On November 14, 2013 Liv Reis, Lulu Grant, Zoe Carter and Sam Kielian interviewed Bill Torres of the Ali Forney Center, working to help members of the LGBTQ community.
How do you create a safe environment for LGBTQ?
“We have ground rules, anyone who comes in have to go through an interview.
We have them sign a contract that lays out what is accepted and not.
We make sure everyone is respectful, making sure it is a safe place, the equivalent of a home.”
When someone finds your organization needing help for housing or medical
care what do you provide?
“We actually have a medical clinic doctor on staff and nurses.
We also organize partnerships with other medical organizations.”
On average how many LGBTQ do you help per year?
“It would be hard to know the exact average without looking at the statistics but, I would say 1000 per year. We have 89 in the shelter program and 200 on the waiting list to receive our support.”
What inspired you to help LGBTQ and work for the Ali Forney Center?
“I was one of these kids that now I help to support. I suffered majorly about who I was. In that time there were no youth LGBTQ programs, and it’s good to now give help to people that I wish I had. I also knew Ali Forney personally and he helped me get into all this.”
How many volunteers work for your organization and what jobs do they do?
“We have 200 active volunteers, some are on the front line, working directly with youth; this requires training, filling out an application, and a criminal background check, and some are more in the back line, they don’t need any training, they help with administration and sit in on planning meetings. There is an lengthy interview process to see if the person is appropriate for someone helping on the front lines, we have to see if they have a record of sexual abuse or violence.”
Do you feel that there are enough volunteers at the moment to help?
“Well, we have enough hands-on volunteers. Ultimately we need resources, we have 89 beds and all of them are filled. We have a 100 kids who need a bed,
money, food or clothes. Yes, we have enough, but more would always be better. If the volunteers haven’t passed inspections: screening, criminal background, inappropriate, they wouldn’t be hired. Sometimes they come in with their own agenda and they won’t work the way we need them to, or not helping certain people for whatever reason.”
What is the age range of the LGBTQ that you support?
“We support LGBTQ members 16-25. We would help someone under the age of 16, but, legally we would be obliged to turn them into the foster care program.”
Can you sum up the goal of the facility?
“We try to meet kids where they are at. Its hard for a person to be kicked out because of their sexuality, and we try to help them until they are independent.”
It really changed our group dynamic to have passed this first fieldwork and to have completed it working together. It struck me how hard Bill Torres had worked to get to the place he was working at Ali Forney and how hard he was still to provide equality, shelter and housing to all LGBTQ members in NYC.
