Communtiy Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide brief — 200 words or less — descriptions of recent or upcoming activities and events. Send your submissions to us by email by the 15th of the month.
Mountain Pride Media
This has been an amazing year for our organization, our community, and Vermont. Thanks to our grantors, donors, subscribers, staff, and volunteers. Your continued support is sincerely appreciated.
Our final stuffing for 2000 will be on Dec. 28 at our office in Richmond, 5-8pm. We encourage you to stop by then or on the last Thursday of any month to help out. Thanks to Mack, Jim, Dan, Tony, Denny, Leroy, Bennett, Elizabeth, and Ernie for helping with the October Stuffing.
Mountain Pride Media is currently looking for a volunteer available the last Friday of every month to deliver Out In The Mountains to the Richmond Post Office. You need to have a vehicle large enough to hold about 5000 copies of the paper and to be able to deliver them before the Post Office closes. For more information, please email distribution@mountainpridemedia.org. For other volunteer opportunities, check our Web site: mountainpridemedia.org.
Speaking of our site, we launch a brand new design in December. In addition to more great information, resources, and services, we’ve an exciting new Shopping section just in time for you to finish your holiday shopping knowing that part of your purchase is donated back to Mountain Pride Media.
The holidays are also the perfect time to give a gift subscription to Out In The Mountains. You can find a mail-in form in any issue of OITM or you can go to our site and subscribe online. OITM will be celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2001. Join in the celebration by subscribing today.
From everyone at Mountain Pride Media, happy holidays.
Pride VT
The days are shrinking, and Pride VT is having its last board meeting of the year on December 12 at the McClure Multi-Generational Center, 241 N. Winooski Ave in Burlington, and invites you to join the planning of Pride 2001. Snow will soon blanket our state, but we’re keeping the sun, sounds and smells of summer in our hearts as we organize more fabulous events for the most “out” month of the year. Connecting with groups and organizations around the state, we hope to bring a wide variety of activities, including discussions, picnics, workshops, bowling nights, cruises, a silent auction, social and political gatherings, to the Queen State faithful. The Burlington rally, parade and festival is already confirmed and in the works for Saturday, June 16, so mark those new calendars now! Come out and get involved. For more information, please contact Brian Cina or Eric Cross at 859-9238.
R.U.1.2? Community Center
Whether one is caught in the current political crossfire or has been questioning their sexual orientation for years, coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered can be a frightening prospect.
The community is responding to the isolation and stigma that comes from even questioning one’s sexual orientation, much less coming out. R.U.1.2? is launching a bi-weekly support group for adults 23 and older struggling with or questioning their sexual orientation.
As gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered individuals reflect on living in America, they highlight how coming out can be both traumatic and liberating at the same time. These support groups will be open, ongoing and free of charge. Each group will be facilitated by a clinically trained professional and a trained community volunteer who have experienced the questioning and/or coming out process. These groups will be held on the second and fourth Thursday nights of each month, 6:30– 8:00pm, beginning Thursday, November 30, at the Peace and Justice Center, 21 Church Street, Burlington.
For more information about these groups, call (802)-860-RU12 or email thecenter@ru12.org. These supportive group meetings are open to all adults who find themselves in need of support during what can be a very challenging and confusing time. Youth 22 and under who are questioning their sexual orientation should contact Outright Vermont about their youth social support group at 1-800-GLB-CHAT.
Vermont CARES
We will be holding volunteer and peer outreach trainings in the Burlington area in January. For further information about opportunities and trainings, call Tim Harvey at 800-649-2437.
Through training, thought, and compassion, volunteers help Vermont CARES achieve its mission and provide services that otherwise would not exist. There are many ways to volunteer, and training is an essential step. In the trainings, we cover information about the agency, the basics of HIV transmission, confidentiality, and boundaries. The next Core Volunteer Training will take place in Burlington, January 29 and 31 from 5:30-8:30pm.
Are you good at talking to your friends, family and neighbors? Vermont CARES’ Peer Outreach Program uses these natural relationships to educate and pass on prevention information to your natural community. The premise of peer outreach is that most of us learn the difficult, uncomfortable, or private stuff in life best from someone with whom we feel comfortable. To learn about HIV in high school health class is one thing; to have your roommate in college show you exactly how to use a condom or give you a bunch of condoms is a whole other thing.
The full training series is 10 hours and helps you (casually and confidentially) educate and support friends and family about HIV. The next Peer Outreach training includes the training dates above, plus February 5 from 4:30-8:30pm.