Dear Friends,
Exciting News: In collaboration with HRC, The Trevor Project will open a new call center at the historic site of Harvey Milk’s Castro Camera!
We are grateful for the opportunity to share the historic space where Harvey Milk organized political actions and also took calls from LGBTQ youth around the country. Not only will Castro Camera be an HRC Action Center and Store, the site will also include work space for The Trevor Project’s crisis and suicide prevention call center throughout the five-year term of HRC’s lease.
Our friends at HRC will cover the costs of installing the call center, will prominently feature The Trevor Project signage in the HRC Action Center and Store, and will provide an internet kiosk for LGBTQ youth to access suicide prevention resources and connect to TheTrevorProject.org. In addition, HRC will make a $10,000 annual donation for the next three years to The Trevor Project, whose mission is to build community and inspire positive change for LGBTQ youth.
We are very excited to enhance our ability to train volunteers in the Bay Area and extend Trevor’s programmatic reach through this collaboration with HRC. The new call center is slated to open in May 2011. To get involved, contact Trevor Ambassadors in San Francisco.
Charles Robbins
Executive Director & CEO
The Trevor Project
This exciting new partnership to harness Harvey Milk’s legacy at this historic location is thanks in part to the grassroots support of local San Francisco leaders, including Harvey Milk’s close friend and campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg. Cleve Jones, Frank M. Robinson, the Academy Award®-winning writer of “Milk”and Trevor board member, Dustin Lance Black, and David McFarland, Chair of the Board of The Trevor Project have each made statements in support of this new endeavor.
CLEVE JONES
“It is wonderful that Harvey’s message of hope will again emanate from the site of Castro Camera. He spoke often of our responsibility to our young people and experienced first-hand the pain of losing loved ones to suicide. The next time a frightened gay kid from Altoona – or anywhere – calls out for help, that call will be answered by a Trevor Project volunteer in Harvey’s old store. I think he’d approve.”
FRANK M. ROBINSON
“I can’t think of a better – and more needed – use for the old shop. In growing up, I had two gay friends who committed suicide and I myself had times when I contemplated it. For all those who work with the Trevor Project, my utmost admiration and thanks. I only wish you had existed when I was young, confused, gay and desperately needed somebody to talk to. My heartfelt thanks and admiration for all concerned.”
DUSTIN LANCE BLACK
“Harvey Milk often ended his speeches with the story of what drove him: that phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania from a young person in need of HOPE. To know those calls will once again be answered from inside Harvey’s old storefront is incredibly moving, but also vital. I hope that The Trevor Project’s sign in the window and call center in back makes it clear to all who make the pilgrimage to Milk’s old home that his lifesaving work of giving hope to our hopeless is far from finished, and that all of our efforts must be redoubled.”
DAVID MCFARLAND, CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF THE TREVOR PROJECT
“This incredible collaboration with HRC that will offer so much hope to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth nationwide occurred through the grassroots support of many people in the Bay Area. We are thankful to the vocal leadership of people like Dustin Lance Black and Harvey Milk’s close friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and author of the Hope speech, Frank M. Robinson. Together, we will reinvigorate Castro Camera as a site for political action and a resource and lifeline for young LGBTQ people.
“It is also not lost on The Trevor Project, as an organization rooted in film, that our newest Lifeline call center is also closely linked to LGBTQ film and filmmaking. In all respects, we are excited to have found a home at Castro Camera.”