SMAAC Youth Center serves youth (primarily ages 14-24) drawn from throughout the City of Oakland, Alameda County and the Bay Area. The Center targets LGBTQQ youth of color. A significant number of the youth are effectively emancipated (i.e. having no on-going supervision by parents or custodians), and a significant minority of our youth are homeless. These youth are male, female and transgendered. They are African American, Asian American, white, and Latino/a. Last program year, SMAAC served over 1300 LGBTQQ youth with after school, drop in services (described more fully below, under program description).

LGBTQQ youth cannot be served effectively by “straight identified” service providers either because of outright prejudice against gay persons on the part of staff or customers, because of staff ignorance about LGBTQQ problems and concerns, or because of the youths’ perceived lack of safety within a “straight” provider environment. This results in young people keeping their needs secret and therefore not getting the services they need. Even well-meaning straight providers who seek to establish LGBTQQ specific programming for LGBTQQ youth and who hire LGBTQQ staff to provide services to this population are often crippled by the fact that the issues of LGBTQQ youth do not represent the first priority for these organizations. Moreover, many LGBTQQ youth question the ability of straight providers to truly understand their issues and struggles and consequently they discount the advice, direction, and services offered by these organizations as simply not applying to their situation. SMAAC’s experience demonstrates that for many LGBTQQ youth, only the creation of dedicated LGBTQQ youth services, provided by LGBTQQ organizations for whom LGBTQQ youth represent the number one priority, can fully and effectively address the needs of these LGBTQQ youth.

Many LGBTQQ youth face alienation from their families and sometimes even abuse and/or violence if their sexual orientation is discovered. Even when LGBTQQ youth have disclosed their sexual orientation to one or more sympathetic individuals in the family structure, they must often keep this information secret from the bulk of the family to prevent their vilification or abuse. And even LGBTQQ youth whose families remain supportive of them must often guard knowledge of their sexual orientation from the communities in which they live. As the national spate of violence against LGBT adults (and as recent local incidents of school-based violence and harassment against LGBTQQ youth) will attest, our communities continue to be dangerous places for persons who are suspected of being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. For these reasons, the vast majority of LGBTQQ youth will not access resources targeted toward them, if these resources are offered in locations were there is the possibility of discovery of their sexual orientation by family members and/or community peers. For these youth, services must be provided outside of their geographical area if their safety is to be maintained.