In the wake of recent criticism regarding its lack of commitment to youth services, Horizons LGBT Community Services has revamped its youth program and added several new staff members.
Joining Youth Services Director Steven Miller are Shira Hassan and Greg Sanchez, HIV prevention case managers, and Deirdra Bishop, young women's project coordinator.
Bishop has been with Horizons for four months and Sanchez has been transferred from the hotline. Hassan recently moved to Chicago after working in the HIV/AIDS field, primarily with transgender youth, in New York City. "We see youth getting a lot of HIV prevention information from all over the city, but they're still not getting it," Miller said. "The challenge remains to educate them and present them with HIV prevention education that they can understand and use."
Hassan brings a noteworthy improvement to the youth services program at Horizons...clinical training and a decade of experience with homeless and transgender youth.
"The population we are targeting are high-risk youth, many who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless," Miller said. "Substance abuse is also an issue as are the challenges of being a transgender youth. And for most of the young people, it's not just one issue they're facing but a combination.
"Shira [ Hassan ] brings the clinical component that we've needed because of the numerous problems our youth face each day. And we think the changes we're making here at Horizons are significant."
After temporarily discontinuing its drop-in services, Horizons has reinstated the program, which operates on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 4 to 8 p.m. And in coordination with the Association of Latin Men for Action, Latino GBT youth and adults, 18 and over, who speak Spanish only or are hearing impaired will have discussion groups.
"As was the case before we began facing employee cutbacks, the drop-in services are a way to provide a safe space for our youth," Miller said. "But it's more than that...we provide referrals and case management, teach life skills and even educate our transgender youth about the dangers of hormone use."
Besides Bishop, who along with Miller, were the only staff members during the summer that youth could turn to for guidance, DeVon Anderson will continue to serve as an advisor for LBT females. Another new addition to Horizons' services is a youth advisory council, which is still being developed by the youth.
"It's something that came out of an independent assessment with our youth conducted by Draco Forte, [ CDPH ] ," Miller said. "We wanted someone who was not employed by Horizons to talk with the youth and allow them to respond honestly and in strict confidentiality. The council will serve as a conduit between the youth and our staff. And while we already have one youth representative on our board of directors, I hope we'll be able to add another from the youth advisory council."
CDPH gives Horizons a "thumbs-up"
Miller has not forgotten about the efforts of former employees like Bonnie Wade or Otis Richardson. In fact, he says it was their leadership that helped Horizons earn a score from CDPH assessors in the range of 92-95/100. The evaluation covered the period from January to July.
"The higher scores are encouraging as we look for funding for the next two-year cycle-2003-2005," Miller said. "We were found to be in complete compliance and in the 15 years that I've been doing this kind of work, I have never seen such high scores."
But where did the money come from for the new employees? Sanchez's move from the hotline was a transfer; Bishop is paid through a grant from the Department of Human Services for young LBT women. Only Hassan's addition has impacted Horizons' budget. And according to Miller, he anticipates the hiring of at least one additional employee in the near future.
"We have several RFP's out, because we realize we still need another case worker to service our transgender youth and African American males," Miller said.
And how are youth responding to the new changes at Horizons?
Miller says he sees things slowly turning around. "Horizons was started 30 years ago entirely by volunteers because our youth were in desperate need of services," Miller said.
Miller himself was one of those youth who were helped by the folks at Horizons.
"We have to face the fact that we can't do everything and sometimes we're going to need to collaborate with others," he said. "We are negotiating a program now with the South Side Help Center. The site we previously had in Hyde Park simply wasn't working. ...
"In our heyday we had up to 80 youth coming for drop-in services and last week we had 34...mostly young men," he said. "The majority were African American, but we have from six to eight Latino men who come pretty regularly. And we get a lot of transgender youth." Bishop adds that while the program for LBT females that meets every Wednesday is small, she believes the women who attend find it to be just the right size. "We have about 10 to 12 young women on average," she said. "It's different from what the young men prefer. We have already worked on a documentary about our young women's program and we do things like writing workshops and art."
Most of the girls are between 16 and 21 but some who come are as young as 14.
Hassan said her primary focus will be to offer harm reduction values and target queer homeless youth, many of whom continue to engage in high-risk activities just to survive.
"There is a dangerous cycle of homelessness, sex work and substance use and we have to focus on empowering our youth and creating harm reduction work that is non-abstinence based, loving and accepting," she said.
"A lot of youth don't really believe the dangers associated with unprotected sex," said Sanchez, who is HIV-positive. "They don't have a way to bridge the gap between my generation and theirs. I saw many of my friends die but the youth today don't get it. Still, I remember my own struggles as a young gay man...being abused and abusing my own body. And I don't want our youth to have to experience everything that some of my friends and I did. That's why we're here and changing things for the better here at Horizons."
