Community 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.
TOAS Online Portfolio
Theatre on a Shoestring (TOAS) is offering local and regional actors the opportunity to have their portfolio on their website.
TOAS will create a special webpage with the actor's name, pictures, resume, and more to give them extra exposure to local and regional theatre companies. Add pictures, update your resume, and change info as needed throughout the contracted period. The cost is $20.
Anyone who starts a webpage before September 1 will receive an additional year of service FREE!!
If you are interested in finding out more about this service or to start a webpage, contact TOAS at info@theatreshoe.com with Portfolio Info in the subject line or mail to Portfolio Info, c/o TOAS, PO Box 1012, Burlington, VT 05402-1012.
Samara Grants & Thanks
Vermont high school seniors Alan Blakely of Colchester, Rachael Morgan of Rutland, and Anna Telensky of Jericho will be receiving $1,000 Samara Scholarships for 2003.
Three more Vermont high school seniors were presented with the Samara Foundation Notable Student Award: Lauren Coppola of Essex Junction, Jacob Crumbine of Norwich, and Ashley Hensel-Browning of Cavendish.
Fourteen Vermont high school seniors have been recognized as Samara Scholars, students who oppose discrimination and prejudice and stand for the elimination of homophobia in our society, since the awards were established in 2000.
Samara has awarded grants this year totaling $22,000 to thirteen organizations serving the Vermont lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Samara first awarded grants in 1998 and now has awarded over $150,000 throughout the state.
These organizations provide services in the arts, HIV prevention, youth services, education, media development, health and community service, social service and initiatives addressing same-sex domestic violence.
Estrogen Fest and Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library are new grantees for this cycle. Estrogen Fest was awarded $500 to help produce their annual weekend of women’s films and performances. This year’s festival brought in over 500 people, screened 14 films, and featured 13 performances and 12 speakers. The Fletcher Free Library will be using the $600 grant received from Samara to help implement the “Free to Read” book group, funding a program never before offered: a book group for teens to discuss literature that includes LGBTQ characters and themes.
Other grantees include: $1,600 to the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont; Vermont CARES $1,600; the Vermont People with AIDS Coalition $1,250; Outright Vermont $4,500; the New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services in Charlotte $1,000; $750 to New Victoria Publishers to help produce an online catalogue of books and videos; $4,000 to Mountain Pride Media; $1,300 to SafeSpace for violence prevention; $2,000 to the Gay Lesbian Education and Resource Network (G/LEARN) in Norwich; $1,900 R.U.1.2? Community Center; and a $1,000 grant to Pride Vermont.
Save the Date! Samara Foundation of Vermont will celebrate the 2003 grant and scholarship recipients, and the sixth anniversary of Samara grantmaking, at the third annual Thank You! Celebration at the Vermont Statehouse on Friday, September 12, 6 – 8:30 pm. The Samara Foundation Board of Directors invites members and allies of Vermont’s LGBT community to join them at the statehouse for hors d’oeuvres as Samara recognizes its 2003 grant and scholarship recipients, and the many donors who make Samara’s grants and scholarships possible. This year will feature vocalist Francois Clemmons singing American Negro Spirituals in a special House Chamber performance.
RSVPs are appreciated by September 10. Contact us at 860-6236 or ted@samarafoundation.org. (If you forget to RSVP, just come join us at the statehouse!)
R.U.1.2? Volunteers Open Montpelier Support Group
The R.U.1.2? Community Center is expanding its current spectrum of support groups to include a mixed-gender, Questioning and Coming Out Support Group for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community in Central Vermont. Starting on Tuesday, August 19th, this support group will meet in a quiet part of Montpelier, centrally located for individuals coming from many parts of the state. Scheduled at 6:30pm on the first and third Tuesday of every month, this group will meet on the off weeks of the existing R.U.1.2? Questioning and Coming Out Support Group which meets at 6:30pm in Burlington on the second and fourth Thursday of every month.
R.U.1.2? has developed a spectrum of support groups, including one for transgender individuals and one for women only, to help members of the community with the many issues facing each of us as GLBT community members today. The groups are open to anyone with ever-changing compositions. They are all facilitated by individuals or teams of facilitators that have gone through a facilitator-training workshop. The Montpelier support group is being co-facilitated by a gentleman who has been a part of the Burlington support group from its inception and a male-to-female transgender person who has been with the Burlington support group for over two years. They are committed to recreating the sense of respect, confidentiality and safety that has developed in the Burlington group.
And remember! We are now offering a transgender support group on the last Friday of each month at 6:30pm and a group for partners and allies of trans folks on the second Friday of each month at 6:30pm. Both of these groups are in Burlington. The Women-Only Group is switching nights – starting in August, it will meet on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month at 6:30 in Burlington.
For more information about the new Montpelier Group or any of the R.U.1.2? Peer Support Groups contact Christopher at the R.U.1.2? Community Center, P.O. Box 5883, Burlington, VT 05402. The Center’s phone number is 802.860.7812 and we can be reached by email at thecenter@ru12.org or on the web at www.ru12.org.