Turning five years old, this is one birthday worth celebrating.
This Wednesday will mark the fifth anniversary of the founding of UT’s OUTreach Center, a facility that has provided LGBTQ education as well as a safe environment for the university’s LGBTQ student population since 2010. The Center will host an open celebration Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m., with a larger Lavender Graduation celebration ceremony planned for Wednesday, April 22.
For director of the OUTreach Center, Donna Braquet, the first five years of the Center’s existence has been one of milestones both at the university and the nation at large.
“If you look at it from where we started, this place was just an old dorm room office,” Braquet said of the center’s space in Melrose Hall. “The spirit of the center wasn’t here yet.”
Other than Vanderbilt, the OUTreach Center is the only LGBT based community center in the state of Tennessee. Rather than feeling content with the Center’s progress over the years, Braquet said she hopes to expand the center’s role in expanding social justice on campus by one day adding an LGBT studies minor to UT’s curriculum and also offering LGBT-based scholarships to incoming students.
“So many LGBTQ students have to overcome so much already just to get into college,” Braquet said, citing bullying and being disowned from parents as too frequent issues among LGBTQ youth.
As a part of their fifth anniversary, the OUTreach Center is sponsoring their Five for Five charity fundraiser in an effort to gain $5,000 to go towards center operations and expansion.
For Genevieve Jeter, a senior in BCMB and OUTreach ambassador, donations garnered from the fundraiser will hopefully help realize the center’s much needed expansion or possible relocation.
“It’s probably one of the biggest dreams right now at the OUTreach Center,” Jeter said of the desire to a gain larger space for UT’s LGBTQ community. “It would be like Christmas if we could just get another room.”
Acknowledging the many students that “support equality and social justice” on campus, Braquet said she hopes all those who give will realize the importance of their contributions to the OUTreach Center’s growth and survival.
“We do the best we can with what we have, but there’s so much more that we could be doing with more funding,” Braquet said.
The center is asking supporting students to donate $5, while faculty and alumni are encouraged to donate $50, $500 or $5,000. Those interested can donate on the UT foundation website or in person at The Outreach Center.
