{"id":20584,"date":"2016-09-07T20:26:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T00:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=20584"},"modified":"2016-09-07T20:26:16","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T00:26:16","slug":"valley-youth-house-invited-speak-white-house-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=20584","title":{"rendered":"Valley Youth House Invited to Speak on White House Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, PA (9\/6\/16) –\u00a0Valley Youth House is honored to have been invited by\u00a0Alejandro Avil\u00e9s,\u00a0Senior Advisor for Public Engagement,\u00a0US Department of Housing and Urban Development to speak on a panel at the White House Regional LGBT Summit. \u00a0The Summit was held in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 and was hosted by The White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Equality Pennsylvania. \u00a0VYH staff, Sarah Morrison and Andrew Palomo spoke on the panel during the \u201cHow to Effectively Engage and Support LGBT Youth\u201d session.<\/p>\n

The White House, in partnership with federal agencies and local LGBT organizations, has been hosting regional LGBT summits around the country for several years. These summits provide an opportunity to highlight federal services available to the LGBT community, lift up the work of local LGBT activists and allies, and create a networking forum for advocates to connect and discuss ideas.<\/p>\n

Sarah Morrison, Life Skills Counselor,\u00a0Pride<\/a>\u00a0program, wrote\u00a0about the experience:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was honored to receive an invitation to speak as a panelist at the recent White House-led Regional LGBT Summit.\u00a0It was, and is, a highlight of my career to have Philadelphia\u2019s Pride Program recognized nationally as a leader in effective engagement of LGBTQIA youth. As the only exclusively LGBTQIA permanent housing program in Philadelphia, we strive to create a safe environment for young adults to thrive and shape their futures.\u00a0\u00a0Our program may not capture the full spectrum of services needed but we continue to work alongside community partners to end LGBTQIA youth homeless.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For me, it was particularly refreshing to be surrounded by other LGBTQIA-identified professionals and our allies, who renewed my sense of hope for the continued progress of federally protected rights for the LGBTQIA community.\u00a0\u00a0It is important for youth to see themselves reflected by the people that serve them and it is vital that all voices within the LGBQTIA community, especially transgender individuals and people of color, are heard and given the opportunity to succeed.\u00a0\u00a0I am privileged to work for an agency that not only values the diversity of its staff but also remains committed to supporting the often vulnerable population of homeless LGBTQIA young adults, even when funding is not guaranteed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Pictured in photo:\u00a0Andrew Palomo<\/strong>, Valley Youth House\u00a0Research and Evaluation Coordinator & Independent Living\u00a0Program Supervisor,\u00a0Alejandro Avil\u00e9s<\/strong>,\u00a0Senior Advisor for Public Engagement,\u00a0US Department of Housing and Urban Development,\u00a0Sarah Morrison<\/strong>, Life Skills Counselor, PRIDE<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Raffi Freedman-Gurspan<\/strong>, Outreach and Recruitment Director for Presidential Personnel.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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About Valley Youth House<\/em><\/p>\n

Valley Youth House (valleyyouthhouse.org<\/a>) does more than just provide homes for Pennsylvania\u2019s vulnerable, abused and homeless youth. We partner with thousands of individuals each year to build a solid foundation for young people and their families. With dedicated street outreach, housing, counseling, skills training, health, prevention, and intervention services, we empower resilient young people in establishing promising futures.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Information Provided By:
\nEmily Conners
\nValley Youth House Development Officer<\/p>\n

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ALLENTOWN, PA (9\/6\/16) –\u00a0Valley Youth House is honored to have been invited by\u00a0Alejandro Avil\u00e9s,\u00a0Senior Advisor for Public Engagement,\u00a0US Department of Housing and Urban Development to speak on a panel at … Continue reading Valley Youth House Invited to Speak on White House Panel<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/VYH-LOGO.jpg?fit=650%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}