Center Blog

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicole Avallone as the Center’s new Director of Youth Services. In this capacity, she will oversee our Youth Enrichment Services (YES) program staff and the coordination, implementation and delivery of the spectrum of educational, developmental, prevention and support interventions offered by YES.

Avallone is a social worker with an extensive history of providing support and advocacy to the LGBT community. Most recently she served as Director of Member Services & Outreach at the Rainbow Heights Club, the only government funded psychosocial club specifically geared toward serving LGBT adults living with mental illness.

Avallone’s professional career included a year-long internship with the Center’s Adult Services Department in 2003-2004. Since that time she has continued to facilitate groups for the Center’s Gender Identity Project, primarily focusing on support for partners of transgender people. She began her career in social services as an advocate for young people living on the streets and in shelters in Seattle, Washington. 

“Avallone brings a powerful history, enormous energy and commitment to the mission of the Center,” said Carrie Davis, Director of Community Services. “She will be a genuine resource in the work we continue to do.”

This change comes in the context of the development of the new Community Services Department that began in the fall of 2010. The new Community Services Department is working to improve participant services through freer internal transfers of talents and resources, and expanding program reach and infrastructure to better serve our communities. The department is also developing new services designed to address the needs of underserved or “gap” populations and enhance our focus on the Center’s mission and strategic plan.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, the East Coast’s largest LGBT center, today announced the appointment of Carrie Davis, MSW, as Director of the Center’s new Community Services Department.

Ms. Davis is a social worker and takes on this role after leading the Center’s Adult Services Department for the past four years. Having first joined the Center in 1998, her new role will encompass a wide array of programs and administrative functions.  The transition combines existing social service areas under the one umbrella of the Community Services Department that includes health, youth and families.

These vital programs provide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) people with community support to foster healthy identity and family development, including integrated substance abuse, mental health, HIV and AIDS, smoking cessation, and lesbian cancer and immigration services through the delivery of a range of supportive interventions, advocacy, outreach, education and capacity-building.

“We’re thrilled to have Carrie Davis heading up our new Community Services Department,” said Executive Director Glennda Testone.  “Carrie’s proven dedication to bettering the lives of our community through our vast health, youth and family programs is unparalleled. Under her steady program leadership and direction we are poised to significantly grow our capacity to serve LGBTQ people throughout the next decade.”

The new Community Services department improves participant services through freer internal transfers of talents and resources, and expands program reach and infrastructure to better serve clients. The department also provides new services designed to address the needs of underserved or “gap” populations and enhances our focus on the Center’s mission and strategic plan. At the same time, Community Services will cut operating costs and increase our fiscal responsibility through streamlining administrative functions.

Carrie Davis is also a community organizer, advocate and educator, working with health care providers, schools and government agencies to address LGBT identity, legal, health care and social concerns at the national, state and local levels. In addition to her work at the Center she currently serves on the New York City Police Department LGBT Advisory Committee, the All Gender Health Online Research Project Advisory Board, and has previously served on the board of directors of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and GenderPAC, as well as the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) Board of Advisors. Carrie is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Hunter College School of Social Work.

For more information on the programs offered by our Community Services Department visit these pages on our website:

Health

Youth

Families