struggle to end health disparities in LGBT communities. She is a facilitator for support groups at the GIP and an active member of the Audre Lorde Project, where she works around language accessibility for LGBTSTGNC immigrants. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Patricia graduated from The New School with a BA in Cultural Studies, with a focus on gender and media. Shaquana Green Center Families LGBT Foster Care Project Peer Intern Shaquana grew up in the foster care system of New York. She was a participant at the Center's YES program and later became a LGBT Foster Care Project (FCP) intern. In this role, she co-facilitates trainings and shares her personal experiences with foster care agencies and officials at the NYC Administration for Children's Services to ensure LGBT foster youth are treated with respect and dignity. When she became emancipated, she adopted her two siblings and is now raising them on her own. She is also attending college and pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work.
	Center Announces Exciting Renovation Project Later this year, the Center will break ground on an ambitious renovation to enhance your Center experience for decades to come.
The design of the project represents the culmination of years of feedback provided by Center users and visitors, including focus groups, surveys and individual conversations. And it builds on the vision of our founders who believed that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people deserve a Center that is welcoming, functional and beautiful. • The lobby will be expanded and refurbished to make it more user-friendly. It will include a café, a revamped David Bohnett CyberCenter and new front doors. • The Lerner Auditorium on the third floor and the Kaplan Assembly Hall on the ground floor will become beautiful event spaces outfitted with modernized audio/visual equipment, lighting and other capabilities. • Our beautiful garden will be repaved and outfitted with new seating and lighting. • Public corridors and meeting rooms will get new floors and lighting. • Additional public meeting rooms will be added to the inventory of available space. • The elevator cab and controls will be upgraded. To undertake such a project requires substantial financial support. The Center is fortunate that New York State and City elected officials, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Assemblymember Deborah Glick, among others, share our vision and have committed significant capital funds to the project. Their generosity, coupled with current and future commitments from individual donors, will bring our plans to fruition next year. As you can imagine, a project of this magnitude will impact operations in big and small ways, and will continue through early 2014. Auditorium spaces will be unavailable for periods of time. Other meeting rooms and offices will be inaccessible at various times, and the garden area will be closed. The main entrance will shift in response to lobby construction. You may have questions about how these changes will affect you. We won't have all of the answers immediately, but we will keep you apprised of planning and progress throughout, and we will work closely with everyone affected to lessen inconveniences as much as possible. Overall, the disruptions will be challenging but temporary and the end result will be worth it. Our Community Services adult, youth and family programming will continue during construction phases. The Center celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2013. How fitting it will be to celebrate that milestone with an upgraded facility ready to welcome, support, entertain and enrich our lives as LGBT New Yorkers in the years ahead. The Center is embarking on a grand adventure, standing on the shoulders of its founders and enabled by previous renovations. Thank you for your support and encouragement, and please check www.gaycenter.org/buildingforyou regularly for updates.