As Pride Month comes to a close, we check in with LISC community partner LYRIC—the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center—in San Francisco, where LGBTQ+ young people are building community, autonomy and fulfilling, empowered lives.
In 1988, Donna Ozawa and Dana B. Kivel, two queer teenagers from San Francisco, decided they wanted to host a dance. They envisioned the event as a launchpad for creating social and recreational spaces for their peers where they could nurture safety and community in the face of homophobia and transphobia. That initial gathering morphed into an ad hoc committee for gay, lesbian and bisexual young people, and Ozawa and Kivel went on to win financial support from the City of San Francisco to establish an LGBTQ youth center in 1991—the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center or LYRIC. Today, nearly 35 years later, LYRIC is one of the largest LGBTQ centers in the United States, serving over 1,000 youth, the majority BIPOC, annually.
Each June, the media spotlight turns to LGBTQ organizations in recognition of Pride month, but LYRIC is working to build community and positive social change twelve months of the year. They do this through case management, social and educational programming, leadership development and wraparound services for LGBTQ youth, their families and allies of all backgrounds, income levels, genders and abilities. Of the people LYRIC serves, 81 percent are “extremely/very low income,” 11 percent have been in foster care, and 63 percent have experienced violence or abuse.
Adam-Michael Royston, vice president of development at LYRIC, recalls meeting a young queer person whose story was not uncommon among the people LYRIC works with. They had made their way to San Francisco by bus and were sleeping on the beach. Because of family rejection and a host of other factors, LGBTQ+ youth have a 120 percent higher chance of experiencing homelessness than the general youth population, and the figure is even higher for BIPOC queer youth. “We were able to help them secure stable housing, enroll in college and now they are on their way to earning an associates’ degree,” says Royston. But he also points out that not all the youth who work with LYRIC need housing (17 percent are experiencing homelessness or are marginally housed). “Some just need community, which is a large part of what LYRIC provides,” he adds.
Last year, LISC and Foot Locker, Inc. awarded the group a $100,000 grant from the Foot Locker Foundation Community Empowerment Program to ramp up LYRIC’s workforce development programs.
According to Daylight, the first LGBTQ bank in the United States, LGBTQ Americans are more likely to be underemployed and underpaid than the general population. LYRIC’s workforce initiative teaches young people soft and hard employment skills and what to expect from a professional work environment and pays them wages while they learn.
But LYRIC seeks to go beyond job placement outcomes. By partnering with financial institutions, tech companies and other San Francisco-based employers, the organization is creating a pipeline of youth entering college, participating in mentorship programs and, ultimately, developing a fulfilling profession.
“We’re looking for youth to find a career, not just a job,” says Royston. “This grant has been the impetus of thinking through how to address the queer wage gap and integrate LYRIC into the job ecosystem of San Francisco.” To that end, LYRIC will also partner with the city and county of San Francisco to provide 30 trans youth with career placement opportunities. Moreover, to refine their programming and outreach, LYRIC is conducting an ambitious community needs assessment—the first of its kind in California—to survey over 1,000 queer youth in nine Bay Area counties.
“The love that emanates from LYRIC is incredible,” says Cindy Wu, executive director of LISC Bay Area. “I’m inspired by the community of belonging they have built. Developing pathways to careers for LGBTQ youth is a key ingredient to the agency youth need to pursue their dreams.”
A crucial part of LYRIC’s strength and dynamism as an organization lies in its deep ties to the local LGBTQ community and other nonprofits. Each year, in celebration of Pride Month, LYRIC hosts a brunch with Openhouse, a San Francisco organization serving LGBTQ seniors, to bring together LYRIC youth and queer elders for an intergenerational exchange of ideas and experiences.
Looking ahead, LYRIC will also continue to support youth through the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the onset of the crisis, LYRIC immediately joined forces with San Francisco State University to ensure LGBTQ youth who could not isolate at home had a safe place to stay. This has turned into a permanent partnership and has expanded into a program for any queer SFSU student who needs housing during school vacations year-round.
Ultimately, it’s helping to empower and connect queer youth and give them the reins of autonomy and self-determination that LYRIC values most. “We’re very proud to have been formed out of youth coming together,” says Royston. “We really center youth leadership in all of the things that we do.”