Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation Selects Hatch Youth Services as Beneficiaries Highlighting Their Mission to End Youth Homelessness by the Year 2020 in Their #KickoffForKindness Campaign
(HOUSTON, TX, FEB 2, 2017) – As the city of Houston is preparing to host Super Bowl LI, the Montrose Center will be teaming up with Born This Way Foundation, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, in support of their #KickOffForKindness campaign. This social media partnership will highlight our HATCH Youth programming, specifically as it pertains to homeless youth.
Lady Gaga, is a longtime supporter of the queer community, wowing LGBTQ Youth around the country through activism by support through school visits, speeches and inspiring lyrics.
Today, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation opened KindLI at Super Bowl LI’s NFL Experience. This pop-up activation is part of the Foundation’s #KickOffForKindness campaign which is calling on fans to use the biggest game of the year as an opportunity to be kind. Made possible by generous support from Mattel, KindLI invites the Houston community and fans from both teams to learn more about the Foundation’s mission to build a kinder and braver world, donate to local non-profits, and help create the first in a series of Kindness Benches that will be given to elementary schools around the country.
Born This Way Foundation reaches out directly to young people—in their communities, on the road, and online. Over just a few years, they have connected with hundreds of thousands of young people around the country. Through the Born Brave Bus Tour and other initiatives, they provide youth with a safe space to tell their stories and, through partnerships with more than 50 like-minded organizations, provide access to resources and services in communities when talking is not enough.
Creating “safe spaces” is critical to the effectiveness of youth programming and we heavily implement this in our HATCH programming. In order to support our efforts to end youth homelessness, Born This Way Foundation is teaming up with the Montrose Center as we continue to cultivate this concept of a “safe space” for our youth.
The adolescent and teen years are challenging, and adding to the mix the challenges of being a youth who questions their sexual orientation is an additional hurdle to becoming a healthy adult. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning young people in the United States and around the world have expressed a heightened sense of fear, harassment and neglect due to their sexual orientation. Perhaps most painful of all, however, is when gay youth are rejected by their own families, which accounts for the overwhelming amount of youth homelessness.
LGBTQ youth have the right to safe and accepting environments, including homes, schools, and health care settings, and the right to live with dignity and without fear from stigma, discrimination and violence. Hatch Youth strives to make this possible.
Founded in 1987, Hatch Youth Services is the oldest and largest LGBTQ youth program in Texas. The program is dedicated to empowering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and allied (LGBTQIA) youth, ages 13-20, to become positive contributors to society by providing a safe social environment, offering role models and peer support, and sponsoring educational and community outreach opportunities. Hatch leads the city-wide NEST Coalition to end youth homelessness by 2020. Last year our outreach workers found 242 LGBTQ homeless youth on the streets and this year we started our rapid rehousing programs for homeless youth. Most recently the center has added special programs to include emphasis trans youth and youth of color. In last year alone, an astounding 867 youth were involved in Hatch Youth programming.
Born This Way Foundation achieves success by shining a light on real people, quality research, and authentic partnerships. We couldn’t dream up a better partnership, as we share the same commitment to support our youth, specifically within the services of our Hatch Youth programming
Now more than ever is a time to treat one another with compassion and generoristy and even small acts can have big impacts,” says Born This Way Foundation President and Co-Founder Cynthia Germanotta.
In a world that is typically unkind to LGBTQ people, Hatch provides space and guidance to cultivate a generation of LGBTQ youth leaders who will make a braver and kinder world. Join us and the Born This Way Foundation in the #KickOffForKindness campaign this Super Bowl season in support of our youth and do not forget to tune in to watch Lady Gaga rock the halftime show. Follow the movement @BTWFoundation, @HATCHYouth and @Montrose_Center.
Located in Hall D at the George R. Brown Convention Center, KindLI will be open from Thursday, February 2nd through Sunday, February 5th at the following times:
- Thursday, February 2nd – 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM
- Friday, February 3rd – 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
- Saturday, February 4th – 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
- Sunday, February 5th – 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
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About Born This Way Foundation
Led by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta, Born This Way Foundation was founded in 2012 to support the wellness of young people and empower them to create a kinder and braver world. To achieve these goals, Born This Way Foundation leverages rigorous academic research and authentic partnerships in order to provide young people with improved mental health resources, more positive climates, and kinder communities – online and offline. Working with more than 50 non-profit organizations, Born This Way Foundation has connected more than 150,000 young people with services and programing in their communities. The Foundation is also working to improve understanding of the factors that affect youth wellness and empowerment, collecting data from more than 15,000 young people as part of its Born Brave Experience Survey currently in its third phase. Learn more at bornthisway.foundation.
THE MONTROSE CENTER
Established in 1978 as a safe and affirming place for lesbian and gay Houstonians to receive counseling, the Montrose Center has emerged as one of the nation’s leading full-service LGBT centers. Although counseling remains at the heart of what we do, services have expanded to meet the changing needs of our diverse community. These services include substance abuse treatment, support and advocacy for LGBT survivors of violent crimes, care and assistance for people with HIV/AIDS, free community wellness programs and activities, and programs for our community’s most vulnerable and isolated—youth and seniors. We sit at the center of the LGBT community and serve as a gathering place for LGBT organizations and groups. The Montrose Center is a United Way Agency.