We're here and we're queer! After an arduous drive to Atlanta, GA that included several wrong turns, 3 hours of the vans being separated, a singular episode of Bob's Burgers, and an extremely late arrival. On Sunday, our free day, some of us went to Easter service at a mega-church and returned to our hotel to corral the rest of our group to go have brunch at The Flying Biscuit. The food was so rich that many of us couldn't finish what was on our plates! Between French toast, eggs every which way, turkey bacon, chicken sausages, and, of course, the famous flying biscuits, we were all stuffed to the brim with food. We soon headed downtown toward the World of Coca-Cola, where finding parking was another adventure in and of itself. Once we were parked, it had begun to rain, so we were glad that our tour of the Coca-Cola factory was indoors. Before the tour even began, we each received a free bottle of Coca-Cola. Once we finished at the factory, we went to Walmart for groceries and then headed back to our hotel rooms for tacos and game night. (We had to be gumby when we ran out of conventional dishes for dinner!)
We started our Monday with a greasy but delicious meal at The Varsity, then we headed over to the new house Lost-N-Found is building to house LGBTQ Youth in Atlanta. Lost-N-Found currently has one house that can house six queer youth. But out of the 700-950 queer youth in Atlanta, that number is a drop in the bucket. 40% of LGBTQ youth in the US who come out to their parents are kicked out. In the south, that number jumps to 56%. And because many organizations that serve homeless youth in Atlanta are religious based, queer youth are either not served, or are forced back in to the closet, bullied, or any some cases even attacked in the homeless shelters. Once open, the new youth home will be able to serve 18 kids at a time. The house, which needs a lot of repair and construction, was gifted to Lost-N-Found by the United Methodist Church for a dollar a year, for twenty years. Last year an Intersectionality focus trip was able to visit the home, and their have been no improvements made since that time because it has taken a year for the organizations to finally get all the necessary permits from the city. They had issues with many things, particularly in getting gender-neutral bathrooms for the youth. Once a construction company is decided on, the new house should be up and running within a year! There will be multiple rooms, some with two bunk beds, some with two-three beds, and some with just one bed. Within 90 days the hope is to have kids in their own room, with a job and school, before being sent out to their own apartment. After a tour of the house we worked at the thrift store that provides the funding for Lost-N-Found. We all did various things like organizing the library and reorganizing the clothes by size and season.
The next day we woke up early to start cooking a meal that we would serve at the drop in center. Lost-N-Found has a drop in center with a couches for the youth to sleep, showers and laundry machines, computers to do applications and resumes, and a kitchen for a hot meal. We made a huge pot of chicken alfredo and another full of spaghetti. While some of the group waited in the tiny kitchen to serve those who came in, the rest of us were split in to various tasks. Some sorted bras and pants to be given to those in need. Some packed sacks of food for the youth to take with them. Others loaded up a truck with furniture and other necessities which we then delivered and unloaded across town to a 21 year old client who was moving in to her first apartment. It was a very touching experience to be there with her. Some of us even got to work with one client on creating a new resume!
Wednesday was much the same as the previous two. We all had various tasks, like working in the donation area tagging clothing, organizing the linens (which got a compliment from a regular customer), or organizing the miscellaneous items isle. We ended the day with an awesome trip to Piedmont Park where we got a great view of the Atlanta Skyline and let out our inner child on the playground.
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