Celebrating Pride Month and the Difference Makers in Our Community!
June is Pride Month around the world and here at AFP Greater Madison we wanted to highlight two local non-profit organizations, GSAFE and OutReach Madison, that are an integral part of the Madison LGBTQIA+ community and are making a difference each and every day.
Led by our new IDEA Officer, Mary Salisbury, our chapter continues to improve our vision of the world through an IDEA (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) lens and we are grateful to all of our members for making this commitment, too.
With that being said, we are always looking for insight, stories to share or advice from all of our fundraisers of varying backgrounds and experiences. Keep us in the loop and share your story today, right here!
Hear more from Brian Juchems, Co-Executive Director at GSAFE, and Steve Sarkey, Executive Director, at OutReach Madison below:
Brian Juchems, Co-Executive Director at GSAFE
AFP Greater Madison: For those that don’t know, what does GSAFE mean? Aka is it an acronym?
Brian Juchems: GSAFE is our Doing Business As/nickname, although we've seen many interesting attempts to puzzle it out over the years by folks who assume it's an acronym.
Tell us a little about the work you do at GSAFE:
GSAFE focuses on building the leadership of students and staff in K-12 schools across Wisconsin. While I've worn many hats over the years, in my current role as Co-Executive Director (along with the amazing Ali Muldrow), I attempt (!) to balance my time with the day-to-day administrative work that title implies with providing professional development and consultation to families, educators, and district leaders through trainings, coaching, and one-on-one crisis management. Lately I've responded to many requests from folks looking to navigate the rapid increase in efforts by some leaders in some school districts to roll the clock backwards and enact policies and practices that actively harm LGBTQ+ youth. On top of that I work with my team to produce a mix of fundraising events, giving days, and campaigns to raise the funds needed to support our work.
Can you share something you are most proud of professionally?
As a team we've been nimble and creative in the face of changing funding landscape. We've been particularly successful in building a deep level of community buy-in and in turn being blessed with a small army of peer-to-peer fundraisers for giving days such as Community Shares of Wisconsin's The Big Share. Individually, I'm most pleased with our pandemic pivot of launching our GSAFE Quilt and Fiber Art Auction, which we had never done before and didn't know how to do when we started. The community response to that has been tremendous, and we've been so fortunate to have a network of quilters, sewists, and fiber artists who have been so generous with their time and talent.
Given the growing and ever-changing challenges for the LGBTQIA+ community, have you seen a change in donors, giving, and support (especially post-pandemic)?
It's always hard to predict the future, but I believe our community of supporters are very much aware of the current crisis LGBTQ+ youth in schools across our state and country are facing right now. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and people are more and more realizing that if not us, then who? As such, we continue to see individuals, organizations, and corporate partners continuing to stand with us - some of them deepening their partnership and investment in our work because they see and understand the moment we are in.
What do you appreciate most, either personally or professionally, about LGBTQIA+ efforts in our greater Madison community?
Professionally: I'm grateful for the continued effort by historically white LGBTQ+ organizations and groups to better center the needs, experiences, and leadership of queer and trans people of color, and trans and nonbinary people in particular. I was ecstatic to see Madison recently elect Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford as its first openly transgender city official this spring. Bonus that she just happens to be my Alder on the city council!
Personally: I continue to enjoy the range of opportunities queer and trans people who didn't have access to sports when they were growing up. I've been a long time member of Madison Gay Hockey Association as well as Wisconsin United Roller Derby, after a long stint with the now defunct Frontrunners/Frontwalkers Madison. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to connect to community in these ways.
What is your source of inspiration and hope professionally and/or personally?
I do have moments where it feels like 20 years of my personal work with school districts around the state is being undone by extremist leaders at the school, community, and state level. But then I think of the trans high school student in northern Wisconsin who stood up for and won the right to have their chosen name read as they crossed the stage at graduation. Their principal had previously said that they could only read the name on their birth certificate. That student refused to let their district treat them as less than, reached out for resources, and got their principal to say yes.
I'm always, always, always inspired by the LGBTQ+ students, their families, and individual educators and school leaders who stand up for the needs of LGBTQ+ youth regardless of the political or local community headwind.
Learn more about GSAFE and their mission here!
Steve Sarkey, Executive Director at OutReach Madison
AFP Greater Madison: Tell us a little about the work you and OutReach do:
Steve Sarkey: OutReach's mission is a commitment to equity and quality of life for all LGBTQ+ people through community building, health and human services, and economic, social, and racial justice advocacy.
OutReach provides these services to meet our mission:
- Information and referral by phone, email, in-person, social media, etc.
- Social and support groups, a lending library and public cyber-center
- Peer counseling and support
- Speakers' Bureau
- Websites, social media, enews, print and broadcast media interviews
- Magic Pride Festival, Awards Banquet and smaller events
- Directory and other print and online publications
- Willma's Fund provides small emergency grants to LGBT homeless Dane County residents
- LGBT 50+ Alliance program with the Madison Senior Center
- Alcohol and other addiction services with Safe Communities
- Madison Area Transgender Association program
We do all this work with 5 full time employees!
Can you share something you are most proud of professionally?
I co-founded the Social Justice Center cooperative building with Nan Cheney in 2000. It took two years and was a lot of work and risk but the cooperative has been a success, housing many important nonprofits and helping countless people.
Given the growing and more visible challenges for the LGBTQ+ community, have you seen a change in donors, giving, and support (especially post-pandemic)?
Corporations, foundations, individuals have been more generous since the pandemic. Donors understand that the pandemic has created a lot of hardship for society, especially for marginalized communities. Our income in all categories has increased in the past two years. One example is our Willma's Fund program: the budget went from $10,000 per year to $50,000 per year, and we are providing grants for 120 people, up from 20 before the pandemic.
What do you appreciate most, either personally or professionally, about LGBTQ+ efforts in our Madison community?
There are so many businesses, non-profits, churches, civic groups, political groups, government entities that provide services for the LGBTQ community here. The LGBTQ community has a lot of resources compared with a lot of other places in Wisconsin and the US.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Madison and Dane County are fortunate to have a rich tapestry of non-profits that improve the quality of life for our citizens, and governments that understand the value of supporting community organization that improve the quality of life for our citizens.
Learn more about OutReach and their mission here!
