Alonzo A Crim Center LGBTQ+ Street Outreach

The Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence's mission is to optimize the life opportunities of children and families in urban communities by ensuring the availability of a prosperous and equitable environment through community engagement, research and educational development, and support. The proposed VISTA project aligns with the individuals and families experiencing homelessness focus area. The VISTA project will seek to launch street outreach to homeless and runaway youth in downtown Atlanta, GA. By extension of launching street outreach the initiative will create, develop and provide LGBTQ+ sensitivity and trauma-informed care training to community-based outreach organizations, schools districts, community centers, religious organizations, and other entities that work with LGBTQ+ youth. In year 1 we expect to impact at least 2,500 youth experiencing homelessness. 18 VISTA members will contribute to the goals of the project by performing activities such as creating volunteer pipelines, development databases, education/awareness campaigns, and online service registration systems for homeless and runaway youth over the course of 3-5 years.