The city’s OutLoud youth group is looking to build up its attendance. It’s doing so by moving from the most accepting church to the school with the most established GSA in town.
Organizer Terry Soetaert said that the original venue of the United Church was a great idea but proved to be a major stumbling block for the club.
“I think that was our biggest challenge, being in a church. It still scared the kids. They were like, ‘Oh, we got to go to church?’”
The club started up in April with meetings held on the first Wednesday of every month. There were as many as six people come out for the events but it’s been sporadic, he said, with a few recent meetings having zero attendance.
“In the summer months, it was kind of weird. Of course, for them to come to a church on a Wednesday night … I don’t know if it was a good idea or a bad idea but it didn’t work out.”
Starting next Wednesday, OutLoud is moving its meetings to Bellerose Community High School. He figured that being in the same place with a well-known Gay Straight Alliance group would help membership. OutLoud is having a pizza party for Wednesday’s meeting to further help spur interest in the group.
Anyone who identifies as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or queer) aged 13 to 24, or “junior high to young adult,” as Soetaert says, is invited to join in the meetings to share experiences and issues with other youths.
According to its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Outloud-StAlbert, the youth group provides an open forum as “a safe space for youth to come together in community to laugh with friends, question life’s purpose, express their beliefs, imagine a better world, love and be loved as they are.”
People can learn more about the group from its website at ww.outloudstalbert.ca or through its Facebook page.
