Today we had a interview on the phone with Bill Torres who is the director of The Ali Forney Center. For this particular fieldwork I was the note taker. During this interview we focused on who worked at the organization and how they created a safe environment for LGBTQ young adults. Before a young adult becomes a member of the Ali Forney community, they are required to read the norms and sign a contract. If someone wanted to volunteer they would have to go through a process. In this process it includes background checks making sure their is no criminal record or sexual harassment, training as well as an interview. For this job you there are two positions the front line and the back line. The front line is when you are working direct with youth and the back line is does not need training, instead they help with administration. Usually the volunteer is given one of those two positions depending on their skill and background information. There are about 1000 young adults that come to the Ali Forney Center a year, 89 that come to the meal programs and 200 who are waiting to be part of the community. As the conversation moved along we decided to see what inspired Mr. Torres to work and direct the Ali Forney Center. I recall him saying, “I was one of these kids. I suffered majorly in school. Students treated me badly, including the teachers. I understood what the organization was doing and decided to help.” In our interview when we came to the question about the range of ages, Mr. Torres said they provided the programs and housing for ages 16-25. After he told us, we then wondered about what they did for LGBTQ who were younger than 16. I remember he said that those who came that were younger than 16, would be directed to a foster care that advocated LGBTQ and treated them appropriately. After this phone interview, I am very motivated to tour a facility, have a face to face interview or maybe even sit in a meeting. Even though this was just a phone interview, I would probably want to improve on thinking of questions on the spot, based on information that was given. As a conclusion, for our interview we asked Mr. Torres to sum up what the organizations goal is. I thought it was interesting hearing him not only say that their goal was to create a safe environment for LGBTQ, but also to meet where the student is and help them through the process, until they feel comfortable, safe and independent to move foreword with their life without assistance. As we continue our journey doing fieldwork, I am interesting in researching more about the housing for LGBTQ or the affects that LGBTQ citizens experience. A question in general that I’m interested in would be what percentage of the world is LGBTQ and What states has the most LGBTQ. Overall this first fieldwork gave us a good idea of how facilities make a safe environment for LGBTQ and how they choose volunteers based on specific criteria.